Quote:
Originally Posted by RR Drummer
I have heard that Needs (Sobey's owned/franchised) has bought the two properties and are developing the sites. I am surprised that Irving did not purchase the properties to add to their portfolio, especially given the proximity to their ESJ Canaport operations across the street from the Bayside Drive location.
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IOL hasn't really been opening up a lot of new locations in prime areas lately. A lot of new builds in new developing areas/new developments are Shell, Esso, etc. Grey Rock Entertainment Centre is Shell, Berry Mills & Horsman is Shell, Dieppe Boulevard is Ultramar. One of the few new Irving builds I can think of is Gondola Point/Millennium, and that's across the street from an already developed Esso.
As an aside, a lot of highway realignments in the past few years have bypassed Irving locations entirely and cut them off from direct highway traffic. Route 1 in Pennfield, Route 7 in Welsford, and Route 85 at the QC/NB border are three examples. All of these locations used to have direct exposure to all traffic and have now been relegated to side-roads and exits.
I agree that it wouldn't have been surprising for IOL to purchase the Bayside location.