The massive $1.5-billion racetrack, gaming, entertainment and retail development - known as the Alberta Project - planned for Balzac just northeast of Calgary will include approximately 15 anchor tenants and another 200 stores when it opens in the fall of 2008.

West Edmonton Mall (WEM) and Calgary's Chinook Centre are also in expansion mode.

In Calgary, while Chinook continues to add new stores such as Bebe (women's fashion) and Sephora (makeup) to its existing tenant mix - even though it is virtually 100-per-cent leased - it is also moving forward on a 180,000-sq.-ft. expansion.

Chinook Mall general manager Terry Napper says that when the expansion is finished in 2010, shoppers can expect to see a wide range of new tenants or find existing tenants unveiling their latest store concepts. "Through the expansion plus (lease) renewal activity, we will be probably opening 150 brand-new concepts by 2010," says Napper.

The expansion is set for the north end of the mall on the Macleod Trail side and will include 1,200 underground heated parking stalls.

In Edmonton, WEM is also aggressively moving forward with changes to its retail tenant mix, even though it has a vacancy rate that hovers between zero and one per cent. It is currently adding 10 retailers that are new to the mall, including some new to Canada and even North America, such as The Makeup Store and Mandarina Duck.

WEM president and CEO Don Ghermezian says there will be more top-level retail concepts coming in later this year. Over the next few years, it is preparing to add a 180,000-sq.-ft. addition to the mall's south side that will house about 30 stores, including two larger tenants: One to occupy 20,000 sq. ft., while another will take 30,000 sq. ft.

Ghermezian says the addition will have a higher-end finish and higher-end tenants. It may also include a new office tower. The expansion is tentatively set to open in late 2009.

Both Napper and Ghermezian are bullish on the Alberta retail scene.

Napper says Chinook sales ring in at more than $860 per square foot, a figure he says puts his mall in the top three or four markets in country.

At WEM, Ghermezian says his mall is fast approaching sales of $600 a square foot, which he calls an astounding number considering that there is more than 3.5 million sq. ft. of gross leasable area.

(Laura Severs can be reached at laura@businessedge.ca)