One of Calgary’s leading regional shopping centres will get a $90-million expansion and facelift in a project announced last week by its owners.
Market Mall will gain 150,000 sq. ft. in new retail space at its southeast corner, allowing space for about 60 new stores in a “racetrack” configuration.
The expansion will take the mall’s leasable area up to about 900,000 sq. ft. from the current 750,000 sq. ft. A 620-stall underground parking area will be located under the new wing, while additional surface parking will be added on a three-acre piece of land bought from the city.
The food court will be upgraded and expanded and the existing mall will be renovated.
“It will be like a new mall,” says Ultan Kampff, western director of portfolio operations for Cadillac Fairview, which co-owns the mall along with Ivanhoe Cambridge. “Market Mall right now has a very comfortable feeling,” said Jane Dorsett, the mall’s general manager.
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| An artist’s rendering of the mall’s new ‘racetrack’ configuration, which will add new retail space. |
The new look is intended to be warm and comfortable, with carpeting and soft seating.
“The best description our designers have given to us is it will feel like a refined resort hotel lobby,” she said.
The renovations aren’t expected to disrupt trade at the mall. Dorsett said the work will take place one corridor at a time, with each corridor taking 30 days.
Access to businesses will be maintained – construction crews might block half of a store’s entrance to install new flooring or ceiling material, but will re-open areas before moving on to the next section of corridor and the other half of the store’s entry.
“There will always be access for our customers into the stores,” Dorsett said.
The upgrading project should be a success in the tight northwest Calgary market, say real estate industry sources.
“Space is at a premium,” said Michael Kehoe of Fairfield Commercial real estate.
“There is pent-up demand for retail space in fashion- forward triple-A regional shopping centres in northwest Calgary. That is justifying the expansion,” he said.
With a vacancy rate for retail space at 2.5 per cent, “the northwest is by far one of the most under-retailed markets in Calgary,” said Rob Walker, vice-president of retail at Colliers International in Calgary.
The northwest also has high-end consumers with good disposable income. One household in seven in the area earns more than $100,000 a year, he noted.
Kampff said Market Mall faces “significant competition” from power centres, including Crowfoot in northwest Calgary, Signal Hill in the southwest and others around the city. But a mall is covered and indoors – an important consideration on a cold winter day in Calgary. Ivanhoe Cambridge and Cadillac Fairview are national companies. Cadillac Fairview owns and manages more than 100 properties, including Chinook Centre. Ivanhoe Cambridge focuses on high-quality shopping centres, with properties including Deerfoot, Sunridge and Southcentre in Calgary.
The housing industry should do well this year with more than 205,000 new starts, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reports.
The corporation’s first- quarter national outlook estimated this year will see 205,500 units started across the country. Employment and income growth, rising migration and low mortgage rates were credited.
Next year should see a slight drop to 195,100 units because of expected rises in mortgage rates.
Sales of existing homes should decline slightly from last year’s records, while average price growth is expected to slow this year and next year, said the CMHC.
Renovation spending is also expected to rise this year to $26 billion from $24.8 billion last year.
Residential landlord Boardwalk Equities Inc. of Calgary has announced record financial results for fiscal 2002 and the fourth quarter.
Funds from operations for the fourth quarter were $13.5 million or 27 cents a share on a diluted basis. In the same period of 2001, they were $12 million or 24 cents a share.
Boardwalk reported funds from operations for the year ended Dec. 31 of $63.1 million or $1.26 a share, compared to $57.9 million and $1.15 a year earlier.
Fourth-quarter rentals were $63.9 million, up 19.4 per cent from the last three months of 2001. Net operating income was $40.2 million, up 18.9 per cent. Rental revenue for fiscal 2002 was $241.9 million, a rise of 17.8 per cent. Net operating income was $163.1 million, up 19.1 per cent from $137 million a year earlier.
Boardwalk bought a luxury apartment complex of four concrete high-rises in Quebec City in the fourth quarter of last year, for $27.1 million. In 2002, it acquired more than 3,500 units, increasing its portfolio to more than 29,300 units at year-end, a 13-per-cent increase from the end of 2001.
So far in 2003, Boardwalk has bought another 1,129 units for $54 million, including an apartment complex in Gatineau, Que. and more acquisitions in Montreal, the largest multi-family market in the country.
It now owns more than 3,900 units in the Montreal market and 4,500 in the entire province.
“We had strategically targeted major markets in the province of Quebec with a view to entering those markets if attractive acquisition opportunities arose,” said Boardwalk president Sam Kolias. “With the entry into the Montreal, Quebec City and Gatineau markets over the past 12 months, we have expanded our geographic presence into major market areas that are over two-and-a-half times larger in terms of the universe of rental units than all of our previous major markets combined.
“This should provide us with even greater abilities over time to explore growth opportunities, and we remain active in assessing additional opportunities in these markets. We will also continue to investigate additional opportunities to expand our operations into other major markets in Canada as part of our strategy of building a truly national platform.”
Boardwalk had an average vacancy rate of 4.9 per cent in the fourth quarter, compared to 4.4 per cent in the third quarter and 3.9 per cent in the fourth quarter a year earlier. Its average monthly rent in 2002 was $716 per unit, up from $664 in 2001.
Boardwalk’s directors last week approved a quarterly dividend of two cents a share, payable March 20 to shareholders of record as of March 6.
