After months of what appeared to be little progress, a flurry of construction activity is now underway on the next phases of Tsawwassen Commons.
The Optimist was taken on a tour of the Tsawwassen First Nation site this week and provided an update on the 550,000-square-foot outdoor mall.
“It’s a large site so when you don’t see as much happening, to the general public, it might seem like something is wrong,” said Novy Cheema of Gracorp Capital Advisors Ltd. “The public wants to see the vertical construction and the buildings going up and that will happen in the next few weeks. You will start to see coming soon signage, so people can see what is coming here and I think the perception in the public will really change.”
Anchored by Walmart, Canadian Tire, Rona and others, the 100-store mall was expected to open last fall in conjunction with the adjacent Tsawwassen Mills, but less than 10 stores have opened thus far.
Cheema said the overall retail market has been slower than anticipated.
“You will see throughout the Lower Mainland that the retail market is slower. It’s just a product of the times, so it has taken a bit longer to get the leases that we wanted, so, yes, we are a bit behind from where we thought we would be a year ago,” he said.
Cheema said based on the site footprint, almost 60 per cent of the mall is actually complete.
Alan Nicholson, site supervisor with Titanium Projects, said much of the work that has been going on the past few months has been site prep, pre-load, underground plumbing and electrical.
“You are probably about a month away from seeing a lot of vertical steel going up on the site. The foundations are all prepped and ready to go,” said Nicholson. “I would say most, if not all, of phase two and three will be ready to open in early to mid-2018.”
Confirmed tenants for phases two and three include Wendy’s, Tim Hortons, Starbucks (with all three having drive-thrus), Menchies, Booster Juice, Subway, Kamome Sushi and Simply Pho. All of these eateries will be located towards the centre and outer portions of the mall.
Staples is set to open in mid-August along the row of big box retailers.
Cheema said more restaurants and service type businesses will be announced in the coming months as part of phase four.
He did confirm that fuel tanks are in the ground and that the Shell gas station will be under construction soon with an expected mid-October opening.
Landscaping, road work and road connections will also take place, which Cheema said will really add to the look and feel of the whole project.
A potential child care centre and more retail units are part of phase five.
