More than 12,000 square feet of space for lease at Sydney Shopping Centre.
Crombie REIT has more than 12,000 square feet of space for lease at Sydney Shopping Centre
More than 18 months after the redevelopment of the former Target store at the Sydney Shopping Centre, there remains vacant store frontage available for lease.
Crombie real estate investment trust owns and operates the strip mall, and has its headquarters in Stellarton, Pictou County. It is partly owned by Empire Co. Ltd., the parent company of Sobeys.
A spokesperson for Crombie REIT said Monday she doesn’t know of any tenant willing to take on a lease right now.
“I’m sure there are prospects but there’s no tenant to announce for that space,” Elizabeth Engram said Monday.
A call centre was first to open in September 2016 in the 104,000-square-foot space vacated by Target, when the retail giant shut all of its Canadian stores due to poor sales in April 2015.
A pet supplies and grooming store opened last spring and that was followed by a bargain retail chain store in November.
Since then, there’s been little movement on filling the remaining 11,475 square feet of space.
Another much smaller unit at the other end of the strip mall — 943 square feet in total — is also vacant, according to the Crombie REIT website.
The Sydney Shopping Centre now has 16 tenants including standalone stores and services Sobeys/Nova Scotia Liquor Corp., A&W restaurant, Bank of Montreal and the Sobeys Fast Fuel gas station.
The last business to open in the shopping centre was Burns Dentistry in March.
Dr. Kevin Burns opened his own practice after leaving the Mayflower Mall.
He said he chose the office space based on its central location within Sydney.
“It’s the location I always had my eye on,” he said in a recent interview. “A lot of people come into the city centre to do their errands … and there’s a lot of foot traffic as well. It kind of ticked all the boxes.”
The Sydney Shopping Centre, which was opened in 1959, was demolished beginning in late 2010 and the multi-million-dollar redevelopment of the property began in June 2011.
At the time, then-Crombie regional vice-president Patrick Martin, said the redevelopment was about “rejuvenation” and that the “entire neighbourhood” would benefit from the existing anchor stores and “additional services and retail offerings.”