New life for iconic downtown building.
New owners breathe new life into iconic building
SYDNEY — Another chapter in the storied history of one of Cape Breton’s best-known centres for commerce is about to be written with the renovation and eventual reopening of Smart Shop Place.
The Sydney retail outlet was purchased by a new ownership group some six months ago and renovations are ongoing to ready it for a February or March relaunch.
Inside the Charlotte Street building will be a main floor food court featuring three restaurants and a common sit- down area. The lower deck will be highlighted by a more upscale eating establishment and possibly a bar.
Top floors will have residential sections and an immigration office to assist newcomers to Cape Breton.
“We just found a place and it fits us and we just bought it,” said Ajay Balyan, who purchased the building six months ago with his brother Ankit Balyan.
“The college is coming and we are trying to get as much as we can in the downtown for the community.”
Three of the food court businesses have already decided to move to Smart Shop Place. Balyan said Burrito Jax is one of the businesses but he could not reveal the names of the others due to negotiation reasons. One of them will be a fried chicken franchise, though.
Jobs created just from restaurants alone are estimated at 30- 50.
FAMILY BUSINESS
The immigration centre is a family business to be called Western Overseas. Balyan said it will help students in a variety of ways, including establishing permanent residency as they look to make a new life for themselves in Cape Breton.
Hearing that the Nova Scotia Community College relocation to downtown Sydney was a significant reason the Balyan family purchased Smart Shop Place was no surprise to MLA Derek Mombourquette.
“From the moment we made the decision to move the community college downtown we started to see new investment in the downtown area,” the Sydney- Whitney Pier MLA said.
“To see that Smart Shop is reopening, and we hear other stories about entrepreneurs investing in our community because of the infrastructure that we put in place, is great to hear. There is a big resurgence in downtown Sydney and I expect there’s more to come.”
Mombourquette also pointed to Dora Construction’s planned development of the old train station building in downtown Sydney as another example of growth associated with the Marconi campus move.
ESTABLISHED 1904
“There’s been lots of investment and I predict once the college is open there will be even more,” he said.
“This is probably the largest development time in the history of the CBRM and we have other projects that community organizations are bringing forward that we are looking at today.”
Smart Shop Place has been a retail establishment on Charlotte Street since 1904. Harvey Webber was its longest owner until his death in 2003, at which point the Meloney family purchased the building. Parker Rudderham acquired it in 2013.
Its selling price was not revealed but Realtor. ca had a list price of $219,000 last winter for the 16,000- square- foot facility.
Selling history lists a price of $325,000 when the building was sold in May 31, 2013.
A winter opening for Smart Shop Place will breathe some life back into the downtown core during a quiet time for the shopping season, said Michelle Wilson, executive director of the Sydney Downtown Development Association, said it will be nice to see one of the most storied buildings in the downtown back in business.
“There are emotions attached to these buildings,” she said. “They are not just buildings for so many people, so when you see somebody revitalize such a nostalgic piece of our history it is really exciting for us because it has sat for so long.”
Other than Smart Shop Place, she said activity has been quietly underway at the former Yazer’s building. Other developments are expected, too.
Balyan is also part of a group that includes partners in India and the United States who own the former Cape Breton Post building on Dorchester Street in Sydney.
He said the partnership still plans to renovate and upgrade that building, similar to what is happening at Smart Shop Place.