Upscale plans for Parker’s building
The News gets a glimpse of new owners’ vision for vacant space in downtown core
What’s been going on the down low is now on the way “up.”
Plans for a vacant furniture store in the heart of Medicine Hat show plans to offer leased, upscale office and retail space on Third Street downtown with panoramic views and an abundance of parking.
The hulking commercial space at 454 Third St. SE was most recently Parker’s Countrywide Furniture, but was bought in May by out-oftown investors whose plans for the property were largely unknown.
The location was back in the News Monday when the city announced it had struck a deal to sell a public parking lot next door, but administrators working with the buyers would not reveal new information.
Marketing brochures obtained by the News describe town centre retail opportunities for potential leasees to design up-market outlets.
The listings are being handled by Jen Boyle of local firm Maxwell Team Realty, which has a huge “For Lease” sign stretching a long bank of display windows, along with an Internet address for the project details.
The site, “downisontheup.com” describes 32,000 square feet available on the main floor, and nearly 20,000 on the lower level of the one-time Woolworth’s location.
That level, with a separate entrance, is suggested as “a large indoor entertainment centre, a night club, cafeteria, retail, or office space.”
The remainder, the west wing of the building, is held by long-term tenant the Bargain Shop.
The location boasts 70,000 square feet on two floors, with “large private and paid parking.”
On Monday, council approved the sale of the adjacent Chokecherry Parking Lot for $459,000 to Ki Dae and Deokki Kim, the owners.
Administrators say the sale is in line with a strategic council goal of selling excess land, and while the lot itself won’t likely be redeveloped it support “substantial” project next door.
The 50-space lot, south of the Esplanade, is half occupied by long-term permit holders and is basically operated on a break-even basis.
Artists conceptions on the website are similar — albeit a much smaller scale — to new Fourth Avenue offices of Swell Wealth Management, which is built new on the downside of a steep hill. Its use of floor-toceiling back windows captures new views of the city centre and coulee cliffs beyond.