Fort Erie looks to level mall

Niagara Region is in the early stages of determining how the former County Fair Mall will be knocked down to make room for a $4.2-million long-term care home.

The 11-acre property on Garrison Road will be the home of Gilmore Lodge, a facility that has operated on Gilmore Road since 1988 that needs to be redeveloped by 2025. Crews erected a fence around the building last week and Jason Tamming, director of strategic communications and public affairs for the Region, said this is the first step in the process.

The Region has engaged a demolition consultant to determine how the building should be levelled and a request for proposals will go out in April – seeking companies interested in taking on the tear-down of the entire footprint of the former shopping centre that was built in the 1970s and closed about five years ago.

Tamming said when a firm is hired to take on the demolition, more information will be available on how the building will be razed, and when.

“Once we’ve secured that organization, they will advise on time lines and the process,” he said Friday afternoon.

Construction is expected to begin in 2019 and when complete, the current location on Gilmore Road and its 80 beds will close.

The number of beds to be included the site is known but will be higher than 80 and “serve the needs of the community,” regional staff said last year.

The property will accommodate a new long-term care home and additional residential and mixed-use facilities and could potentially attract $34 million from investors, officials said when details of the project were announced last summer.

An environmental assessment of the site conducted last year resulted in a $250,000 remediation of a portion of the property last year at the expense of the former owners, the result of a small gas station existing within its boundary.

Gilmore Lodge is one of three retirement homes in Niagara that must be rebuilt in the next seven years. The other two facilities are Linhaven in St. Catharines and Upper Canada Lodge in Niagara-on- theLake.

The County Fair Mall was once home to an IGA grocery store, Zeller’s, Biway, a shoe store, a CD store, Shoppers Drug Mart, and a movie theatre.

The Region operates eight long-term care homes serving 1,500 residents.