Rupert Square under new ownership

"We are going to present additional merchants to make the shopping experience better for everyone in Prince Rupert. Let’s have people from Terrace drive to Prince Rupert to shop!”--Richard Hough, representing Pollyco the new owners of the Rupert Square, explaining their ambitious plans for the long time shopping centre downtown.

Prince Rupert's shopping destination, the Rupert Square has been sold to the Pollyco Group, bringing an end to thirty three years of ownership by the former owners, many of whom had deep roots in Prince Rupert.

Pollyco, which seems rather optimistic about Prince Rupert's future completed the purchase on June 2nd and has already landed one new tenant for the shopping centre. The Dollar Store with More will set up it's second location in the city, as it moves into the lower level of the mall next month. The store has already placed ads in local newspapers seeking out potential staff for the second location.

While that offering may not exactly be something that Rupertites have been clamoring for, Pollyco promises more developments in short order and has predicted that all retail space in the shopping centre will be full within six months to a year, a pretty tall order for a centre that has seen a massive exodus over the last few years.

Pollyco plans on spending what they describe as millions of dollars on the mall to bring the shopping experience in Prince Rupert to a higher standard.

The Northern View broke the story on their website Wednesday afternoon..

Rupert Square Mall sold
By Shaun Thomas

The Northern View

June 03, 2008

After discussions that have been ongoing for the better part of a year the ownership of the Rupert Square Mall officially changed hands on June 2, and the new owners say they have big plans for the facility.

After 33 years under the ownership of Rupert Square Shopping Centre Ltd., Pollyco (Rupert Square) Shopping Centre Inc. assumed ownership of the building and the land, and Richard Hough of Pollyco says he sees a bright future for the mall and the community.

“With the changes happening in Prince Rupert and the port development, we saw an opportunity to invest in this area because we see Prince Rupert turning the corner. It is going to grow, it is going to change and it is always good to get in at the ground floor,” he said.

“We feel strongly enough about it that we have spent millions to get up and going and we are committed to spending additional monies to bring the mall to a higher standard. We are going to present additional merchants to make the shopping experience better for everyone in Prince Rupert. Let’s have people from Terrace drive to Prince Rupert to shop!”

Hough said the first priority for the owners is to meet the tenants and see what changes they would like to see. In the fall work will begin to re-brand the mall with a new name and colours, and plans for a more active merchant’s association are in the works.

“We’re the new kids on the block, so we want to talk with the people who are here and see what sort of changes should happen first and implement them on a progressive basis so that, over a period of time, everything looks better, the shopping is better, the traffic is better and we can enhance everything,” he said.

“If you have a strong merchant’s association you will have a more modern and exciting facility.”
And Pollyco wasted no time in adding to the list of tenants in the mall, as Your Dollar Store With More will be opening a second location on the lower level next month. But, says Hough, that’s just the start of the work being done to attract new tenants.

“We are having discussions with a number of small and a couple of national scale tenants. We have been talking with them for a little while now and we’re hoping that if everything pans out we will have some more announcements in the next two to three months...Because we weren’t in an ownership position until today we haven’t been out pounding the pavement, but we suspect there will be significant interest,” he said, noting that he expects the mall to be completely rented out in the next six months to a year.

“We are very happy to come to the city of Prince Rupert and we look forward to being here for a long time.”

Editor’s note: Look for our special supplement in The Northern Connector.