Terrace merchants can look forward to two more years of traffic

The long delayed shopping village of Rupert will be delayed a little longer. Royop released details this week on the progress (or lack of) of the BC Hydro site development.

Sometime in 2009 now seems to be the most likely time period for Rupertites to wander the aisles of chain store and power lunch their way with national name restaurants.

Our first sign that progress is being made will be in January when it is hoped that they begin with some site preparation work on a project that many hope will keep some shopping dollars at home.

It was back in 2005 that this battle for the pocketbooks of Podunkians first got underway, a key issue of the November election that year which featured the Mayor as stating that if we were against big box stores we should get rid of him or at least elect a council to slow him down. He at the time suggested that there already were big box stores in Rupert, they were down the road in Terrace.

As it turns out they still are there and not any closer to being here than they were then.

Which could make the shopping village plans an issue for the next election of 2008, when everything old will be new again.

Here's some of the tortured path to big box heaven thus far..

Caution is the word over further shopping developments

Royop hopes to reveal retail partners in next few months

The Patient pigs of Podunk

Bigger, Better and zoned for your convenience

Shopping Village looking at spring 2007 construction
Highway 16 shopping site still more speculation than substance

Ooh, Ooh Canadian tire

Land rush on the highway

Slow path to big box heaven

The Daily News brings us one more story to growing list of updates, with a piece in Friday's paper explaining the latest delays and the new anticipated benchmarks for development.

Royop now says the mall won't open until 2009
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Friday, August 10, 2007

Page one

The new shopping mall that's set to take over the old B.C. Hydro space off Highway 16 won't be open until some time in 2009, according to Royop Development Corporation.

"We initially started with a smaller site, and we've expanded it now and we've been going through the zoning process with the City," said Melvin Foht, vice president of Royop. "We're just wrapping up all the zonings, and there's a lot of pre-development work that needs to be done. We hope to be able to wrap that up certainly by the end of this year, and start physically working on removing the trees and preparing the site for development early in January."
Both Royop and the City of Prince Rupert have been working hard this past year to make the retail centre happen as soon as possible.

"The City has done everything that it needs to do, and we're doing everything we can to move this project ahead," said Mayor of Prince Rupert Herb Pond. "[2009] is kind of the window that we're talking about. They would like to see it move faster, we'd like to see it move faster, but that's just the realities of the process. It's really a critical piece for modernizing our retail platform in the community, and really securing our place as the Northwest hub along the coast for shopping and services."

Royop Development Corp. is a company focused on commercial real estate activities and have a number of projects under development throughout Alberta and British Columbia.

"We do business with a core of national retailers that have identified Prince Rupert as a potential growth area, so we've responded to what they're looking for by buying some land to provide that for them," said Foht of Royop's ambitions.

"For instance, Canadian Tire is one of the people looking and they expressed Prince Rupert as a place they want to be, so we're responding to them. And of course they will attract other retailers, maybe restaurants and that type of stuff."

As far as any other national retailers with plans to open up shop in the city, Foht doesn't want to give away too much at this early stage of development.

"None confirmed and I can't say any names, but certainly restaurants as well as potentially a hotel. There's been some interest in a hotel," he said.

"And we feel if we have a Canadian Tire we can attract others as well. You might see some [of our] other national tenants there, we haven't really gone out and secured anybody as of yet, but I think as soon as we start construction that will be solidified."

Royop's past projects have included retail giants like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Future Shop, Linens 'n' Things, Staples, as well as numerous banks and restaurant franchises.

"We have sites that we go to them with, but those big companies know where they want to go in the country, so we work together to find options and it goes both ways," said Foht of the ways his company works.

"But in particular, I think Prince Rupert has been identified by a number of large retailers as a place they want to be, and we talk to them all the time. Almost everyday we talk about opportunities, and Prince Rupert's name came up and we responded by going to BC Hydro and doing a deal with them."

As far as concerns that the new retail district will harm local businesses, Mayor Pond said city council is well aware of what needs to be done to ensure balance across the city.

"We've certainly discussed the change that it will bring. We think that overall it's a positive contribution to the retail community, even for those who are doing business," he said.

"We certainly hear from those in business saying that we can't get there fast enough. We do need to ensure that we are revitalizing the downtown core at the same time, so that it's not a trade off between one and the other. That's not what we're after. We're looking to grow the amount of retail activity total for everybody."

While the deal is in the final stages, Foht knows there's a long road ahead before any stores in the facility will be open for business.

"It's gonna take probably six or eight months to prep the site for building construction," he said.

"Trees have to be removed, you have to remove the muskeg, and there's a large granite hill we have to blast. There's a bunch of work, so I don't think it will be open to 2009. It's unique, but nothing that can't be dealt with."