By NICK STEWART
The sheer popularity of retail opportunities in the Timmins area is leaving fewer and fewer options for the many companies interested in setting up shop, forcing officials to consider infrastructure expansion.
As an example of the explosive sectoral growth of the Timmins’ West End, local officials have approved nearly 800,000 square feet of commercial space throughout the city over the last four years. Of that total, 685,000 square feet was approved in the west end of the city.
This has led to the a lack of availability of serviced lots along popular stretches of road, particularly the main Riverside Drive / Algonquin Boulevard corridor.
Given that many companies have standardized space requirements for new construction, this is hampering outside chains and companies that want to establish frontage on the main road, says Mark Jensen, director of development, maintenance and transit services with the City of Timmins.
“The big box stores keep wanting a piece of the main road, but Timmins can’t go on forever,” says Jensen.
“Plus it’s very expensive to service that stretch versus servicing a more compact area.”
As a result, the city has had to strongly consider increasing the infrastructure capabilities in that area. One project already in the works is the addition of a new sanitary sewer line northwards from McBride Street and westwards from Camille Street. This $3 million project is expected to wrap up in the spring of 2009, creating more development opportunities to infill open spaces to the rear of the Timmins Square, where the city hopes to create a new road network.
Mayor Tom Laughren anticipates that the move will open up as much as 30 acres for development
It will also allow for the completion of other development projects nearby, including an additional 11 acres of impending development by the Home Depot and Canadian Tire lot.
“We’ve probably stretched our resources far enough to the west, so we’re going to try and do as much infill as we can,” Laughren says.
Other projects geared towards alleviating development pains include a $600,000 initiative to reduce storm water flow into the sewer system and a $17.5 million upgrade to the water filtration system.
Money has also been set aside to improve local road systems, with $5 million earmarked for 2008.
This type of work has become absolutely necessary for further retail growth, Jensen says. Prime areas of land have already been consumed by various big-name retail announcements or projects in recent years, including a new 20,000-square-foot Future Shop, which is well underway on Riverside Drive. Across the road, a newer Tim Hortons is also under construction on the site of an existing one; further east, a large Boston Pizza sign stands guard over an empty lot, announcing the imminent construction of the new restaurant. Construction also continues at the Feldman Timber site, where 25,000-square-foot Shoppers HomeHealthCare centre has been completed alongside a 5,000-square-foot A&W. A 30,000-square-foot Rona store is nearly complete, and another 20,000 square feet have been allocated for an unnamed retail space.
While nothing official has been confirmed, Laughren says representatives from a hotel and a theatre have also been showing some interest in the area.
Signs of progress are everywhere and interest in local development continues to ride high, he says. This boom in retail and commercial construction has led to a change in demographics. Currently, 13.6 per cent of the city’s population is employed in the retail sector, surpassing the 11.9 per cent which is employed in the mining sector.
What’s more, the population base has also increased by 3.51 per cent over just two years, jumping from 42,997 in 2006 to 44,507 in 2008.
Along with the obvious successes in the mining industry, these factors combine to create an incredibly favourable environment for the attraction of new development, according to David White, representative of Real Capital Partners.
White, who represents the development interests of various national chains, says that the increasingly high costs of transporting goods north to Timmins is offset by the sheer economic vitality of the city. As a sign of the interest this creates within the national retail sector, he points to the flurry of recent construction projects, as well as the impending development of two new clothing properties, Reitmans’ Addition-Elle and MXM, along Riverside Drive. An unnamed coffee shop is also considering establishing itself locally, he adds.
He says this movement is a sign of greater retail awareness of the potential of Timmins, which is growing ever brighter in the national eye.
“It’s really breaking out,” he says. “People are discussing it. With things like the Canadian Tire development and the Wal-Mart, it really marks Timmins as a place to do business.”
