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Victoriaville Mall goes under the microscope

Consultants will study options including demolition and reopening Victoria and Syndicate avenues.
vicville

THUNDER BAY — Forty years after Victoriaville Centre was built, consultants hired by the City of Thunder Bay are studying options for the mall, including whether it still serves a public purpose.

Urban Systems, headquartered in Kamloops, B.C., won the contract to help the city determine the mall's future, and whether the city should continue owning and managing it.

Public consultation next week will see Urban Systems' staff hosting drop-in sessions in the mall's centre court.

An online questionnaire, starting Tuesday, Oct. 29 and running for two weeks, will also be part of the process.

Victoriaville has been losing money for years, with accumulated deficits totalling more than $11 million as of January 2018. 

The city has projected that annual operating losses will continue to accelerate – from $689,000 in 2016 to an estimated $824,000 by 2025.

In 2017, it was estimated that it would cost about $9 million to operate Victoriaville for the next 10 years.

At the time, the cost of demolishing the mall was also estimated to be $9 million. 

A survey conducted by the city in 2016 found that nine out of 10 respondents believed Victoriaville does not improve the downtown south core, does not provide sufficient public benefit relative to its deficit, and that the cost to demolish it would be justified by the cost savings over time.

The current study, however, will consider alternatives to simply tearing it down and restoring Victoria Avenue and Syndicate Avenue as through streets for the first time since 1979.

A public notice about the project states that the study will also consider "what options are possible for a revitalized Victoriaville Centre that are economically sound, programmatically sound, and enjoy broad community support."

Alternatives could include "rehabilitation and continuation of a commercial use, adaptive reuse...[and] other potential options that may be identified through the consultant's work."

Most of the mall's tenants health and social services-related, or government offices, but there are multiple vacancies.

The drop-in sessions with the consultants will be held Tuesday, Oct. 29 from 10 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in the Victoriaville Centre Court.

 

 

 

 

 



Gary Rinne

About the Author: Gary Rinne

Born and raised in Thunder Bay, Gary started part-time at Tbnewswatch in 2016 after retiring from the CBC
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