The head of a group representing businesses at Station Mall is encouraged by the recent sale of the 550,000 square-foot shopping centre after “a lot of uncertainty” since it was initially put up for sale seven years ago.
Earlier this week SooToday reported that Markham-based SM International Holdings Ltd. purchased the downtown mall for $30 million. The transaction closed June 30.
Cushman and Wakefield, an international company providing global real estate services, is now listed as the current property manager for Station Mall.
Station Mall Merchants Association President Rodger Rosset — who is also co-owner of Savoy’s Jewellers, a business that has been a tenant of the mall for more than four decades — says he learned of the sale a little over a week ago.
“We now can finally feel some comfort that we have a new owner, and hopefully, he’ll want to put his fingerprint on Station Mall and add stores and just develop it positively,” said Rosset, speaking with SooToday Wednesday. “I’m excited for all that.”
In a news release issued Tuesday, Algoma Central Corporation said the Station Mall was the last of the company’s real estate holdings in Sault Ste. Marie as part of a larger push to divest of its commercial real estate portfolio, a move originally announced in 2015.
The company has sold 15 properties in Sault Ste. Marie, Waterloo and St. Catharines since that time, directing proceeds from the sales to its marine transportation services.
In June 2017, Algoma Central Corporation announced that it would ditch out on its efforts to sell the shopping centre as a result of uncertainty created by the announcement by Sears Canada that its Station Mall location would close its doors for good.
The closure was followed by the departure of Walmart, another anchor store, in 2019.
Rosset said there’s been “a lot of uncertainty” with the mall’s future ever since, but believes the business owners that make up the Station Mall Merchants Association will be of a different mindset during the group’s annual general meeting, scheduled to take place Wednesday evening.
“I think there’s going to be lots of positivity at the meeting tonight,” he said.