Dollar Store Moves To Convention Centre

Great Canadian Dollar Store

Moves Temporarily

The owners of Port Place Mall which is being torn down were obligated to provide the owners of the Dollar Store with a location until their new store is built.

Since they are also the owners of the retail portion of the Port of Nanaimo Centre (VICC) they are moving the Dollar Store into what is considered 'prime' retail space. They would not disclose what the Dollar Store is paying per square foot, but it is unlikely it is even close to what this space has been trying to rent for.

You may recall that First Capital Realty bought the retail space in the new convention centre for less than $4 million and was said to be a company which would attract high end retailers to downtown. The fact that the convention centre is not generating anything approaching hoped for traffic has made renting these stores difficult.

When First Realty bought these stores they had some very generous repayment terms with the City which I believe allowed them to not pay for the building until a large percentage was actually leased. It is unknown if this building is now being paid for. It is also unknown if this space is generating the same taxes for the city as the 'old' downtown stores were paying.