As work continues on the Memorial Market Place project in downtown Belleville, it’s being made clear that there is a focus on local tenants to occupy the building.
CEO of Taskforce Engineering Hilary Murphy and Joe Shunock of Ekort Reality spoke on The Lorne Brooker Show on 800 CJBQ to discuss the latest on the project, as well as the vision for the Market Place.
The former arena is being turned into a 20,000 square foot retail hub with Benji’s Coffee Bar already operating out of the old scale house.
When asked about where things stand in the development of the building, as well as tenants taking retail space, Shunock said there is already of list of interested parties.
“Benji’s kind of tells the story of the theming of the building and Hilary and her crew have decided that the Market Street side (of the building) will be sort of the first commercial phase of the Memorial section,” Shunock tells Lorne Brooker.
“We’ll be able to have from 1000 to say 5000 square feet of retail space in pocket. Whatever a prospective tenant might need, right along Market Square, so they would have their own entrance, their own bathroom and the crew can carve out any size space that they need and there already is a list of interested parties that we’re currently dealing with.”
Memorial Market Place conceptual rendering.
Murphy expanded on that, describing the type of tenant they are looking for in order to meet the vision of the Market Place.
“We’re not looking for chain tenants, we want local, we want artisans, we want people who have unique offerings, and that’s tough from a leasing perspective, because those proprietors aren’t making plans three years out. They’re looking over the next 12 months. So to build out the entire space and think if you build it will they come is a bit too much of a leap of faith,” Murphy said.
She says in order to meet that thought process, the leasing of the building will be done in phases. This means that businesses can continue to operate that are part of the initial phase of the project while the rest of the building gets worked out.
“So, giving each retailer their own separate and distinct access means they have can operate under their own hours. You’re not looking at that mall-type approach. It’s really geared to whatever makes sense for their business,” Murphy tells The Lorne Brooker Show.
When asked later in the interview what would happen in a scenario where a chain retail business would reach out to the group asking for space in the Market Place with Shoppers Drug Mart used as an example, Murphy said from an investment perspective, it would not be something they would be looking for. “We want to stay true to the vision,” Murphy said. “Shoppers Drug Mart obviously would be a great tenant financially. However, there’s other great tenants that would take 5000 square feet that I think would be a better fit for really what we’re trying to create down there. Not to say that there aren’t chain retail businesses that wouldn’t be a good fit, but we’d want it to be the right fit.”
Construction of the retail units is scheduled to be completed this fall and available for lease.
Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 99, in Belleville. (Photo: Quinte News)
When it comes to the Legion building and when it would be torn down, Murphy says that process should be done in the next few weeks.
“We’re just in the the final stages of the asbestos remediation, there was a fair bit of asbestos that had to be removed,” Murphy explained.
“It sounds like that’ll be wrapped up this week. So we’re in with the city for our demolition permit and we’re hoping in the next week or two, we’ll start to pull that down.”
The building is being knocked down to provide parking for the area.
Depending on leasing, it is anticipated that the full build-out will take three years to complete.
Leasing inquiries can be made here.
