Big renos at Cornwall Centre as mall gets ready for new tenant

The Cornwall Centre will see a multi-million dollar renovation project start shortly for one of the mall’s newest tenants.

A commercial building permit of $5.8 million was recently issued by the City of Regina to the mall for a retail alteration, allowing work to begin soon on the development inside the Havik Building along 11th Avenue.

The tenant is reported to be H & M, although Cornwall Centre General Manager Doug Kozak is not confirming that. However, he did say whatever the new store is, it’ll be a first-to-market retailer. He said renovations will start sometime in February and last for the better part of the next year, estimating about 10 or 11 months worth of work ahead.

“It’s going to result in I guess a little bit of hardship for our customers and the public as there’s going to be some areas of the shopping centre blocked off,” said Kozak.

He hopes the project will be completed in early 2018.

The new store would fill one of several vacancies in the mall. Kozak added that along with the unfilled stores, and a downturn in the economy, both have contributed to a dip in customers and sales for the first time in a while.

“We had a great run there for about eight years in a row, both sales and traffic were growing, and so our sales and traffic are down a little bit.”

He clarified both dropped by only about one per cent.

Two other new stores are expected in the mall by April. Kozak won’t say what those are, instead preferring the retailers themselves to make those announcements. He’s optimistic growth will return once all these new stores are open.