U-Haul backs out of sale, Centennial Market to stick around

Vendors at the Centennial Market are breathing a sigh of relief after it was revealed that U-Haul has ended a deal to buy the old Sears building on Broad Street.

U-Haul had been planning to buy the building and turn it into a self-storage business. City council had even made a zoning change to accommodate it.

“After careful consideration, U-Haul concluded the Centennial Shopping Centre location was not ideal for our self-storage product at this time,” Ryan Pearson, the president of the U-Haul Company of Central Canada, said in an email.

U-Haul has also stopped its truck rental business at the location in that mall.

When the news about the potential sale broke in July many of the vendors spoke out, concerned because the market operates in the space U-Haul would be buying. U-Haul said the market could stay there for a couple years as it renovated the building, but the market would have to move eventually.

In an email Friday, the company said the decision was unrelated to the opposition to the purchase by the Centennial Market vendors.

Sandra Klein is a vendor in the market and is on the market’s board. She said the store operators are all relieved at this news.

“We are feeling overwhelmed. It is just great news that we’re able to stay here for a while yet,” said Klein.

Klein said some vendors left and she guessed it may have been because things were uncertain and they didn’t know how long the market would be able to stay in that space.

“For right now, we’re here, we’re strong, and we’re moving forward with what we can do and hoping everyone comes back and makes this thing a success,” said Klein.

When asked whether those in the market might get together and try to buy the building, Klein said they’re going to keep in touch with Colliers, the company listing the building, and see what happens. For the time being, volunteers with the market are slowly making some upgrades and changes as they’re needed.

“We are trying to make changes as best we can with the little financing that we do have,” said Klein.

Klein said she wasn’t concerned that another company might swoop in and buy the building out from under them. She said they’re fine with how things are working right now and they’ll deal with that if it happens.