The community has seen work on the Estevan Market Mall progress over the past few years, with some recent steps taken to open up a new food court.
After a 50th anniversary event back in November, they first laid out the beginnings of the food court. Visitors can now check out the area, including the new washrooms installed.
Vendors have yet to open up for the area, with Martin Blair, Managing Director of First Aberdeen Properties, talking about some of the wider work that's gone into the mall.
"There's a lot going on at the Estevan Market Mall, for sure. The food court and the construction here were part of a five-year program, so we arrived and bought the mall in October of 2019, and we immediately commenced a five-year renovation program."
That renovation included both building and internal work, along with changes to the parking areas around the mall. Those changes wrapped around the full mall, with facilities like a bike repair station and two additional entrances being built on the south side of the mall.
"We basically made the mall sort of approachable, and instead of having sort of that one singular face to the north, we now have like a 360-degree mall that can handle retail from all different angles," said Blair. "So that required all-new parking lots in many cases, certainly resurfacing in many other places, and most notably a controlled intersection right on the north side of the front of the mall."
Blair says that all the changes have made the mall a lot different from before it was bought by First Aberdeen Properties in 2019, with a new food court just a small part of the work which was put in.
"I think everybody loves to have different places to go to eat, so maybe that's why it's the one that everyone focuses in on it. For us, the food court was an important component and part of our strategic plan as we move forward, but it wasn't like the primary thrust, right? I mean, we wanted parking, access, and a number of major changes. So the food court was only one small item of it."
Blair says that with three stalls set up for the food court, they want to make sure they have the right food offerings set up for the wider community.
"We wanted to make sure that when we finally do place them, that we have the right ones. We didn't want to bring in something that really didn't fit with the mall or fit with the community, and we wanted something that really added a plus to it."
Between COVID and the current tariff situation, Blair says some work may have felt a bit slow, with him hoping that any remaining work they need done can be as non-disruptive as possible to help people settle into the new mall layout.
As far as which food services will be operating in the food court, Dawson Macauley, a sales and leasing agent with ICR Commercial Real Estate working with Blair, talks about some of the progress they're hoping to make.
"We've got to be careful when we don't have binding agreements in place, which we don't. But there are several meetings happening, like later today with food groups. We expect that probably this summer we'll for sure have some agreements in place and we would see that work commence. So I think the hope would be for this fall to have some operating tenants in the food court."
Macauley says they may even be able to open up some new units in the mall, so there are more than three stalls available for food services, while considering their existing contracts, which may influence what they can develop in the mall.