It's been a couple of months since the announcement that all national Peavey Mart locations would be shutting down, bringing major change to the local shopping scene. The closure poses a problem for the Estevan Market Mall, which will now have a gap that they'll be looking to fill.
Martin Blair, the Managing Director of First Aberdeen Properties, says they were impacted by a few different closures when that was first announced.
"We actually, in Western Canada, we own four of the Peavey Mart stores, so it hurt. It hurt the farmers. It was kind of a shock. I think Peavey Mart has a lot of unique offerings, and they're going to be sadly missed."
Blair says the demise of Peavey Mart was something they watched for a while following the purchase of TSC Canada back in 2016 and the subsequent expansion into Ontario.
He says it's a unique consideration, saying the store in Estevan was performing very well.
"The PV Mart we had here was doing very well. The Peavey Mart business and the demise of Peavey Mart are not related to its market here in Western Canada. Estevan's store was a very popular store. It was a very strong store."
With that store closing down, the Estevan Market Mall is now looking at a 23,000 square foot area to rent out, which is the largest space that's been empty in the Estevan Market Mall that Blair is aware of.
Dawson Macauley, a sales and leasing agent with ICR Commercial Real Estate working with Blair, says that the new, wider space has opened up a new client list for the mall that wasn't previously considered.
"What it certainly did was open up a pool of tenants that had never previously been able to consider our market. We had conversations over the years with some 14,000, 15,000 square foot, 20,000 square foot tenants that would pretty quickly pass because there were just no options."
Macauley says that with the closure not due to market conditions or anything related to the premises, they're actually in a good position to get some value out of the unit.
Having the situation happen early in the year is also fortuitous, as Blair says they can get a change done quickly if need be.
"Having the store go vacant in the spring like this is probably a good time. Because if there are renovations and construction that need to take place, we have a good chance to move on that kind of rapidly."
While having a big space like the unit like Peavey Mart's is important, Blair says they're also looking at the need for small units in the mall.
"One of the things that Dawson and I kind of soul-searched a little bit, along with our mall manager, Arlene, is maybe what's required today is more smaller spaces. There are a lot of people who look at the mall and they say, 'Oh, you know what, it'd be great to be over there. But, you know, I only need 1,000 square feet, or I only need 1,500 square feet."
Some of their recent renovations have been centred around that, creating smaller spaces that better fit local businesses. Having that mix of spaces to suit different needs is important for Blair.
"The smallest base size we got, I believe, is 950 square feet. And it goes all the way up to 3,500 or 4,000 or something, right? Save for the Peavey Mart space that we're actively dealing with. We've got a space that's just under 4,000 square feet would be the next size down."
Besides storefronts, the Estevan Market Mall also has office spaces that are currently under construction and could serve retail businesses and other organizations in the future.