It's been a journey for the Estevan Market Mall's liquor scene, following the province's divestment from liquor retail back in 2023. The province closed down their existing vendors, auctioning off the licenses to new owners.
One of those selloffs was in the Estevan Market Mall, which represented a loss of a dependable, long-time business for the organization. Dawson Macauley, a sales and leasing agent with ICR Commercial Real Estate working with the mall, talks about the situation on their end.
"Specifically here, we saw a situation where we had just under 7,000 square feet, call it 6,800 square feet, of prime leasable space. Where pad site offerings like that, a standalone building, you can't just pop those up overnight. And those opportunities don't come up too often."
While the licenses were being auctioned off, Macauley says they were in contact with buyers to see who would take over the license and space.
LB Liquor would eventually grab both, with the partnership requiring a slight change.
"We proved to be, I guess, the strongest one. The one that they opted to work with. And we were happy to have them. And so as it worked out, they didn't want the whole space, right? The premises were a larger one."
"The original premise was, I think, 9,600 square feet. They took about (6,800 square feet) or something," said Blair, "So that left us with, on the south end, with about a 2,500 square foot plus or minus retail space."
That extra retail space is now being worked on as a new space, which has attracted a national cannabis dealer, opening up shop following city approval earlier this spring.
There's still some work needed - including installing a front entrance - but Blair is happy to see work progressing on the unit.
"They're a national retailer and they have a strong covenant and a good, strong standing. Historically, they've been good operators. So I don't think that we know the branding that they're actually going to go with. We know what's on the lease. But in terms of the specifics of it, we'll see very quickly. The work is already commencing."
Macauley does have some experience with cannabis retailers, and says that the main challenges that come with opening those stores in contracts that might be in place with other stores.
"From the leasing perspective, I would say the challenges are dealing with sometimes you'll see some corporate leases that will refer to the restrictive covenant. So today, if you sign a new lease, it wouldn't be an issue because, of course, it's legal. But ten years ago, it wasn't. Ten years ago, if you signed a lease, you might have something in there that refers to cannabis.
The new location at the Estevan Market Mall didn't run into any of those covenant issues. Macauley says the main difficulty was in zoning details, which were all cleared up before the building was approved by the city council.
Macauley says they're expecting to transfer ownership of the new shop this summer and he's confident in them as owners.