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Retail industry preparing for 2010 Games

From Squamish’s waterfront development to new concepts in urban centres, industry optimistic The future development of Squamish was a hot topic at the most recent International Conference of Shopping Centres, held annually in Whistler.

From Squamish’s waterfront development to new concepts in urban centres, industry optimistic

The future development of Squamish was a hot topic at the most recent International Conference of Shopping Centres, held annually in Whistler.

"(Participants) wanted to know what was going on, what opportunities existed, and where they could follow up and look at what opportunities could be made available to them," said Lee Malleau, economic development officer for Squamish who attended the conference.

"It was very encouraging."

Squamish is currently involved in a huge revitalization project of the downtown and waterfront area.

Local council is setting up a Squamish Waterfront Development Corporation to oversee the plans for 80 acres of property the town will control on the waterfront.

Planners are up against a tight deadline as it’s hoped it will all be in place for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, which will be held in Whistler and Vancouver.

One piece of the puzzle that must be in place is the construction of a ferry dock. Many of the spectators for the Games, and supplies, will arrive by boat from Vancouver and then travel on buses or freight trucks for the rest of the trip to Whistler, which is hosting the majority of the snow events.

"So while we are going through the process of acquiring the land we are also setting up the Development Corporation and also going through an extensive public process," said Malleau.

"That public process will help produce for us the kind of components we would like to see developed on the waterfront."

In the coming days Squamish has also invited stakeholders to sit down and take part in full day planning sessions on the development.

"The intent is to take all the information generated through the public process, including the values that people want to incorporate into the decision making process, and produce with a variety of architects and engineers a detailed concept plan of what we want to see."

The plan is likely to include a full service marina, passenger ferry terminal, a cruise ship berth, an arts centre downtown, generous public access with a seawall and green spaces, some fairly high-density residential areas, and perhaps even a waterfront hotel and convention centre.

The plan will be completed by the end of March and it is hoped it will go to council April 6, said Malleau.

"It is very exciting," she said.

"But it is also very challenging because of the time line. It is a wonderful opportunity for the community of Squamish though to reinvent itself and re-look at what it wants to be when it grows up.

"It is a fabulous community with tremendous history and culture and heritage and it is very authentic and those are some of the assets of the community that we will be incorporating into the process."

Discussions are also continuing on the introduction of big box-stores along the highway in Squamish.

"It has been a bit controversial for some time now," said Malleau, adding that a number of retailers are interested in the area because it is underdeveloped with respect to its consumer retailer market.

"The concern is that at this point it is roughly estimated that between 50 and 75 cents of every disposable dollar in Squamish is being spent outside the community and that is the critical reason why even our downtown is not doing so well.

"Because once people learn to shop outside the community they will shop for more and more and more products, and that includes stuff that is even available in the community."

Malleau said Squamish’s strategy is to re-train those shoppers to stay in the community but they will only do so if the goods they need are available.

And, she said, it’s likely that big-box stores will bring more business to the downtown core.

"The downtown will suffer more if we don’t and the good news is that most communities who have successfully introduced retail and big box in the community have also focused concerted efforts and resources into their downtown revitalization of its core," said Malleau.

"So it needs to be a big picture strategy and a big picture solution to the whole thing and that is where we are going with this."

The conference also heard that 2004 would likely be a good year for retailers.

Despite several factors which hit the Canadian economy hard last year, ICSC chair Kathleen Nelson said she expects this year to be fairly strong as several key elements of consumer spending growth are still in place. They include growth in employment, growth in disposable personal income, low interest rates and a vigorous housing market.

"With these and other fundamental factors in place the economy remains sound enough for analysts to forecast a better performance in 2004 than in 2003," said Nelson, adding that investment in shopping centres is also expected to grow as investors are attracted to their stability and profitability.

Shoppers will enjoy more one-stop shopping at their large retailers as the trend for cross shopping continues.

More than 1,300 delegates to the conference heard that outlets such as Canadian Tire, Home Depot, and Loblaws are adding new services to their stores in order to draw new customers in or catch new business from returning shoppers.

"Canadian Tire will put their Mark’s Work Wearhouse inside some of their main stores as a pilot program for boosting cross-shopping," said Nelson.

A new Home Depot Design Store planned for the Village at Park Royal Shopping Centre in North Vancouver in August 2004 will allow shoppers, "to visualize plans and drafts for kitchens and bathrooms," she said.

And many Home Depots have started selling large appliances along with décor and storage items. It’s been so successful that Home Depot has captured 2 per cent of the market share in appliances in Canada in a very short time.

Vancouver is also experiencing another of the newest trends in retail – the development of larger stores in the downtown core.

"Many of the International Council of Shopping Centres members and developers are looking back into the city instead of looking at the suburban environment," said Blake Hudema of the Vancouver Hudema Consulting Group Ltd.

"It is a great revitalization of the inner-city retail market for our industry.

He pointed to the addition of Future Shop and Winners to Robson and Granville, and at 7 th and Cambie Grosvenor Canada is developing a large-format retail shopping centre.

The trend is being fuelled by a continuing demand for current retail in those areas and growth in the suburbs is slowing down.

More development in the populated areas of Vancouver and an increase in the need for downtown office space will also flow from the process to host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games said conference keynote speaker David Podmore of Concert Properties.

One of the key areas businesses will be able to find opportunities leading up to and during the Games will be in supplying goods and merchandize.

He told a packed conference room that the Winter Games in 2002 in Salt Lake City used 400,000 pounds of ground beef for burgers for the volunteers. And Vancouver will need 12,000 miles of fibre optic cable.

"There is a whole range of things that are required," he said.

"They’ll need uniforms, shoes, all manner of clothing, equipment, phones. And that will find its way down into our community with a need for graphic designers and so on. It will be quite significant."

There is a concern, said Podmore, that there are not enough workers to get the entire infrastructure in place.

But he said business and the government is working on it.

"Certainly in our industry there is a very great concern about the lack of young people going in and learning skilled trades," said Podmore.

"But we hope we can do things to change that."