“VictoriaVille… it’s time. We have been asking for this report for ages, it seems to me.”
The day the wrecking ball takes its first swing at the mall cannot come soon enough for At-large councillor Rebecca Johnson.
However, she points out the earliest it could happen is next summer. “Now that would be the very earliest we could do that. You have to give due diligence to what contracts there are with rental for the businesses in there… so, it could take up to another year, to two years.”
The At-large councillor expects in about a month they will vote for its demise.
As far as all the consultant reports are concerned, she points out it’s better left up to the people of Thunder Bay.
“I think that we need to look at, perhaps, have the community gather together and determine what the future of that site looks like. But we don’t need consultants tell us how to take it down, just hire somebody and take it down,” says Johnson.
The city councillor adds, though, some city administration and businesses want it to stay. “Whether it’s people that are close there, they like that they can meet, and gather, that’s fine. And there are some businesses that would like to keep that open, and I respect that.”
Johnson believes opening Victoria Avenue will help the area, and the businesses who may be reluctant to move.
One of her colleagues, Mark Bentz, acknowledges the many hired consultants, but he adds with government process it is good to make sure decisions are based on evidence, and take into consideration long-term effects to the community.
“I would agree in this case, if the community wants VictoriaVille removed, why did we have a consultant look into it? I guess just to be sure there weren’t other uses that we hadn’t considered,” points out the councillor.
The price tag… he says is about $10 to $12-million. Once it’s gone, Bentz says improved traffic flow should help the area. Also, he adds business owners want it gone, as well as the community. “Any retail establishment that has an operating loss of half a million dollars a year, is not viable. So, the truth is in the numbers.”
The At-large councillor figures at least another year before it starts coming down, adding there will be a number of issues.
“Engineering, plans for what that streetscape will look like eventually, provisions for the current retailers in that space as to how this will progress,” says Bentz.
The At-large city councillor adds in its’ day, the mall was the flavour of the day, a concept used by many communities striving to improve their cities.
