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SUBURBS MIX IT UP TOO

Mixed-use approaches are also being applied to large-site shopping center projects outside central urban areas.

In southeast Calgary, the 360-acre Deerfoot Meadows Shopping Centre is currently under development by Calgary-based Heritage Partners on a former industrial site. On completion, the town-center-type configuration will have 2 million square feet of big-box and smaller-format retail as well as office space and a 250-suite hotel. The first power center stores opened early this year.

Markham, Ontario-based developer North American Corp. is in the planning stages of a streetscape-style lifestyle center called Park Place, which will occupy a 200-acre site near Barrie, an hour’s drive north of Toronto. The developer is combining 300,000 square feet of high-end retail with 165,000 square feet of second-story office space, a business park and light industrial uses. The opening is slated for next fall.

The rationale for mixing uses in such land-extensive projects is different than for urban retail developments, because land costs are less critical, says Blake Hudema, president of the Hudema Consulting Group, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based planning and development consulting firm. The sheer size of a larger site may make it advisable to include other uses together with retail, he says. “To expect to do a purely commercial or shopping center plan with 300 acres,” he said, “would be aggressive.”

—ST