CAMPBELL RIVER, B.C. – The saga of the Campbell River Common Mall continues.
A Cut Above Design Group owner Carol Chapman said the salon has been in the Common for 40 years. According to her, Allan Edie, the salon’s landlord for the last 12 years has been good to them and she said she’s had nothing but positive interactions with them.
But Chapman said the salon will be moving to the Tyee Plaza after Edie gave them notice that Indoor Storage Solutions will be expanding, which means the inside of the Common will be reconstructed into a storage locker facility.
“(Edie) has been absolutely amazing trying to fill the mall up with businesses but it’s just the way people shop online and you know nobody seems to want to come and open businesses anymore, so he made the decision to close the inside of the mall,” said Chapman.
According to Chapman, Dollarama, Thrifty Foods, Northern Reflections, and the Seniors’ Centre will all stay and have their own exterior entrances.
Owner Allan Edie said that A Cut Above’s move isn’t out of the ordinary.
“In any real estate scenario, you have leases that mature and some of the tenants, their leases are maturing so they’re given the option to extend their lease and stay with us or make alternate arrangements,” Edie said.
He said A Cut Above was given the choice to move to the front side of the mall, but they chose to move out of the mall instead. Re-developing the interior of the Campbell River Common Mall into a storage locker facility is nothing more than a response to the vacancies in the building, according to Edie.
“We’ve had over eight business file for bankruptcy over the last 12 years. So it’s not like the effort hasn’t been made to maintain it as an internal retail mall. But the reality is, if the community doesn’t support the retailers whether if they’re with us or in any other building, those retailers don’t survive,” Edie added.
