WAL-MART SHOPPING MALL PLAN TABLED IN KINGSTON, CANADA

Power centre postponed [Whig-Standard (Canada)]

A proposal to build the biggest shopping centre in the city has once again been put on hold, this time until the fall.

A Toronto-area developer withdrew its request for a tax break to clean up the polluted grounds of the former Alcan plant, but hasn’t abandoned its quest to build a shopping centre with 55,700 square metres of retail space that would be larger than the RioCan Centre on Gardiners Road.

The application to build the shopping centre is still active, but has been put on hold until the fall.

The developer has asked the city for the time to explore other options to pay for the development and cleanup of the site.

Before building the centre, the developer asked city hall to make the site eligible for a financial incentive program that gives tax breaks for developing polluted sites.

The planning committee rejected the request earlier this year.

A majority of councillors on the planning committee told the Whig-Standard before a late June meeting that they weren’t ready to change that decision without compelling new arguments.

The proposal was scheduled to go before the committee last week, but was withdrawn from the agenda.

The proposed plan for the site consists of 11 retail buildings along the edges of the site with parking down the middle, according to the SmartCentres website.

Plans filed with the city showed the power centre would include a Wal-Mart and the largest Canadian Tire store in Kingston. The Wal-Mart would be about 20,000 square metres, larger than the 12,356-square-metre store on Midland Avenue. The Canadian Tire would be about 10,220 square metres, larger than the 8,400-square-metre store on Gardiners Road.

Posted by Joel Nezianya on Tuesday, July 08, 2008

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