A large highway-side shopping destination has been proposed for Revelstoke that will include a number of retail outlets including a grocery store.
Big Bend Development Corporation own four lots in the area just off the Trans-Canada Highway, between Bend Road and the railway line. Developer Hall Pacific plans to develop two of these plots totalling 9.5 acres.
“This is a developer group out of Vancouver, Hall Pacific,” Revelstoke City’s manager of development services Dean Strachan said. “They’re actually similar to large shopping centre property developers where they actually go ahead and purchase the properties and lease to tenants.”
The proposed 11-unit shopping area will have about 67,000 square feet of retail space, but Hall Pacific development manager Mike Spaull explained the stores will not be huge commercial outlets.
“It’s more of an, essentially, a strip mall feel. It’s not one building, the buildings would be spread out,” he said. “The largest side of it would not fall into the big box category.”
Spaull could not disclose any brand names of anticipated stores although tenants for the proposed pharmacy and grocery have tentatively been attained. A plan shows the site also includes two restaurants, a drug store, oil and lube shop, a financial business and a number of undisclosed spare sites. The plan indicates the centre will have up to 307 parking spaces.
A new grocery store is the main attraction for residents and visitors and Hall Pacific is banking on the value of added competition to gain the support of council and locals.
“I understand grocery prices are the highest in the province within the town, so being able to attract a national grocer to Revelstoke would definitely help to bring more realistic grocery prices to the area,” Spaull said. “I think that’s one of the major things we have behind this project.”
At Revelstoke’s Advisory Planning Commission (APC) meeting on July 7, members reviewed a bylaw amendment request from Hall Pacific. The area of CD-09 has its own unique bylaw which was hashed out in 2007 by owner Big Bend Development Corporation and the city. It currently allows for a number of uses including automotive, retail, banks, beer and wine stores, offices, cafés, gas stations, hotels and motels, liquor and food, convenience stores, public transport, highway retail, travel, health clubs, recreation and vehicle storage.
Hall Pacific is requesting the addition of grocery, pharmacy, health and welfare service professionals (dentists and doctors) and public assembly and entertainment. The grocery store in the bylaw is limited by square footage so will likely be smaller than Coopers, possibly ruling out options like Costco or other big box-oriented retailers.
APC member Bill MacFarlane wanted to know why these proposed uses weren’t included in the 2007 creation of the CD-09 bylaw.
“I would go back to why it wasn’t included in the first place. There must have been reasons,” he said.
The proposal caused some concern among APC members at the meeting. They discussed the viability of the development, which would force car travel and potentially transfer commercial activity from downtown and increase traffic in the already busy Trans-Canada Highway area.
“I think part of this is trying to align the community vision with this proposal,” committee chairperson Fraser Blyth said. “I think there is room for competition in terms of grocery and pharmacy but personally I don’t think this is the best location for a grocery store.”
“We have a vibrant downtown core and I feel this takes away from that,” committee member Cara Armstrong said.
In our telephone interview, Spaull said they had considered this and their development could actually be a step to attracting more visitors to the downtown.
“The type of development this is — you’re not going to be competing with the merchants in the downtown core,” he said. “Most of those merchants are your type of specialty type shops. Tenants on the highway are more national orientated so they attract a different clientele and we’ll be definitely targeting those highway drivers.
“We’ve been in contact with the [Revelstoke] Chamber of Commerce to establish some sort of building means that can, once travellers stop at this site, they can be redirected to move into the downtown core. From what I understand there are quite a few drivers that pass by and don’t stop in Revelstoke. This might be a first stop to get people to stop and be redirected to the downtown.”
Strachan was not optimistic on the potential for this type of development at another, closer, Revelstoke location.
“It’s very difficult to get a site in and around the downtown core. We are somewhat boxed in by residential development on all sides. Consolidating properties to do that would be problematic and probably not cost effective,” he said.
The previous developer in 2007 had planned to build six hotels on the site. While Hall Pacific does not currently appear to have that intention, the other two lots Big Bend owns could possibly be developed for a similar concept, but Strachan said that many hotels wouldn’t make sense in Revelstoke’s economy today.
“Six hotels in this location is unlikely,” he said. “Revelstoke could likely accommodate maybe three hotels over the next 10–15 years. I would be disappointed as a land use planner to see all three of them at this location.
“It would be great to see maybe one on the highway corner, it would be fantastic to see one downtown and another expansion at [Revelstoke Mountain Resort].
“Based on the patterns we have now, our market probably will not support anymore than that over the next few years unless we have significant uptake in visitors to Revelstoke.”
Pacific Hall’s request for a bylaw amendment will appear before council at the July 14 meeting, but that will be the start of a multi-meeting bylaw process. APC members noted their concerns regarding pedestrian access, non-compliance with the current APC policy and greenhouse gas emission policy, decentralization of Revelstoke and increased traffic near the Trans-Canada intersection.
The property has been the source of repeated controversy over the years as the developer and Revelstoke City Hall apparently clashed over the details of plans for a hotel development there, leading Big Bend Development Corporation to announce in 2013 they were pulling out and putting the property on the market. More recently, rumours that a proposed Canadian Tire big box store had been nixed caused open public debate about development in the community.
If council approves the amendment, a first and second reading will follow before it goes to a public hearing.
There is no application for a development permit yet but Spaull said they are underway in the public approval process.
“We would hope to have shovels in the ground, let’s say spring 2016.”
Here is the City of Revelstoke document explaining the proposed bylaw changes. See the last page for the proposed layout of the shopping centre:
New Revelstoke shopping centre proposal by Revelstoke Mountaineer
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