Anchor tenant found for Royal City Centre

Image from a City of New Westminster staff report showing the proposed location near the corner of Sixth Avenue and Eighth Street for an atrium entrance for a new anchor tenant at Royal City Centre.

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A new anchor tenant for the Royal City Centre has been found but its owners are keeping mum about who it is.

The city has received a development permit application from the mall to build an atrium-style entrance off Sixth Avenue near Eighth Street—next to Dynamic Health and Fitness—to service a new anchor tenant for the first and second floors.

The mall has been seeking a large retailer ever since Zellers closed in that end of the mall in 2006. The mall's leasing agent, Laura Veevers, said it is up to the property's owners, Toronto-based Strathallen Capital Corp., to announce who the tenant is. Strathallen president Laetitia Pacaud has previously declined comment on the plans due to confidentially.

City planner Jim Hurst said he does not know who the tenant is, and he expects when his report on the application appears before council Monday they will want to know.

But since the plans call for an elaborate glass atrium entrance with escalators as well as an upgraded floor slab and alterations to the loading bays, Hurst believes it will be a significant retail tenant.

"There is considerable work that they're talking about," said Hurst.

Since Zellers' departure, Dynamic Health has taken over some first-floor space at that end of mall where Zellers' entrance was at Eighth Street and Sixth Avenue.

"Regardless of who is going in there it means people can get into the mall without having to climb up the hill to the Seventh Street doors, and it can be a considerable hill to walk up," said Hurst.

There will not only be a street-level entrance to the atrium from Sixth Avenue, but one from the P3 parking level with sliding doors as well.

The application is being circulated for review by other city departments, and the plans will also be looked over by the city's design panel. The mall will hold a public meeting to present the proposal before council makes its decision.