Wit Ventures: Sarnia's Bayside: New Life for the Old Mall.

Monday 8 May 2017

Sarnia's Bayside: New Life for the Old Mall.

Zach Neal photo.

From Cathy Dobson, Sarnia Journal

Downtown business people say they feel nothing but optimism about the new ownership of the struggling Bayside Centre and its plan to repurpose the building as a retirement residence.

“I am thrilled,” said Corrine Schieman, owner of Artopia Gallery & Framing on Christina Street.

Bayside, which is right around the corner from Artopia, hasn’t attracted significant customer traffic for years as mall occupancy floundered with a small number of retailers remaining.

Now Schieman is hopeful the proposed retirement residence with an estimated 140 to 160 independent and assisted living suites will generate more visitors and potential customers in the downtown core.

Link to the rest here.

Additional coverage:

From Troy Shantz and George Mathewson, Sarnia Journal

The new owners of the Bayside Centre plan to build an assisted living retirement residence in downtown Sarnia featuring 140 to 160 suites.

Though too early to say exactly how the retirement complex will fit into the mall space, the CEO of Seasons Retirement Communities said the company is working with Lambton County to keep the existing government services centre in place.

It also intends to build upward with additional stories.

“We want to go vertical,” Rick Smyth told city council last week.

Seasons, which acquired the mall on April 18, is already interviewing architects and will create a master plan for the property over the next year.

Smyth said company studies show a strong market need for more supported-living units in Sarnia and the mall property was an ideal fit.

Link to the rest here.

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Shirley D. Neal

Shirley has over 30 years of experience in such diverse businesses as financial planning, manufacturing, and supply. Her education includes a B.A., B.ED., M.ED., C.F.P., N.L.P. and the home inspector’s course as well as having her AZ license for five years. Her family home has given her and her husband the opportunity to do extensive renovation and repairs thereby increasing the value about $100,000 in ten years. She has been able to see firsthand how much a sensible and cost efficient renovations can add to the value of a home. Shirley has chosen joint ventures because she thinks that her experiences an help others achieve their goals and maximize the profits for both parties. In 1979, Shirley became involved in a small group of women who started a metal manufacturing company making small deep drawn metal parts for the automobile companies in Windsor. They took the company from start up to over $400,000 in sales in five years. That was a lot of parts since the parts sold for only five cents per each. In 1985 they sold the company to one of their customers. Whether it was selling mutual funds, teaching foster parents how to recruit foster parents, or working for Tony Robbins, Shirley has put more than 100 percent into every endeavour she was involved in.