There's no doubt that the new Uptown shopping centre will create a flurry of excitement and attention when it opens next year, says the manager of the Downtown Victoria Business Association.

"It's not only downtown Victoria. This will have an impact on the entire Greater Victoria area. There's no question about it," Ken Kelly said yesterday.

"What's going to be interesting is where the shopping settles after they've opened."

The first stage of Uptown will open in summer 2010 at the former Town and Country shopping centre in the 3000-block of Douglas Street. Uptown is expected to have a completed construction size of 1.3 million square feet once its retail, office, and residential space has been finished, its website states.

Kelly said downtown representatives regularly brainstorm about ways to attract people to the core.

In Victoria, there is a strong level of support for local businesses, he said. "In my mind, that bodes well for the downtown, which is comprised of so many locally owned businesses."

However, the local market share has not grown, Kelly said.

"So what's happening then is, everybody is going to take just a little bit slimmer slice, while Uptown hopes to increase the size the slice of Town and Country in their transformation of this facility."

The West Shore is a regional retail powerhouse and Ingrid Vaughan, general manager of the WestShore Chamber of Commerce, remains confident. "I really don't believe it [Uptown] is going to have much of an impact at all."

The Wal-Mart in Langford is already patronized by local residents, she said. "I don't anticipate many people will drive into town to go to that Wal-Mart [at the Uptown]."

Similar to the new Uptown, many of the stores in the Westshore Town Centre open to the outdoors, she said. "Every time I drive past there, there's another building going up."

Business owner Charlene Walker is passionate about Victoria's downtown but also has fallen for Uptown.

"It's going to be a destination point," said Walker, owner of Sweet Nancy's on Broughton Street and Li'l Sweet Nancy's on View Street. She's keeping those stores and hoping to open her next one on Uptown's main street.

Also, she's hoping that an Uptown location would deter Lower Mainland stores that otherwise might move in and carry the same clothing lines.

Walker is keen to look at ways to further boost efforts to keep downtown strong.

B.C. Assessment's head office will be the first Uptown tenant to open its doors in February, followed by major retail storers in July. A Wal-Mart superstore with groceries -- along with Best Buy, Future Shop, and Shoppers Drug Mart outlets -- are opening in the Morguard Investments project, with an estimated built-out cost of more than $300 million.

Geoff Stollery, director of real estate for Best Buy Canada, owner of Future Shop, said, "It's a great project from a mixed-use standpoint. And we very much like to be part of those because they appeal to such a wide section of the consumer."

The Future Shop on Cloverdale Avenue will move to the new location, growing by about 10,000 square feet to 35,000 square feet, Stollery said from Toronto.

And with a new Best Buy at 30,000 square feet close by, "it creates a good synergy for consumer-electronic shopping," he said.

Uptown reflects the trend in recent years to create open-air shopping centres that are destinations encouraging people to spend time in a village-style atmosphere. Such centres are anchored not only by major stores, but by a pedestrian-friendly environment, with a central plaza and entertainment. Shoppers can park on an internal street and walk directly into individual stores, rather than entering an enclosed mall.

Steve Tax, a University of Victoria business professor, said, "Instead of going on a shopping trip, you are getting something of an experience. And that experience is impacted considerably by the physical environment within which you shop."

Sights, sounds and smells all affect people psychologically and physiologically, he said.

"If you are in a crowded environment you will often get tired and anxious and concerned, whereas if you're in a nice village-like atmosphere, that may make you more relaxed. It may be more engaging in terms of what you see and what you hear."

If you create a place where people who don't like to shop enjoy the atmosphere, "that's a competitive advantage," Tax said. "It creates a place that you want to go, as opposed [to one where] you have to go."

On the web:

www.shopuptown.ca

cjwilson@tc.canwest.com