Arts and crafts retail giant Michaels is renovating the former Best Buy location at Uptown shopping centre and is expected to open a store there in the spring.
A building permit issued by Saanich values the renovation at $925,000. Workers are gutting the 38,000-square-foot building on Uptown’s second level.
Best Buy closed its Uptown and Langford locations in January 2013 as part of a Canada-wide downsizing of its retail stores.
The space at Uptown has been advertised for lease under a term running to 2026 through a commercial real estate company.
The area is being divided into two pieces, one at 26,000 square feet and the other at 12,000 square feet. Another new retailer is expected to open in the smaller space.
A Michaels official would not comment on Wednesday.
Uptown general manager Roberta Ferguson said she could not comment on any companies moving in because tenants want to make their own announcements.
She expects both spaces will be ready in the spring of 2015.
Saanich Mayor Frank Leonard said he has heard that the Michaels store at 805 Cloverdale Ave. is relocating to Uptown.
Michaels is North America’s largest specialty retailer of arts and crafts. The Texas-based company has 1,147 stores in the U.S. and Canada, including a Langford location on Millstream Road and a store in Nanaimo.
Meanwhile, Uptown is about to open four new retail stores as the holiday shopping season ramps up.
Ferguson said the new stores will fill out the shopping centre’s “fashion boulevard” and diversify the retail mix.
The first to open will be U.S. accessory chain Charming Charlie on Nov. 18, in a space beside Forever 21 on Uptown Boulevard.
Charming Charlie stocks jewelry, bags, shoes and accessories. It’s the first such store in B.C. and the third in Canada.
Canadian women’s clothiers Dynamite and Garage will open a location combining both stores and Kelowna-based Bone & Biscuit Co., a pet food and accessory retailer, will open later this month, also on Uptown Boulevard.
In early December, Vancouver-based Escents Aromatherapy plans to open its first store on Vancouver Island in Uptown’s town plaza.
The new store commitments, the opening of Steve Nash Fitness World in late December and Shaw Cable taking over 33,000 square feet of office space will mean Uptown’s office and retail space is now more than 75 per cent leased. In terms of retail space only, Uptown is 85 per cent leased. “We have had a very busy fall, with new tenants preparing to open and an incredible response to our available space. We’re delighted with the mix of tenants we’re attracting,” said Ferguson.
Ferguson said the centre is doing preliminary work on plans for the next stage of development — a mixed-use project to the northwest of the existing centre.
While she emphasized it is far too early to determine what the mix will include, Ferguson said Uptown may be able to announce plans in the next few months.
According to architects Chandler Associates, the third phase of Uptown was to incorporate residential units and more offices.
