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Late-fall opening expected for Canadian Tire at Hillside

Canadian Tire will be opening a new store in Hillside Centre this fall, but whether it contains automotive repair and servicing bays remains a mystery.
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Canadian Tire will open at Hillside this fall.

Canadian Tire will be opening a new store in Hillside Centre this fall, but whether it contains automotive repair and servicing bays remains a mystery.

Construction crews have been breaking portions of the concrete floor and excavating earth inside the former Target store, which was built new in 2013 when the Zellers store was torn down. Industrial fans are stationed at the front and back to air the building while construction is in progress.

But few details are available regarding specific plans for the 150,000-square-foot space, which has been vacant since 2014 when U.S.-based Target shut down all its 133 stores in Canada after massive financial losses.

If service bays are placed at the front of the store, it is likely the parking lot will have to be realigned.

The company and shopping mall owner are scant on details.

“The Hillside store in Victoria is scheduled to open in late 2016. We’ll be able to provide you with more details closer to the opening date,” Canadian Tire spokeswoman Teresa Cugliari said in a statement.

Asked if automobile services bays, typically seen at Canadian Tire outlets, are part of the plans, Cugliari said that information is not yet available. The City of Victoria issued a building permit listing a construction cost of $895,000 for the Hillside site.

The city said the permit is for new exterior doors and paint. Also issued are permits for electrical and plumbing work, and for a sign, said Katie Hamilton, city spokeswoman.

Tony Segaric, vice-president of operations for retail services for Bentall Kennedy (Canada) LP, which owns Hillside Centre, would only say that Canadian Tire “construction is actively underway for a major and exciting transformation of the space.

“While they haven’t yet confirmed a planned opening date, we might anticipate it would be late fall or winter given the extensive renovations,” Segaric said in a statement.

Canadian Tire announced last year that it would buy a dozen former Target sites.

One of these locations is in the Driftwood Mall in Courtenay where a new Canadian Tire opened two weeks ago, Cugliari said. The store has automotive service bays.

U.S.-based Lowe’s home-improvement store is moving into the other former Target location in the capital region, planning to open in the fall at Tillicum Centre. It has taken out a building permit for $3 million to ready the site for its new use.

Meanwhile, Bentall Kennedy confirmed that Thrifty Foods at Hillside Centre is working on feasibility plans for a possible expansion, but said there are no solid plans as yet.

Keri Scobie, spokeswoman for Sobeys, the parent company of Thrifty Foods, said in a statement that the company does not have any expansion plans “currently in place at that location.”