An elevated level of household income in the Fort McMurray region has fueled healthy growth for the Peter Pond Mall in the city.
Kevin Brees, Regional Manager, Operations for Primaris REIT, which owns the shopping centre, said productivity of $832 sales per square foot has increased by 12 per cent over a year ago and 32 per cent since 2019.
He said the average household income in the area is about $210,000.
“We’re anticipating that sales growth to continue. At what levels we’re not sure. But the growth is definitely there. Obviously, we’ve seen the growth,” said Brees.
Peter Pond, which was built in 1978 and is right downtown, has 207,000 square feet of gross leasing area with more than 70 stores and services on two levels.
In 2023, the new tenants which opened included Sephora (November), Torrid (December), Purdys (October and transitioning to perm in Fall of 2024), and Potato Corner (June – Food Court). Sephora is said to have broken Canadian records with sales during the November store opening event at Peter Pond.
Brees said further bolstering the Food Court in 2024 was Taco Time which opened in January.
Occupancy is about 96 per cent.
Brees said the Primaris leasing team is working with national and multi-national tenants for 2024 and beyond.
“With an occupancy of 96 per cent, we’re really positioned for 2024 and 2025. We’ve already had three highly-anticipated tenants open in late 2023 with Sephora. They occupy 4,700 square feet. They’re on the upper level adjacent to Bath and Body Works. And they exceeded all expectations. We had Torrid open at the beginning of December and they’re 3,100 square feet. They’re on the main level,” he said. “They’re across from La Vie en Rose. Again, another strong brand. Torrid is doing exceptionally well also.
“Purdys was another anticipated tenant our customer was asking for. They opened in October. They’re part of that pilot project. They opened on a temporary basis and they’re transitioning into a permanent location in 2024. They did very well.
“What we really noticed in Fort McMurray is the Fort McMurray customer has been asking for these tenants and tenants like them and the Fort McMurray customer has been supporting those tenants. They’ve had amazing community support which has really been evidenced by those recent results. Not just the recent results but really from 2019. You can see that sales growth.”
Leasing at Peter Pond Mall is handled by Nico Scarcello, with Shauna Hannam looking after Specialty Leasing for the property.
Brees said Fort McMurray has an affluent customer to draw from in the primary trade area near Peter Pond Mall with about 77,000 people and close to 60 per cent of the customers are female.
When asked if there are any development plans for the mall, Brees said:
“We’re always looking at things but nothing that we can speak to at this time. Us and of course any landlord is always looking.
Primaris is Canada’s only enclosed shopping centre focused REIT, with ownership interests primarily in the leading enclosed shopping centres in growing mid-sized markets. The portfolio totals 39 properties, or 12.5 million square feet, valued at approximately $3.8 billion at Primaris’ share.
Primaris was initially formed in 2003 as a publicly-traded company then known as Borealis Retail REIT, sponsored by Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), one of Canada’s largest pension funds and owners of real estate. Management was internalized in 2009, and in 2013 H&R REIT acquired the Primaris operating platform and 25 of the properties owned and managed by Primaris. On December 31, 2021, Primaris REIT was spun-off from H&R REIT through an non-taxable distribution of units. Concurrent with the spin-off, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) contributed six large format shopping centres in exchange for approximately 26 per cent of the units of Primaris REIT.
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Additional Photos from Peter Pond Mall
Average income of $200000? Not sure where he’s getting his data from but it’s nowhere close to that , maybe combined, husband and wife. There is a lot of FIFO people and they don’t contribute to the local economy. I’m estimating the average income is $125-150k.
No one makes $200k unless they work lots of OT.
Average *household* income…. if you actually read it, it means the income each household brings in, it doesn’t say average persons income
Who manages operations at the mall? That’s what I want to know. The leasing is meh at best, but operations, they are the reason I’ll go back