Penticton’s Cherry Lane Shopping Centre has changed hands, with the Jim Pattison Group completing the acquisition of the long-standing retail property from Manulife. The transaction, confirmed in early December, marks a significant shift in ownership for the only enclosed shopping centre serving the South Okanagan and Similkameen regions, and comes at a pivotal moment for the asset following the closure of its former anchor tenant, Hudson’s Bay.
The developments arm of the Jim Pattison Group confirmed that the purchase closed on December 3, according to reporting by Penticton Western News. While the sale price was not disclosed, public assessment data places the value of the property at $68.7 million, suggesting the transaction occurred in the tens of millions of dollars. The shopping centre had been formally listed for sale in late July 2025, shortly after Hudson’s Bay ceased operations at the mall as part of the retailer’s broader bankruptcy-related shutdowns across Canada.
Located at 2111 Main Street, Cherry Lane Shopping Centre occupies a highly visible site with direct access from Penticton’s main commercial corridor and proximity to Highway 97. The property has been a central feature of the city’s retail landscape for five decades, having originally opened in 1975 as Penticton’s first enclosed regional mall.
A Longstanding Retail Anchor in the South Okanagan
Cherry Lane Shopping Centre was developed in the mid-1970s at a time when Penticton’s retail environment was largely defined by downtown high-street stores and smaller commercial nodes. Its enclosed format, extensive surface parking, and full-line department store anchor represented a change in how residents shopped locally. The centre officially opened in 1975 following a community naming contest that selected the name “Cherry Lane Shopping Centre,” a reflection of both the region’s agricultural heritage and the mall’s role as a new civic gathering place.
At opening, the mall featured Woodward’s as its primary anchor tenant, giving Penticton access to a major British Columbia-based department store for the first time. Local recollections of the period often describe the opening as a moment when the city “felt significantly different,” underscoring the cultural and economic impact of the development. Woodward’s offered a broad assortment spanning apparel, home goods, food, and general merchandise, positioning Cherry Lane as a true one-stop shopping destination for residents of Penticton and surrounding communities.
Following the collapse of the Woodward’s chain in the early 1990s, the anchor space transitioned through several retail eras, reflecting broader changes in the Canadian department store sector. Over time, Cherry Lane’s anchor lineup evolved to include Hudson’s Bay, London Drugs, and Save-On-Foods, alongside a mix of national chains, regional retailers, and local service providers.
Current Scale, Tenant Mix, and Foot Traffic
Today, Cherry Lane Shopping Centre comprises just under 280,000 square feet of retail space and is home to approximately 50 stores. The tenant mix emphasizes everyday and essential retail categories, a positioning that has helped the centre maintain relevance despite increased competition from power centres, big-box clusters, and regional malls in larger markets such as Kelowna.
Current tenants include Save-On-Foods, London Drugs, Best Buy Express, Coles Bookstore, Royal LePage, The Shoe Company, Booster Juice, several jewelry retailers, and a range of fashion and service-oriented businesses. This blend reflects a shift away from traditional fashion-led mall merchandising toward grocery, pharmacy, value, and convenience-driven retail, a trend seen across many mid-sized Canadian markets.
According to marketing materials published by JLL Capital Services, which has managed the property for several years, Cherry Lane attracts approximately 2.5 million shoppers annually. This figure reinforces the centre’s continued role as the primary enclosed retail hub for the region. The site spans approximately nine hectares and includes parking capacity for more than 1,100 vehicles on the main parcel, along with an additional 1.5-acre parking lot located across Warren Avenue West that forms part of the same legal property.
The Hudson’s Bay Closure and Sale Timing
The sale of Cherry Lane Shopping Centre is closely tied to the departure of Hudson’s Bay, which closed its Penticton store in June following the retailer’s bankruptcy proceedings. The closure left a large anchor box vacant, estimated at roughly 94,600 square feet, and materially altered the centre’s near-term leasing profile. The loss of the Bay also created both a challenge and an opportunity for the property, particularly in the context of repositioning or redevelopment.
Manulife, through Manulife Investment Management, had owned the property for several years prior to the sale, with day-to-day operations handled by JLL Capital Services. In 2025, the asset was formally marketed with guidance in the high-$60-million range, aligning with BC Assessment’s valuation of $68.7 million. Marketing materials highlighted the stability of the existing tenant base, the centre’s strong traffic levels, and the potential to re-tenant or redevelop the former department store space.
The timing of the sale, roughly five months after the property was listed, suggests strong investor interest in well-located community malls, particularly those with grocery anchors and redevelopment optionality. For the Jim Pattison Group, the acquisition aligns with a long-established strategy of owning and operating grocery-anchored and community-focused retail assets in Western Canada.
Jim Pattison Developments and Its Retail Strategy
Cherry Lane Shopping Centre will fall under the umbrella of Jim Pattison Developments, the real estate arm of the Jim Pattison Group. Headquartered in Vancouver, Jim Pattison Developments operates as an independent business unit within one of Canada’s largest privately held companies. The firm focuses on the ownership, development, and management of commercial and residential properties across Canada and, increasingly, the United States.
Jim Pattison Developments formally emerged as a distinct business in 2006, although the broader Jim Pattison Group has been active since 1961 across sectors including food retail, automotive, media, packaging, forestry, and entertainment. Leadership includes David Bell as President, supported by an in-house team covering development, asset management, leasing, design, construction, and finance. This vertically integrated structure allows the company to pursue long-term ownership strategies while maintaining flexibility in how assets are repositioned over time.
A core component of the firm’s portfolio has been grocery-anchored shopping centres, many of which are closely aligned with Pattison Food Group banners such as Save-On-Foods. By the mid-2010s, Jim Pattison Developments controlled more than 10 million square feet of income-producing assets, a figure that has grown through continued acquisitions and development activity. The acquisition of Cherry Lane fits squarely within this strategy, particularly given the presence of Save-On-Foods as a key anchor tenant.
One of Cherry Lane Shopping Centre’s distinguishing features is its immediate proximity to residential density, a factor that adds to its long-term strategic value. Multiple residential buildings are located directly behind the mall, including the 11-storey Cherry Lane Towers and the Athens Creek Towers. This existing population base supports daily foot traffic and reinforces the centre’s role as a community shopping node rather than a purely discretionary destination.
The presence of residential towers also raises the prospect of future densification or mixed-use redevelopment, particularly on underutilized portions of the site or within the former Hudson’s Bay footprint.
