Blasting away at retail: Sudbury's east end shopping district keeps growing.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: SUDBURY

The Kingsway shopping district in Sudbury continues to grow in leaps and bounds with a number of new retail outlets, two new hotels in the works, and plans for acres of residential subdivisions.

Its most recent tenant is developer Norm Bouffard, who purchased a wall of rock and swamp across from the RioCan Centre three years ago and began blasting and contouring the 4.42-hectare property over the last two years to accommodate his 21,000-square-foot shopping outlet.

With a concrete pad down and structural steel being erected in August, Bouffard was confident of moving into his new store by Christmas. About two-thirds of the building will be the future home of his sporting goods store, Skater's Edge, with the remainder set aside for a Jump! The Skate and Dance gymnastics store, a Jump! The Baby outlet, and a Pita Pit.

"This was a big bite," said Bouffard said of the tons of rock blasted away and his personal undisclosed investment on the property.

To save on costs, Bouffard employed a cut-and-fill method to process thousands of tons of rock, using it as on-site aggregate. The property and access road is slightly elevated from the street.

After 15 years on Lasalle Boulevard, Bouffard had simply run out of space to expand his business.

"Bigger, better, brighter; we were just too small on Lasalle. We needed a bigger building first and foremost, and there aren't that many good new buildings available in the right areas, so where could you go?

"With retail, it's about a shopping experience as well. You want to walk in and feel wowed a bit, and that's what we're trying to do.

"It's a natural progression in the world of retail. Sudbury has always been a hidden secret in the North, but it's central to the North. Timmins and North Bay (shoppers) tend to want to shop here than go down to Toronto. "

He'll have some company on the site.

Bouffard severed and sold two parcels on his property to two other developers.

One has tabled plans for a 23,000-square-foot furniture store and two other retail outlets. The other end will be the future home of a 100-guest room Microtel and a restaurant.

The evolution and growth of Sudbury's The Kingsway-Barry Downe area into a power shopping corridor began in the late 1990s with a rezoning to permit a mall on an initial 15-acre property.

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