- by Hub staff

The Heritage Place Mall re-opened yesterday, and hundreds of employees in retail, management, service and maintenance are back to work. The hours are somewhat reduced, and stores have some flexibility to set their own hours, so check before you go.  Look for signage about entrance and exit doors and safety precautions.

Stores deemed essential – Food Basics and Giant Tiger – have been open throughout the pandemic; those with their own outside doors – Leon's and Urban Planet – were allowed to open in earlier phases. Good Life Fitness is still waiting for provincial permission to re-open and Service Canada's in-person service centre has yet to announce a re-opening date.  No food services are currently offered within the mall - Popeyes and Kelsey's have take-out available.

Ten clothing and shoe stores and seven phone businesses have re-opened, as have a dozen other stores and services. Stokes has apparently re-opened, although in March it was running a large “store closing” sale. Staff at the time said their lease was up and decisions were still being made about renewal.

Brick and mortar retail in many categories was seriously challenged before 2020, and the chains GNC and The Children's Place, both with stores in Heritage Place, have announced store closures across North America.

Immediately before the March closure of the Heritage Place Mall, the property had reportedly been sold, and the closing date for the transaction was being finalized.  The prospective new owners are invested in retail malls in other places in Canada - we believe Heritage Place would be their first in Ontario. 

According to the posting on JLL.ca the 307,000 sq ft mall on 37.5 acres of land sold for just under $12 million. The management company, Sterling Group, currently lists 24,000 sq ft of retail space available for lease in the mall.

By comparison, "downtown Owen Sound alone has over 2 million square feet of retail space with over 350 businesses", according to the City's website.