Loblaw Companies Ltd., will not be restricting future tenants as a condition of the sale of the Extra Foods property on Broadway Avenue, according to Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark.
The Nutana area’s only small grocery store will be permanently closing its doors April 23. There has been worry among residents and community groups that the company may restrict future retail grocers from moving into the building or onto the site as a way to limit competition to its own nearby stores.
Another Loblaw store is located about two kilometres away on Taylor Street.
On Friday, Clark tweeted he had contacted the company directly to relay how important having a grocery store in the area is to the community.
“We know how important these grocery stores are to our business districts, whether it’s Broadway, Riversdale, City Park (or) 33rd Street … and I was able to get confirmation from executives at Loblaw that they are not planning to put a restrictive covenant on,” he said.
“I wanted to make sure that in talking to Loblaw they understood that this was not a good outcome for our community, it wouldn’t be good for the reputation of Loblaw to do that, and to ensure that wasn’t going to be the case here.”
Clark noted it’s a common practice in cities across the country.
“(Companies) will say actually that they will sell the building to you, but you can’t open a grocery store there,” he said.
That happened on Central Avenue in the Sutherland neighbourhood when an Extra Foods closed its doors in 2006. Now, a car dealership occupies the property.
As grocery chains move to larger format outlets, smaller neighbourhood stores are disappearing. Even if there’s no restriction, so far the city has had challenges attracting grocers to smaller neighbourhoods.
“If you look at Riversdale, they haven’t had a grocery store for some time,” Clark said. “As well, in City Park, they lost their grocery store. It’s a real challenge for these neighbourhoods where a grocery store is a fundamental service.
“The other big area we’ve known about and talked about for years is in the downtown core of Saskatoon. We’re trying to reverse that trend and we’re trying to work with and identify with grocery providers. Even if it’s a smaller version of a store, (we’re looking at) options that could work … to these existing core neighbourhoods.”
Clark described models in other cities that have worked, like attracting an Urban Fare-type store. He said he’s hopeful that as Saskatoon grows, residents will see those kinds of retail outlets in smaller neighbourhoods.
As for whether any retailer has shown interest so far in occupying the space at Extra Foods, Clark won’t comment on that yet.
“I’m not in a position to speak to any upcoming developments or exactly what we could see as the future for example, on Broadway, but those conversations are ongoing,” he said.