Canadian Tire eyeing expansion

With construction already underway in town on a new Tim Hortons and Wal-Mart, news that Canadian Tire has plans to expand here should come as no surprise.
But with the expansion will come a new Mark’s Work Warehouse and perhaps a gas bar.
“I’ve received an application for site plan approval,” confirmed Faye Flatt, municipal planner for the Town of Fort Frances.
She also said town staff already are reviewing the site plan and that if approved, Canadian Tire could apply for a building permit by Sept. 1.
But Flatt stressed that even though Canadian Tire may have a building permit by Sept. 1, “nothing is set in stone” to force them to build immediately.
Citing Tim Hortons as an example, she noted they had their building permit for a year before construction actually began.
That said, however, Flatt indicated Canadian Tire probably would begin construction this fall once things are approved.
The new Canadian Tire building would feature more than 66,000 sq. ft. of retail, service, and warehouse space.
The Mark’s Work Warehouse, which sells men’s and women’s work clothes as well as casual wear and boots, is to be located in a 6,000 sq. ft. building connected to the new Canadian Tire store.
Both stores will have outside entrances.
Flatt said the corporation “owns the whole property where Canadian Tire is now. It abuts with Witherspoon’s One-Stop on the west side and the Clover Valley Farmers’ Market on the north.
The new store will be located on the northwest corner of the property.
“They have a fair bit of space,” Flatt noted, adding the new store will be constructed and then the plan is to tear down the existing one.
“There’s a gas bar on there,” Flatt said of the site plan. “But at this point, we’re not sure if they’re going ahead on that or not.”
“That means that’s what we’re implying to build,” Carol Talbot, with Canadian Tire’s corporate affairs office, said of the gas bar.
She said that as long as the town accepts the application in basically its current state, and the zoning is appropriate for that parcel of land, the store, gas bar, and Mark’s Work Warehouse will be built.
But Talbot could not confirm when construction might begin.
“Sometimes these things go quite smoothly, sometimes they don’t,” she remarked. “There can be lots of things that pop up.”
The new Canadian Tire store will incorporate roughly 28,000 sq. ft. of retail space (classifying it as a C-5 store, according to Talbot) and about 20,000 sq. ft. in warehouse space.
The remainder of the 66,571 sq. ft. (excluding a warehouse mezzanine) will be taken up by a service area and offices.
(Fort Frances Times)