Grandin tower will not fall.
Dawn Payne said she has fielded numerous questions about the future of Grandin Park Tower at her business, CSA Physiotherapy, over the past months.
But tenants of the office tower, formerly part of Grandin Park Plaza, the now-to-be demolished mall, say they just signed new leases and are prepared to stay.
Developer Amacon also started renovating the interior, she said.
“There is no new tower,” said Payne. “There is a big misperception that everything is coming down and it is not.”
CSA Physiotherapy is one of the longest standing tenants of the tower. The clinic has been located in the building for more than 30 years, which means they’ve lived through many proposed and defaulted plans for changes to the mall, said Payne.
The last of those plans considered building a new tower and moving all of the current tower’s tenants there, she said. But this time around, Amacon simply decided to renovate the building,
It will be state-of-the art, she said.
“In the tower they are already redoing the entrance, they put some new signs up and they are going to be repainting in the entrance area,” she said. “I don’t have the rest of the details but they will be upgrading the interior and the exterior.”
Amacon originally purchased Grandin mall in 2007 with the intention of redeveloping the site as a mixed commercial and residential community.
The development envisioned the demolition of the mall, including the office tower. The company has since revisited and modernized its plans.
This winter Amacon is looking to prepare two development permit applications for the first phase of development.
The tower is expected to be remodelled in the second phase of construction, said Ioana Sovarel with Family Dental, another longstanding tenant of the tower. But that won’t happen for another three to five years, she said.
Sovarel added that she just signed another 10-year lease with Amacon. The lease includes a clause that states Amacon will have to move her business if the developer ever decides to tear down the building.
“I don’t think they would have signed it if they wanted to tear down the building,” she said. “If they need to demolish they would have to put us in a new location and it’s quite an expense to move a dental office.”
Payne added that some former tenants moved out of the tower in the past because plans for the building became so convoluted. But many, like her, decided to wait it out.
Now that Amacon plans to create more retail space in the other buildings, existing businesses will benefit, she said.
“We like the potential of everything that is happening around the building and on that property,” she said. “They will make it state-of-the-art and we want to be there when that happens.”
Amacon did not respond to a request for information on the tower by press time.
