Mayor/CAO to court retail developers
By Kyra Hoggan
Castlegar mayor Lawrence Chernoff and city CAO John Malcolm will be heading to Whistler this weekend to attend the International Council of Shopping Centres conference, with an eye toward drawing retailers to the Sunflower City.
Malcolm said the annual conference draws retail commercial developers and representatives of top retail stores into a group where Castlegar can begin shopping for ideal tenants for the city-owned airport lands. He said they’ve already spoken to some of the retailers and set up appointments throughout the three-day conference, which will run Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
Chernoff said this is a proactive approach he finds more pragmatic than just sitting back and waiting in the hopes a major retailer will decide Castlegar is the place to be.
“One of the city’s strategic goals is to diversify our economy, and council sees expansion of our retail sector to be a key component in that,” Chernoff said. “We don’t want to just wait for opportunities to come to us – we want to put Castlegar on the map for the major retail developers. We’re trying to build a future here.”
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