Starrs Road Plaza mix working well

“They bought this place when it was really defunct. Everybody thought they were tearing it down,” says caretaker and tenant, Stan Churchill.

One of the first things Plazacorp Retail Properties Limited did was remove the old theatres off the back of the development. “That was almost 8500 feet of unusable space,” said Churchill.

Plazacorp then began carefully adding proven companies to the newly named Starrs Road Plaza. As a developer with 91 property holdings in six provinces, the giant has plenty of experience in what works.

It owns 63 strip plazas, and seven enclosed malls in 53 communities across NL, NS, NB, PEI, QC and Ont. The developer also owns Pleasant Street Plaza in Yarmouth with the anchor store Shoppers Drug Mart.

The top ten tenants listed on its website are Shoppers Drug Mart, Dollarama, Marks Work Wearhouse, Staples, Reitmans, Bulk Barn, Michaels, Sobeys, Empire Theatres and Winners.

Michael Zakuta is the president and co-founder of the Plaza Group and has been involved in every aspect of shopping centre development, acquisitions and management in Quebec and Atlantic Canada since 1986.

He says the company is pleased with their tenants at Starrs Road Plaza. “I think the Yarmouth market was probably neglected for many years.” “We now have strong retailers who are occupying our space. It’s taken a long time but we’ve been able to successfully transform the property,” he said. “It’s a good location, it’s easy to get to, there’s lots of parking, it’s highly visible – it has all the right elements but you have to have good retailers. “It’s a great combination now. It’s more attractive probably to women than men,” he added. “We haven’t got much space left. There’s only one that’s available, a very small space and that’s it, so that’s a good story. “We’re very happy, things are working very well.”