{"id":26803,"date":"2020-06-18T19:20:58","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T23:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26803"},"modified":"2020-06-18T19:21:06","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T23:21:06","slug":"grocery-store-marshalls-storage-facility-proposed-for-404-and-wellington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/grocery-store-marshalls-storage-facility-proposed-for-404-and-wellington\/","title":{"rendered":"Grocery store, Marshalls, storage facility proposed for 404 and Wellington"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mashalls, Homesense, and a new Farm Boy grocery store\ncould soon join a growing retail family at the southwest corner of Highway 404\nand Wellington Street East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Representatives for SmartCentres outlined their plans for\na retail expansion of their existing development on the north side of\nWellington Street at a Public Planning meeting last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If their plans come to fruition, the expansion will\ninclude new automotive dealerships as well as a four-storey indoor storage\nfacility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re proposing a mixed-use business park in a\ncampus-style format,\u201d said Nikolas Papapetrou of SmartCentres. \u201cThe initial\nphase of the project, which consists of Farm Boy, Marshalls, Homesense, two\nmotor vehicle sales establishments and the self-storage building would\nrepresent an initial investment in the community of almost $100 million over\nthe next two to three years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the presentation, however, Council expressed\nsome misgivings over the storage facility and automotive components of the\nplan, particularly what these proposals might mean for local jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the land in question has been earmarked for\nprestige office space which, in turn, was intended to attract high quality,\nwell-paying jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some Council members, retail and automotive didn\u2019t\nfit the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe idea was to set aside this very large piece of land\nso that we could bring good businesses to Aurora [and] we would be able to\nprovide jobs [so] residents of Aurora could enjoy working and work closer to\nhome,\u201d said Councillor Wendy Gaertner stating that, in her opinion, the\nproposal was contrary to the intent of the Official Plan. \u201c[The intent was for]\na business park and a prestige business park. To allow this is to dilute\neverything that we were trying to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is not what we\u2019re looking for here. We were never\nlooking for commercial and retail. We wanted this to be offices. We wanted to\ndraw business to Aurora. This is just so contrary that I am almost speechless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Michael Thompson also expressed concerns,\nnoting he questioned the numbers in the proposal as it relates to the number of\njobs per hectare this development will provide the community. He also noted\ndecisions made by previous Councils to reject grocery stores and auto\ndealerships for the subject lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStaff didn\u2019t support a grocery store back in 2012, but\nthat was then and this is now,\u201d he said, noting he was open to a dealership\nwith 60 \u2013 70 jobs. \u201cA lot of it had to do with it being a gateway into Aurora.\nWe wanted prestige and we were very concerned about transforming it into\nsomething else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor John Gallo also expressed some reservations,\nstating his initial feeling is the proposal doesn\u2019t fit the bill of what\nCouncil previously envisioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was also the case for Councillor Kim, but he said\nhis objection to the plan is primarily towards the proposed indoor storage\nfacility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can have a storage facility anywhere,\u201d said\nCouncillor Kim. \u201cPeople don\u2019t need a prestige location to store their products.\nThey can go to Industrial Parkway. They can go to any other part of Town where\nthere is an empty space \u2013 and there are some empty spaces. So, for me, I don\u2019t\nthink this is a wise use of space, valuable space, for storage because for\nstorage you just need space.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planners behind the storage facility, however, pitched\ntheir plan as one that fits into the \u201cnew normal\u201d coming out of COVID-19, a\nreality where working from home is a new normal and entrepreneurs will need\nspace to keep products and equipment outside the home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a huge discussion going on with business and\nretail space and the cost, and if any of you work for large companies, we have\nall been working from home and there is a huge impact right now because work is\ngetting done and it is cheaper for these businesses,\u201d said Councillor Sandra\nHumfryes. \u201cI think we need to be realistic that things are changing and there\nwill be a lot of people working from home in the future. The work is getting\ndone and businesses are going to save a ton of money. It is the reality of the\nfuture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Rachel Gilliland was of a similar view,\nadding: \u201cIt is interesting how that will develop the community. I think the way\nof the future is working from home [and] being innovative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the plans as presented don\u2019t entirely fit within\nthe Council of the day\u2019s vision for the land in the southwest quadrant of 404\nand Wellington, Town Planner David Waters said the area has evolved as a\ngateway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGiven how Wellington has evolved between 404 and Leslie, I think this is keeping within character of the planned function,\u201d said Mr. Waters. \u201cIt may not have been intended to be that way back in the day, but through approvals that have been issued by previous Councils, it has developed into a mixed-use corridor and, in my opinion, it fits nicely with what is there today and actually compliments it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mashalls, Homesense, and a new Farm Boy grocery store could soon join a growing retail family at the southwest corner of Highway 404 and Wellington Street East. Representatives for SmartCentres outlined their plans for a retail expansion of their existing development on the north side of Wellington Street at a Public Planning meeting last week. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Yj","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 17:52:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26803\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}