YARMOUTH - The Yarmouth Canadian Tire store will be expanding from 50,000 (34,000 retail space) to 87,046 square feet.
A development agreement with the company was approved by town council on Jan. 10.
Council members were pleased to give the project the go ahead.
“That’s going to be quite an addition to our community,” said deputy mayor Phil Mooney during the short discussion that followed.
“I’ve already got that much space with their stuff in my basement,” said councillor Cliff Hood to laughter.
Mayor Pam Mood says they are thrilled with the announcement.
“This expansion reflects the strength of consumer and business confidence in the town and region and the work done to bring us here.”
Plans call for a year-round garden centre located at the front of the building. The project will be extensive, with three walls being moved. The business will continue to operate the store through the transition.
The final result will be a significantly larger retail footprint and a more modern shopping experience for customers, says Darcy DeSutter owner/dealer of the Yarmouth store.
He’s excited about the expansion.
“I think the community deserves an enhanced shopping experience and a larger footprint would be a positive step toward that,” he said.
Over the past five years the store has re-merchandised and re-aligned most of the retail section, giving greater liner representation and presence to those categories that resonate with customers while trying to maintain a strong customer service element, he added.
He believes there is a great opportunity in many inline categories to expand brick and mortar elements and become better equipped to operate in an online and home delivery world.
A timeline for the expansion has not been released but DeSutter expects there will be ongoing conversations with the company in coming weeks.
Background info on Canadian Tire
As of June 30, 2018, Canadian Tire operated 1,698 stores systemwide, including 501 Canadian Tire stores, 106 part stores and Professional Hockey League stores, 408 sports stores (173 franchised), 386 Mark's stores (32 franchised) and 297 Canadian Tire gas bars in 10 provinces and three territories in Canada.
