Honourary shovels turned honourary dirt Thursday to mark the start of construction of a massive shopping centre in Abbotsford.
Officials from the City of Abbotsford and developer Shape Properties broke the ground on a $170-million mall said to be the biggest retail development in B.C. in 30 years.
The 600,000-square-foot High Street centre, located at the Mount Lehman interchange, will be anchored by a Walmart supercentre and a London Drugs outlet.
While the retail side of the mall will be open-air, the complex will offer 1,900 covered parking stalls.
High Street is scheduled to open in the fourth of quarter of 2011.
"It's not your typical shopping centre where you have a big field of parking," said John Horton, president of Vancouver- based Shape Properties.
"It's structured parking below with a lifestyle centre on top. It's urban development - the suburbs."
High Street, which is 35-percent pre-leased, will have retail offerings in everything from food to fashion, athletics to financial services.
A movie theatre also will have a presence in the entertainment mix, Horton said. "It's meant to be something for everybody," said he said. "We think it will trade all of Abbotsford and all of the Fraser Valley.
Privately-owned Shape Properties, which began in 2005, has 10 projects and about 3.3 million square feet of assets.
-- Business Reporter
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