The $70-million renovation of Devonshire Mall is on track for a November completion.
General Manager Chris Savard says new retail spaces and food court are expected to be opened around July 1 while the balance of renovations should be finished by the end of the year.
Plans would see the new Chinese-Canadian buffet restaurant Mandarin open this summer as well.
"There's work being done literally in every square foot of the building — so, there'll be new floors, new ceilings, new entrance treatments, new canopies at every entrance; that's progressing nicely," says Savard.
The current Shoppers Drug Mart and food court at Devonshire are being relocated to portions of the former Target store in the mall.
Savard says while shoppers can see ongoing work throughout the mall, there's even more extensive construction going on behind tarps and barricades.
"There's a lot happening during the day in behind the hoarding wall into the Target space: new public washrooms, new storage facilities, new stores being built and obviously the brand new good court," says Savard. "A lot is going on behind the scenes as well."
He says the transformation at Devonshire shows the mall is still very healthy despite the departures of flagships like Sears and Target.
"Everybody talks about the demise of shopping centres and I think we're seeing the exact opposite," says Savard. "The place is full, traffic is up, sales are up and we've got an ownership group that's spending $70-million in a retrofit of the building. It's an exciting time to be at Devonshire for both our customers and our tenants."
Savard has called the construction the largest renovation at the mall in the last 20 years.
--With files from AM800's Rob Hindi