Skip to content

HP Mall facelift starts this summer

58278mapleridgeHaneysiteplan1c
Other renovations are planned for Haney Place Mall.

Maple Ridge council gave the green light to a major facelift to Haney Place Mall Tuesday, and it will cost more than $66,000.

Buying the two lots at Lougheed Highway and 226th Street cost $1.5 million alone, noted Chris Sherry of Narland Properties, which owns the mall. Those two lots will extend the mall’s parking lot to Lougheed Highway and provide space for a pedestrian-friendly plaza on the corner with bench seating, a flower bed and hedge planting.

Improving the exterior facade on the south side of the building and enhancing the parking lot will cost another $3 million, not to mention Thrifty Food’s own renovation plans as it readies the Haney Marketplace and Antique Mall, for its 2012 opening.

Thrifty’s portion to renovate the east end of the building has yet to be estimated, with design work still taking another six weeks.

At some point, the mall’s interior also will be renovated.

Council gave the OK for a permit for the renovations on Tuesday, with only Coun. Al Hogarth dissenting. He likes the reno plans for the mall, but says the east-west sidewalk planned for the north side of Selkirk Avenue should extend the entire length of the parking lot, up to Zellers, instead of only part of the distance, where it connects with another sidewalk that leads north to the mall’s entrance. With the downtown densifying and the seniors population increasing, he said more people will be walking.

“I would really just love to see a safe pathway on Selkirk. And that’s the only reason I voted against it,” Hogarth said.

Sherry, though, pointed out his company is building a new sidewalk from Lougheed to Selkirk and part way along the north side of Selkirk, in all about 240 metres.

“Keep in mind, this is a facade renovation.”

Extending the sidewalk across the entire distance of the parking lot would mean the loss of six parking stalls – and put the company in default of an agreement specifying a specific parking stall ratio to commercial space.

With municipal approval now granted, “Construction, I would hope, would start this summer,” Sherry said.

Haney Marketplace, which sells used and antique goods, says it has no plans for relocation.

 

For the record

Renovations to Haney Place Mall will cost more than then $66,000 stated in The News (Haney Place Mall presents new plans) on May 6. That amount was only the value of the landscaping improvements.