KAWARTHA LAKES-Representatives from the City of Kawartha Lakes along with Mason Homes and Craft Development Corporation were on hand today to announce a partnership that will bring a large, retail anchor tenant to Lindsay.
There’s been speculation that Walmart is the “anchor tenant” that is going in at Highway 35 and Colborne Street, but no one would confirm that today.”At this particular time, we are not in a position yet to divulge that information but we are aggressively working with a large format tenant.” said Carmine Nigro, Craft Development Group.
Craft Development Group has worked with Loblaws, Shoppers Drug Mart and Walmart in the past. The retail space will be approximately 100,000 square feet and is projected to cost 150-200 million dollars and another 35 to 40 million in infrastructure upgrades.
Craft and Mason Homes are jointly working on finalizing a detailed commercial site plan that is designed to fit within the broader community. Earthworks is anticipated to start this summer on the entire residential and commercial site, with the construction of the commercial lands and buildings to follow in 2018.
The city says the estimated timeline until retailers open their doors is 2 years.
Once completed, the entire development is anticipated to employ 350 to 450 full and part-time employees and countless other trades. Mayor Andy Letham says this is a big deal for the community. “It means a lot to the community, we’ve invested as a city in the infrastructure over here the last few years and it’s been a long time coming.”
Ashley Mason, Vice President, Mason Homes noted, “We are excited to be finalizing our site plan with Kawartha Lakes and we appreciate the tremendous coordinated effort from all parties involved.”
Mason told Kawartha 411 her company has been working on this project for 13 years. “We are actively engaged in doing the detailed design work and will be submitting that to the city in due course.”
Mayor Letham says this development is only the beginning of a boom coming to the City of Kawartha Lakes. “I think this is just the start of what’s going to happen in the City of Kawartha Lakes. We had this one to get going and start the ball rolling and I think once it goes you are going to see a lot more development right across the entire city. Mayor Letham told Kawartha 411. “We are on the cusp of something pretty special.”
