Calgary mall investors attracted by unique store ownership business model
Posted Jun 23, 2016 2:25 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Investors spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy retail shop space in a new Asian-style mall north of Calgary say they aren’t worried about Alberta’s struggling economy and low oil prices.
Investors and dignitaries gathered today in a field near the main highway between Calgary and Edmonton to officially break ground for the $200-million New Horizon Mall expected to be completed by late 2017.
The project differs from other Alberta malls in that most of its more than 500 stores are being sold to individual investors who can then lease them to others or take over the space themselves.
About 90 per cent of the available space has been sold. Most malls in Canada are owned by property management companies that lease the space to retailers.
Twenty-seven-old hair stylist Eman Kherfan of Calgary says she is using savings and proceeds from a residential property investment to help buy a $370,000 unit near the entrance to the mall.
She says she hasn’t decided whether she’ll bring in a tenant or set up her own hair-styling shop.
