Major Expansion of Hanmer Valley Shopping
Centre To Make Room For 30,000 Square Foot Hart Department Store Seen As A
Huge Boost To The Community of Valley East
Local residents will now have a mid-sized department
store which will provide a real alternative to shopping in the larger
retail centers being established in New Sudbury and along the Kingsway.
Many feel this could be the stimulus that Valley East has needed to
rekindle the tremendous spirit for which we were famous prior to
amalgamation. (See back for more)
EXPANSION OF MALL
The Hanmer Valley Shopping Centre will be expanding by
a total of 15,000 square feet directly out from the east wall.
Construction began on September 16. The outer shell of the building is
expected to be completed by the end of November, with interior work
beginning shortly thereafter. This will increase the size of the mall to
approximately 315,000 square feet of retail space.
HISTORY OF THE MALL
The Hanmer Valley Shopping Centre opened in November of
1963 and has undergone a number of expansions since then. The first was
done in 1975 while Mayor Ray Plourde was in office and the last one took
place in 1989. The mall is owned by Valentino & Violet (Val & Vi)
Mazzuca.
NEW DEPARTMENT STORE
The expansion is being done to accommodate a brand new
department store to the region, which will operate under the banner, HART.
HISTORY OF THE HART RETAIL ORGANIZATION
The first company store in the Hart chain was founded
in 1960 in the rural Quebec community of Rosemere, just north of Montreal.
By 1995, the chain consisted of 32 stores operating under the Hart, Geant
des Aubaines, and Bargain Giant banners mostly in rural Quebec and
Atlantic Canada. In 1994, the People’s Store chain, which had been a
market rival, declared bankruptcy, providing Hart with a perfect
opportunity to expand. In 1995, Michael Hart, the current President and
CEO, acquired 32 of the best People’s locations and thus doubled in size
to 64 stores in a two month period. This made the Hart/Geant des Aubaines/Bargain
Giant chain a major player in the Eastern Canada region with stores in
Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Labrador and Newfoundland.
THE STORE ITSELF
The Hart department stores range in size from 20,000 to
30,000 square feet and offer a truly impressive variety of fashion and
basic apparel lines for every family member and consumers in all age
brackets. National and exclusive brands are well represented in the
merchandise mix, all at remarkably low prices for the quality offered.
About 45 percent of the available floor space is devoted to a wide
selection of home furnishings, housewares, giftware, toys, bed & bath
and small furniture items. Family footwear is also well represented.
Throughout the product mix, value-oriented pricing along with a strong
promotional program, excellent customer service and strategic locations in
high-traffic malls serving smaller communities has assured remarkable
customer loyalty.
SERVING THE GRASSROOTS CONSUMER
The chain has been able to successfully focus on the
grass-roots consumer through over 40 years of experience in developing a
genuine feel for their lifestyle necessities. You will find that staff and
management are both committed to customer satisfaction. Once the store has
been established, it will employ about 25 full and part-time employees.
Shoppers will find "box store" selection and prices, but
"small store" service and attention. This is the alternative
that Hart Department Stores work hard to maintain and has been one of the
main reasons for its success.
2ND LOCATION IN ONTARIO
The Hart Store being established at the Hanmer Valley
Shopping Centre is the company’s 2nd store in Ontario. The
only other store is found in Kirkland Lake. Plans are in the works to open
up to another four sites in 2005 as Hart Stores quickly moves to establish
itself as a major player in this province. It is expected that a store
will be opened in Whitby close to the same time that we are opening in
Hanmer.
IDEAL LOCATION
The Hanmer Valley Shopping Centre was considered an
ideal location for a Hart Store. The store will serve an immediate
population base of almost 30,000 people, with upwards of 90,000 people
from the City of Greater Sudbury visiting this community at some point
during the year. The shopping centre is also very community focused, which
fits in well with the marketing strategy of Hart Stores.
COMPETITIVE PRICING
One of the most important factors in the mall ownership
being interested in bringing a Hart Store to the Hanmer Valley Shopping
Centre is that the store will occupy a space which is large enough to
provide a wide variety of merchandise to local residents. It is also a
corporate enterprise which now contains 66 different store locations. The
buying power of almost 2 million square feet of total selling space in the
chain will ensure that the selection and pricing that Hart Stores will be
able to provide will be of a level which will certainly benefit the
shoppers of Valley East and Capreol, as well as visitors to our community.
In fact, if you visit the web site at you will find
that the store has several very important policies with respect to
pricing. For example, Hart Stores guarantees in writing that their sales
prices will not be beaten, or they will match the price. Refunds will be
made without question for up to 15 days after purchase. Lay-a-ways can be
made with a minimal deposit and then you can purchase the produce later at
lower sales price levels. Hart even has what is called Club55, which means
that anyone over the age of 55 will receive 15% discount off all
merchandise in the store on the first Monday of every month.
KEEPING THE SPIRIT ALIVE
By bringing this mid-sized department store to the
Hanmer Valley Shopping Centre, we are demonstrating our confidence in the
community of Valley East by continuing to do our part to "Keep The
Spirit of 100 Years of History Alive".
We were extremely honoured when the four "pillars
of the community", Mayors John Robert, Howard Armstrong and Ray
Plourde, of Valley East, together with Frank Mazzuca, former Mayor of
Capreol and former Regional Chairman of the Region of Sudbury, agreed to
take part in our official ground-breaking celebration. Valley East owes a
lot to these great men for their hard work in creating one of the finest
places to live in all of Ontario. Valley East and Capreol offer a quality
of life that many can only dream of, and now with the addition of a Hart
Department Store to the 2nd largest indoor mall in all of
Sudbury, local residents indeed have it all.