Image: Mike Vanden Bosch / PML / The Cottonwood Centre mall is pictured. Teresa Laynes, a leasing manager with Cottonwood Centre, confirmed in an email on Monday, January 23 that the food court will be removed. Construction on a new B.C. Liquor store where the food court is located will begin sometime in summer or fall 2023.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Cottonwood Centre Mall

Cottonwood Centre mall confirms food court will be permanently removed

Jan 25, 2023 | 2:10 AM

CHILLIWACK — On any given weekday morning, the food court at the Cottonwood Centre mall is a popular venue for seniors talking over coffee, as two nearby TV monitors feature headlines from the CBC.

When it was still in business, the now-shuttered Cinnamon City eatery inside the food court would often entice a line of customers at 10 a.m. for their classic chicken noodle soup or cream of potato and bacon soup.

Later in the morning, blue-collar workers labouring on the new Canadian Tire could often be seen grabbing lunch and sitting in the food court near Dollarama before heading back to the job.

But the days of seniors gathering with friends over coffee, or locals grabbing a burger from A&W in the Cottonwood Centre food court, appear to be numbered.

The Cottonwood Centre mall confirmed in an email Monday (Jan. 23) that the food court there will be removed at some point in 2023 to make way for a forthcoming liquor store.

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“We can confirm the food court is being removed and a B.C. Liquor Store will be opening in the area the food court currently occupies,” said Teresa Laynes, marketing and specialty leasing manager for Cottonwood Centre. “The start of renovations has yet to be determined, but we anticipate the project commencing sometime during summer/fall 2023.”

Chilliwack City Council approved the issuance of a development permit at its meeting on January 10 that would facilitate the construction of a new liquor store at the Cottonwood Centre mall.

As presented by staff, the proposed liquor store at 45585 Luckakuck Way features a modern design with a variety of aesthetically pleasing materials and a compatible colour scheme, complemented by architectural coordination with the overall design and scale of the building, and on-site parking, maneuvering aisles, a loading area, and a vehicle entrance that meets standards for two-way and singular directional flow around the shopping mall.

The proposal, as presented by city staff during the meeting on January 10, calls for a new liquor store and three commercial retail units, the removal of the existing food court area and a portion of Dollarama, and the creation of a new mall entrance with a separate entry for the proposed liquor store. There will be some exterior changes to the Cottonwood Centre parking lot, loading areas, garbage enclosure and compactor spaces.

Image: Mike Vanden Bosch / PML / Dollarama and a part of the food court at Cottonwood Centre are shown. Cottonwood Mall confirmed in an email this week that the food court will be permanently removed to make way for a B.C. Liquor store. Construction on the new liquor store is set for sometime in summer or fall 2023, according to leasing manager Teresa Laynes at Cottonwood.

While the food court will be removed, Laynes says patrons will still have up to 10 food and drink options at Cottonwood including Edo Japan, Quiznos, Quesada, Burger King, Church’s Chicken, Cora, Starbucks, Earls, Save-on-Foods cafe, and Fresh Slice.

“All [these businesses] have seating areas and are ready to welcome Cottonwood shoppers,” Laynes said.

At the same time, Laynes said Cottonwood does its best to bring popular retailers to the shopping mall. If they aren’t there, it’s usually beyond the mall’s control.

“We do our best to lease space to retailers and services that the public wants, but generally, if a popular retailer isn’t at Cottonwood, it’s likely for reasons beyond our control,” Laynes said. “They may not be in expansion, they may have a population threshold that we do not meet yet, or they may believe that this market is being served by a store in another market. Those decisions from retailers are based on their own business model, our population, the Chilliwack market, demographics, and buying habits. They are often not choices we make. We wish they were!”

Laynes said Chilliwack’s rapid population growth has positioned the city to benefit from a greater variety of retail offerings. Chilliwack now exceeds 100,000 people, which seems to be a minimum retail standard for certain clients.

“The great news is that we are starting to see Chilliwack shoppers staying local to shop,” Laynes said. “We have recently exceeded most retail population thresholds, and Chilliwack is one of the fastest-growing markets in B.C. All amazing indicators are that we should soon see even more retail investment in Chilliwack.”

Removing the food court may not have been the most popular decision, but Laynes said Cottonwood seeks to remain viable as shopping habits continue to change.

“The retail landscape has changed significantly for all large retail properties in Canada and the USA,” she said. “We all have to make changes to the way we do business. These large retail properties are not sustainable in being run as they were even five years ago. We are adapting so that we can continue to be an important part of Chilliwack, as we have for almost 40 years.”

Cottonwood Centre management said they could not comment further on its future business plans at this time.