Dixie Outlet Mall, a south Mississauga landmark since 1956, is not slated for demolition, its new owner says.

“There is no status quo in retail. But there is great potential in Dixie Mall,” said Guy Charron, executive vice-president of operations at Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust that bought the mall.

“The mall will evolve. Our strong preference is to maintain the location as a retail location. This is not an acquisition for demolition. This is to maintain and to increase.”

In a massive deal finalized last fall, Cominar, one of the largest diversified real estate investment trusts in Canada and the largest commercial property owner and manager in Quebec, acquired Dixie Mall and 13 other shopping centres, office buildings and industrial properties from another Quebec real estate heavyweight, Ivanhoé Cambridge, for $1.24 billion.

The other acquisitions are in Quebec and Toronto.

Cominar now owns more than 560 office, retail, and industrial buildings, totalling 45.4 million square feet, including the 416,000-square-foot Dixie mall location on South Service Road.

Ward 1 Councillor Jim Tovey said he believes the City’s Official Plan, established to guide the city’s growth and development to the year 2031, allowed for further intensification on the site.

“It’s a viable mall and it seems to be very successful,” he said. “I would think any redevelopment would have to be mixed use and include a mall.”

Cominar will have to explore adding new tenants, Charron said, but the company has not approached any of the mall’s more than 100 tenants to indicate their leases won’t be renewed. The goal for the immediate future, he said, is to “maintain” the mall’s current set-up, although he added some leases are up for renewal this year and in 2016.

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This was welcome news to Maribel Magnaye, who manages Canadian bedding chain Quilts Etc. inside the mall.

“I heard they were going to make residential buildings, so, of course, when it (the mall) was sold, we were wondering what was going to happen to us,” she said. “We like the location. It’s fun, busy and we have really loyal and regular customers. We do well here.”

Sumaira Tariq, whose been managing Cosmetics ‘n More for Less at Dixie mall for the past decade, said she’s hopeful the new owners will devise a plan to create more people traffic.

“That is our main concern,” she said. “The people traffic has been going down year after year.”

The mall property is zoned for commercial and retail use. Any attempt to build residential properties on the site would have to go through a re-zoning process and public hearings, according to Lesley Pavan, director of development and design for the City’s Planning and Building department.

Opened in 1956, Dixie Outlet Mall was once known as Dixie Plaza until the late 1980s, when expansion and renovations transformed it into a mall.

Highly visible from the QEW, it’s home to more than 135 stores, including brand name outlet stores such as Sears, Puma, Levi’s and Laura. It’s perhaps best known for the Fantastic Flea Market, the oldest flea market in the GTA, located in the basement of the mall. It still operates on weekends.

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