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The hole left in Saskatoon’s Midtown Plaza by the departure of Sears is set to be divided up and filled by the end of next year, according to the mall administration.

General manager Terry Napper said he expects the mall to be “100 per cent leased” again in 12 to 18 months.

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“We’ve got two senior leasing people working on Midtown … ” Napper said. “There’s a whole list of retailers that they are close to signing.”

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The mall was left with a large amount of unused retail space after Sears closed all of its Canadian locations — 130 of them across the country — in early January.

Sears occupied the second-largest retail space in the mall, second only to The Bay, and spanned multiple floors. Napper said the current plan is to divide that space among multiple retailers.

“We will break it up,” he said. “However, the plans… for (the former) Sears are not totally finalized. It’s like a moving puzzle.”

Midtown Plaza is undergoing some renovations to the parkade lobby area — a plan that was underway long before the retail giant closed its doors in Saskatoon.

Napper was positive about the new renovations, which are set to be finished on Friday — a clean and modern-looking “retail lobby” with additional escalators and an elevator leading to the main level of the mall. He said the update will help draw in new retailers who want to open flagship locations in the city.