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Booming
commercial hub is the newest attribute for small-town Leamington.
Leamington is known as the "Tomato Capital of Canada" because of its
largest employer HJ Heinz Co. (about 800 employees) and its vast tomato
crop industry. The community has the largest greenhouse concentration in
North America, with more than 1,000 acres of indoor crops. In 1999, Essex
County went through a zoning makeover that saw Leamington amalgamate with
its surrounding township. With an increased population of more than 29,000
people and larger municipal boundaries, the southwestern Ontario town
began attracting larger commercial chains.
"Because
we're far enough from Windsor, we're acting almost like a regional
centre," says Leamington's economic development officer Anne Miskovsky.
"The big boxes have pretty much filled the Windsor market and they're
saying where's the next logical place to go? And that's Leamington."
Re/Max
Capitol president Jim Williams says these larger floor-plate retailers are
moving into smaller tertiary markets. "The other areas are saturated,"
says Williams. "So if they want to continue to grow their company and grow
sales and grow their bottom line for shareholders, they have to keep
building stores."
According
to numbers from economic development, in 2004 commercial building permits
in Leamington were worth $1.8 million. But that number grew in 2005 to
$6.1 million and again in 2006 to $6.7 million. Leamington's wave of
commercial retail has been centred on Rio Can's redevelopment of land on
Erie Street South. Miskovsky says the company's introduction of Wal-Mart
in 1999 was the stimulus that started it all. "Stores look at markets and
they look at what Wal-Mart bases their decision-making process on. I think
they figure if Wal-Mart knows they can make it, then it's a good market,"
she says.
Rio Can
has further developed its land with stores including Mark's Work Wearhouse,
Reitmans, Smart Set and Penningtons. Rio Can declined comment on its
presence in Leamington. Miskovsky says Canadian Tire has expanded three
times at the Erie Street South location, but the area is pretty much
saturated at this point. "And that's why we're seeing growth at other
commercial nodes of town. We're going to see more growth to the north of
town eventually," she says.
Some of
that growth has already started in the Erie Street North area. An Esso gas
station and Pennzoil oil-change facility have opened a joining
development, a Ramada Inn beside that and, across the street, an
Applebee's restaurant. Applebee's is the world's largest casual dining
concept with more than 1,900 restaurants worldwide. Typically, the
corporation, which is 73 per cent franchised, doesn't enter small markets
such as Leamington.
"They do
a lot of market research at Applebee's before they ever enter a market,"
says Tara Gillis, director of sales and marketing for Appleshore
Restaurants. Appleshore owns the Applebee's franchises in Leamington,
Windsor and London. "There's a growing population as well as a fairly
decent population already in the Leamington, Kingsville, Essex area. You
find that the people in those smaller towns all do kind of commute into
Leamington," she says.
In an
e-mail, Appleshore president Robert Troup Jr. says the Leamington
restaurant was a $2.4-million investment, including a $60,000 franchise
fee. In 2006, he says the location took in approximately $2 million in
sales. "Applebee's used Leamington as a test site," says Miskovsky. "It's
a smaller floor plate. It's designed specifically for smaller urban
centres. They're seeing how it goes and I think you're going to see them
popping up all over the place now because they're finding it quite
successful."
Re/Max's
Williams says these smaller floor-plate designs by chain corporations are
necessary for company growth. "They're saying there's a town we're not in
yet. Let's build a smaller model. These large companies are trying to
continue to add to the bottom line."
Gillis of
Applebee's says: "By our targeted forecast, is the (Leamington store)
successful? Absolutely. We're very happy with the way things are working
out. The community has embraced Applebee's and I think Applebee's has
embraced the community as well." The restaurant sits on 1.25 acres of land
owned by Troup and his three partners in Appleshore. "One acre to the far
north has been sold to Petro-Canada," says Troup. "The remaining land will
be a plaza with Applebee's as the anchor tenant." Other tenants are still
to be determined.
Leamington's west side has some development plans in the works as well.
Rona will locate a new 52,000-sq.-ft. store at Talbot Road and Fraser
Road. "We have a small store in (nearby) Ruthven and we did the best we
could with it. But it didn't fit with our image. The new store will be
bigger and hopefully better," says Rona's director of real estate, Roland
Tissot. Rona has more than 600 stores across Canada including Rona Cashway
stores in smaller markets.
"Whenever
the market can support the bigger store, we like to relocate in more
commercial areas rather than be located in an industrial area. With this
new store, we'll be able to serve the contractors much better and serve
all the other consumers also," says Tissot.
Miskovsky
says Leamington's residential areas are growing. According to municipal
documents using numbers from Statistics Canada and The Financial Post,
Leamington's population grew from 25,389 in 1996 to 29,673 in 2006, a
change of 16.87 per cent. Financial Post projections show the population
could further increase by 3.76 per cent to 30,789 in 2011. "Our population
base is balanced. We do have a fair number of retirees and people over 50,
but also a good number of young people," says Miskovsky. "People live and
work in Leamington and that makes a big difference for the commercial
chains. They know they have a captive audience here.
"Any new
(residential) development that's been built, the houses are filled. There
doesn't seem to be any indication that the housing market is saturated
yet," she says. While many commercial chains have made a home in
Leamington, Williams cautions that local household incomes may not be high
enough to attract bigger stores such as Costco.
"Your
income levels in a city like Leamington may be less than the average
income in a city like Windsor that's still full of autoworkers," says
Williams. "It stands to reason that a greenhouse worker and a Chrysler
worker don't earn the same level of wages." Miskovsky says: "There's a lot
of extremes in Leamington. There's a very wealthy section, and then,
because we have a large migrant and farm-base population, that skews it.
So in terms of buying power, I think it's pretty average to the rest of
the province."
According
to Williams, Leamington's commercial growth is a function of the retail
industry. In order to continue, there must be job growth and residential
growth. "If there are jobs, then you're going to see homes and people
moving there, then you'll see retail growth," he says. "But retail isn't
going to grow without that, unless there's a void there."
Miskovsky
says: "Since '99, retail has been a big job creator. It's great for people
looking for second incomes or that want to work part-time, and for
students." |
