The massive new addition to the Garibaldi Village Mall is sprouting up and out at a fierce pace along Highway 99, and its proponents are extolling the virtues that such a project will have on the community.
However downtown business owners remain downtrodden over the growth, which they say will work against the community centre's interests.
Construction on the 30,000-sq.-foot London Drugs is scheduled for completion on Oct. 13. When it is finished, it will comprise one part of the 80,000-sq.-foot Garibaldi Village Shopping Centre, a development by B.C. and Washington-based Wesbild Holdings Limited.
Tom Sroufe, Senior Vice-President with Wesbild, said the shopping centre has space for 11 retail outlets and additional second-floor offices. Aside from London Drugs and the B.C. Liquor Store, he was not permitted to name any of the other tenants that are scheduled to move in, some before and some after the Olympics.
However he dismissed the concern that more construction on the highway would hurt businesses in downtown Squamish.
"I don't think we're changing the retail climate," he said. "We're just too small for that."
But downtown Business Improvement Association (BIA) member Eric Armour said signs of downtown's detriment have already begun.
"To date three staple businesses have chosen to move to the Wesbild project," he said. "They include the Liquor store, Jeans Warehouse One, and Westland Insurance.
"Ultimately this boils down to a timing issue. Having storefronts move and change is a part of any healthy business climate, but three anchors with no locked-in replacements is to say the least a little disconcerting."
London Drugs representative Clint Mahlman pointed to the opening of the chain's Gibsons location as an example of how a new store can actually help local retailers.
Gibsons residents, like many in Squamish, were known to frequent the company's North Shore locations, he said. But that changed after the London Drugs opened.
"We saw more and more people not going to Vancouver and making their purchases," said Mahlman.
According to Mahlman, shoppers stayed close to home and those merchants who had worried about the extra competition found that it actually helped them.
However the argument doesn't hold as much water in Squamish, said Armour.
"The argument is that these centers trap local dollars but once they're trapped how do we get them into downtown?" he asked.
Nelson B.C., he said, is one example of a community that turned a Wal Mart into a downtown anchor after locating it in an industrial area on their waterfront, which redirects shoppers through the town's centre.
"I would like to know when the district (be they politicians, or staff) is going to find their backbone and start allocating some anchors down here," said Armour.
"The issue is timing. We are getting the densification, but it's not built yet. We are getting more tourists, but we don't have a strong tourism infrastructure yet."
Meanwhile, the new mall is on schedule with the London Drugs is set to open its doors in November.
Both Sroufe and Mahlman are excited about the green design elements of the new building. Mahlman said the store will feature a large number of skylights connected to a dimmable ballast system so that on sunny days it will need "much less power than a traditional store design."
It will also feature low-mercury content fluorescent lamps, low-water consumption fixtures, bio-based floor tiles and LED (light emitting diode) powered exterior signage, a first for London Drugs and a relatively new application of LED technology, according to Mahlman.
And taking into consideration Squamish's active residents, the store will feature showers for staff members. Internal hiring is now underway, with external postings likely to appear on London Drugs' website within the next month.
Mahlman said the store expects to employ about 90 to 100 people.
