Dieppe’s Champlain mall sold out of province

Nearly 800,000 square feet and 60 acres of New Brunswick’s landscape is now owned by a Montreal-based company.

As of October 31st, Westcliff Management LTD., a privately owned real estate development and management company, owns Dieppe’s Champlain Place Mall.

“I think they’re going to be the right people for the next life of the Champlain Mall, Champlain Place as they call it, and given that they’re out of Montreal, they really have a good understanding of our market culture that we have in our current market, so that’s good for our economy,” said Louis Godbout, the Executive Director for Expansion Dieppe.

Godbout says the previous owners, Cadillac Fairview who were based out of Toronto, are moving towards industrial and multi-residential investments post COVID-19.

In an email to CTV News Westcliff Vice-President and Head of Leasing, Nicolas D’aoust said they are committed to the long-term success of the mall.

“We will continue to elevate the shopping experience and make improvements to the merchandising mix, to meet and exceed our customers’ experience,” said D’aoust.

Westcliff would not disclose the sale value of the property.

“Westcliff aims to expand its presence across Canada. We will consider other opportunities in this market if they align our strategic goal,” he added.

Jim Cormier, the Atlantic Director for the Retail Council of Canada, says while he doesn’t represent malls, their members are cautiously optimistic about the new ownership.

“In the case of a Champlain Mall where there’s always going to be people that are there or at least hopefully there will always be people coming there, as long as they’re not rocking the boat too much, the new landlords, then it will be business as usual, so we’ll wait and see,” he said.

Cormier adds while it’s too early to see if the new owners will bring any major changes to Champlain Place, he says a lot of malls are trying to create more of a retail experience to pull customers back in.

“A lot of what’s old is new again where back 40 years ago you used to see sit down restaurants in malls and then they went away. Now they’re coming back. They want people it seems to come in and stay. Movie theatres in some cases are coming back into malls. They’re bringing comfier couches back into the walking areas,” he said.

Overall, Godbout says he feels good about the new ownership and is excited to see what comes in the future.

“All the stores are going to remain, of course, their leases, nothing is going to change with that and the good side of that is also the current team that CF Champlain has managing, they’re also all staying on board and what we’ve seen from Westcliff is when they do acquire these assets, they’ve been doing a very smooth transition,” he said.

Westcliff Management LTD. says they currently own and manage several offer shopping centres including Carrefour Angrignon, Promenades Gatineau, Galeries Chagnon and Charrefour du Nord in St-Jerome.

Overall, they own 23 commercial properties across Canada, now including Champlain Place in Dieppe.

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