For the first time in many years, Greater Sudbury’s Rainbow Centre is dressed for success.
The former City Centre has come to represent the city’s good times and bad. The keystone in the city’s urban renewal in the 1970s, the mall underwent expansion in the late 1980s, and then retail moved to the suburbs.
Only a few years ago, the mall had no anchor department store or grocery store. The movie theatre closed, and much of the retail space was empty.
People who stopped shopping downtown after Canadian Tire moved out and Eaton’s closed will be surprised to see how the Vista Management has revived the property on the city’s gateway corner of Notre Dame Ave. and Elm St.
The complex now consists of more than 500,000 square feet of retail space, most of which is rented.
There is now a grocery store, a pharmacy, numerous fashion stores, a multiplex movie theatre, fitness centre, and Hart department store.
The food court area is being moved to the centre’s first floor, and an entertainment complex with amusement rides, redemption games and other activities is planned.
The Rainbow Centre is also home to TeleTech, the north’s largest call centre, and recently Hatch Engineering opened a huge new office.
The six-floor tower, and office levels of the mall have been upgraded and tastefully decorated. The mall exterior has a bright, modern look.
The Radisson Hotel and Conference Centre has also been renovated. This year, it hosted many prestigious events, including the Community Builders’ Awards dinner and the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce business awards event.
Like the Rainbow Centre, Greater Sudbury has reinvented itself and transformed itself from an ugly duckling into a whistling swan.
Greater Sudbury has become an axis for retail, health and education in northeastern Ontario.
Times are good, the best since the mining industry cut thousands of jobs in the 1980s, and the New York Times reported: Canadian mining town hits bottom (Aug 14, 1982).
Doug Nadorozny, general manager of growth and development for the City of Greater Sudbury, says 2006 was a good year and he is optimistic about 2007.
When nickel prices are good, so is the economy.
“We are still a community inspired by nickel,” says Nadorozny. “People check to see smoke coming out of the smokestack every morning or if they are really sophisticated, they check the stock prices in the newspaper.”
Nickel prices are at historical highs, but Nadorozny says the community and business leaders are not taking anything for granted.
“Normally we start worrying about the long term when nickel (prices) start dropping. There is a lot of energy and effort in not getting caught up in success we are having, and concentrating on the long term. These good times have resulted in a different approach on research, major infrastructure through the Centre of Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) and at the university and colleges.
The province contributed $10 million, and CVRD Inco and Xstrata have donated $5 million each to CEMI.
“A lot of people are looking for opportunities to take this boom time and leverage it into some long, long term stuff. That has impact beyond our community...playing a significant role in the mining industry in Canada and the world,” said Nadorozny.
Local mining service and supply companies are also experiencing good times. They are doing well not just in the Sudbury market, but many have customers around the world.
The sector is doing so well, some people are worried about how to attract and retain skilled employees.
On the list of 2006 successes is the announcement the ClientLogic customer connect centre will open at Southridge Mall. Some 200 people will be hired initially and the workforce is expected to grow to 400.
ClientLogic will provide customer support for Rogers Communications cell phone customers.
Nadorozny says employers such as ClientLogic are attracted to Sudbury because the post-secondary sector is producing an educated workforce.
The tourism sector did well in 2006 because of years of work and planning, and some bad luck on the part of other tourist destinations.
“Our tourism industry is doing better than the provincial average because of border issues, SARS, the high Canadian dollar. Yet Sudbury has grown because people who don’t want to drive to the States, still take holidays,” Nadorozny says.
Sudbury has become an attractive destination offering clean lakes and natural beauty in addition to unique attractions such as Science North and Dynamic Earth.
Local hotels are seeing excellent occupancy rates, and many have renovated over the past years showing they are confident in the future, Nadorozny says.
Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott is set to open in New Sudbury and other major chains are interested in locating in the city.
There is major retail development in the last few years in New Sudbury and Nadorozny expects to see new development in the South End.
Retail per capita spending is “off the map” for Greater Sudbury which indicates that people from other communities in northeastern Ontario come to the city to shop.
“The (retail) market performs like there is a much bigger population.”
Nadorozny expects to see future commercial development along Long Lake Rd. between the Four Corners and Countryside Arena.
He also expects more development in the Valley because there is lots of vacant land and people can save money on housing living a few kilometres from the city’s core.
Another highlight for 2006 was the announcement that construction of the second phase of Sudbury Regional Hospital will start in the spring of 2007.
The completion of a one-site teaching hospital, in addition to the opening of the medical school in 2005, will help attract more doctors to the city, says Nadorozny.
And a healthy health sector also goes a long way to attracting new businesses and employees to the city.
Nadorozny is optimistic about Greater Sudbury’s future despite Ministry of Finance predictions which shows a population decline over the next 15 years.
He says the ministry chart was based the historic trends without taking education or economic factors into account that can arrest decline.
The population has actually grown over the past two years.
“We are holding our own,” he said.
Nadorozny says the city needs to attract more immigrants to the city because the national birth rate is low.
“We are going to grow....it doesn’t matter if we get a Ford plant here or with existing business here...but growth in Canada has always been done through immigration.”
In order to do to this, the city needs to attract immigrants to the city and make it attractive for them to come here, he says.
As well, the city is trying to keep young people at home, and this means providing them with big city amenities including things such as an arts and culture centre.
These are the challenges for the future and subjects for future year in the review stories.
