There is room in the Rainbow Centre for the art gallery, library and convention centre, says the man co-ordinating the mall's efforts to attract non-retail tenants into the mall.
Robert Green, project co-ordinator with Vista Sudbury Hotel Inc., said in an interview that city staff came to them looking for proposals for just the art gallery and the library.
"That's what we were told all along,” Green said. “If they had come to us and said, we want to explore all of these possibilities, yes we could have done that ... The fact of the matter is, they never asked us that."
Malls in Canada and the U.S. are looking for alternatives to retail tenants, he said, as online competition takes a toll on the retail tenants malls traditionally have relied on, Green said.
“Everybody knows the retail environment all over North America is dying,” Green said. “On the retail side, the general strategy we have is to go more toward services.”
To fit the convention centre, Green said they would have to buy out the lease of an existing tenant to free up the 50,000 square feet or so it would require. While that process is obviously more complicated, the mall is more than willing to do it if the city asks.
"If they do that, absolutely. We'd be willing to work with them.”
City council will review a report at its meeting Jan. 9 that recommends the Sudbury Arena site on Elgin become home to the three projects. Green said it seems to him there is a strong desire to construct a new building, rather than look at cheaper alternatives like Rainbow.
“It does appear we're fighting uphill against ... this desire to build something new," he said.
The report councillors will review Tuesday cites two examples where locating a library or art gallery didn't work out. In one case, St. John, the report says staff there say it appears they are on the low end of the priority list when it comes to maintenance, and that the library doesn't have the visible impact because it's in the mall.
In another case, in New Brunswick, the report says the government has decided to leave the mall and build a new standalone building.
Green said it's tough to know what the issues are in those communities, but said there are plenty of examples where malls have become successful hosts, such as London and Kingston. And malls across the continent are working hard to attract institutional tenants as the traditional retail market shrivels up.
"It's a very common procedure and it's primarily positive," he said.
As far as having a visual presence, Green said the mall's vision is to have new external facades that broadcast the fact the library and art gallery are there. He argues it would provide far more visibility that a new building on Elgin Street.
“It's sort of sequestered just on Elgin Street and it doesn't have the sort of integration that this property has with the community," he said. "For us, that is going to be our main face — the library and the art gallery.
"We do have the potential to have a highly visible, iconic presence for the downtown with these projects that will clearly identify the building. And ... our interest is to fill up the rest of the property with non-retail — still with some retail, but that is no longer our main focus of what the property was 30 years ago."
He also disputes an aspect of the staff report that says in the long-term, constructing a new building would be cheaper.
"That's unfathomable to us," Green said. "They're presenting the facts with wrong numbers. What we've asked is that we'd like to see how they came up with this calculation. What we're asking them, effectively, is to show us your math."
No matter what councillors decide Tuesday, Green said the mall is interested in working with the city to bring whatever projects are possible into the mall.
"We respect what they are going to do, regardless," he said. "Either now or in the future, for whatever projects, we want to work with them."
