A multi-million dollar revitalization is underway at Sarnia's Canadian Tire store.
Owner Daniel Leroux told Sarnia News Today that the city deserves to have a modernized facility.
(Sarnia Canadian Tire owner Daniel Leroux. March 28, 2022 Photo by Melanie Irwin.)
"We've basically decided to redo every single inch of the store with the new colours, adding new merchandise, new fixtures, new everything," said Leroux.
He said it's the first major renovation since Canadian Tire moved from the west side of Lambton Mall, into the space on the north-east corner that was vacated by Walmart in 2006.
"It's the first time since 2009 that something that size will be done with the store and it's going to bring us to basically what the stores look like now when they are built brand new."
The City of Sarnia issued an $875,000 building permit for part of the work last September, and construction started in February.
"There's going to be a dedicated online order room for customer pickup of online orders, as well as centralizing the customer pickup area to the front of the store," he said.
Leroux, who assumed ownership in August 2021, said they will also be including a Party City store within the site, with children's toys and games and an area offering baby gear nearby.
"Moving from Calgary (to Sarnia), Calgary was a step in my career. Prior to that I was in Saskatchewan and I've been in New Brunswick. Definitely now, Sarnia is where I want to be and the people in Sarnia deserve to have a state-of-the-art store."
Leroux said the first phase of construction is expected to be completed next week, then they'll focus on painting the exterior of the building, before working on cosmetic changes to the interior in August.
The store will remain open during the work. A grand reopening is being planned for November.