Businesses at Westmount Shopping Centre have been served with notices of lease termination

Numerous businesses on the east side of Westmount Shopping Centre at 111 Avenue and Grote Road have been served notices of lease termination.

In early May, businesses in the southeast corner of the shopping center, from Entrance 1 near the Safeway grocery store to Smitty’s restaurant down the hallway, were notified to close all stores in the spaces on one side of the corridor.

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The quiet corner of the shopping district is set to get even quieter as their shops have to vacate by the end of this month. Some shopkeepers are disappointed but don’t question the legitimacy of the notices, they simply haven’t received an explanation as to why they were issued.

Now, on one side of the aisle, there are stores with two different signs. The lucky ones are advertising a relocation sale and the new location where potential customers can find them after the move. The unlucky ones only have a closing-down sale sign. Ace Liquor is one of the latter, and store manager Adam Zeliger and his coworkers found out about it over the phone last week.

“When the notice first came out, it did not reach the employees of this store,” he said, adding that the notice was directed to the owner of Ace Liquor Store.

Zeliger said he believes the former movie theater on the second floor is the reason for the closure, though other store owners have also pointed to that as a reason for the closure.

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The theater is perhaps one of the last remaining elements from the mall’s original premier status. WebsiteThe community of Westmount became part of Edmonton in 1904. In 1911 the Edmonton streetcar reached the community, which benefited from the economic growth prior to World War I.

What are your memories of Westmount Shopping Centre? Let us know in the comments!

Decades later, Westmount Shopping Centre (originally Westmount Shoppers Park) opened in 1955, which the community league says inspired other malls to spring up in the city, including West Edmonton Mall.

The theatre closed more than a decade ago when Halifax-based theatre company Empire Theatres closed its doors in February 2011. Since the Westmount theatre closed, its previous operator has also closed, with Empire selling most of its theatres across the country to Cineplex and Landmark.

Since then, the second-floor theater space has sat vacant, which has created some issues.

Zeliger said businesses reported several water leaks in the ceilings throughout the stores that are set to close.

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“This has been going on for years,” Zeliger said.

He pointed to dripping water along the entrance to the liquor store from the mall, dripping water in the back room and water leaking from a cooler.

As a result of the closure, Ace Liquor will close its Westmount store and lay off Zeliger and five of his coworkers.

“Everyone who works at this store has been laid off without cause, so we are covered by unemployment insurance, but that’s the only benefit we have,” Zeliger said.

The move was especially disappointing for Mr. Zeliger, who had worked for the company elsewhere for several years, sometimes at personal risk.

“I actually had a gun pointed at me once at about 1 a.m.,” he said of the time he was working at a West End store.

Zeliger said he is grateful for the people he worked with and looks forward to new opportunities.

First Capital Realty, the shopping center’s building management company, did not disclose the reason for the notice and had not responded to a request for comment at press time.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter/X: @ZacharyDelaney

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