Once the horses and cows have been returned to the barn and the Tilt-a-whirl dismantled on Aug. 24, the site that has been home for the Barrie Fair since 1949 will be cleared to make way for a massive retail development.

“We’re in for site-plan approval for a 400,000-square-foot retail development on the former Event Centre lands and hope to have (city) approval in May,” said Lawrence Zucker, Osmington Inc.’s vice-president of corporate development.

“We will start our servicing and construction in the fall, for an opening in the late summer of 2009.
To put the Osmington project into perspective, Park Place, on former Molson Park land, will contain 267,575 square feet of retail space plus another 835,000 square feet of non-retail space (offices, hotels, industrial). Georgian Mall contains 614,000 square feet of outlets. Costco is 129,000 square feet in size.

“What we’re creating is an open-air shopping centre with covered walkways, themed on the history of the site,” said Zucker. “It was a racetrack, fairgrounds and agricultural society home. You’ll see spires and split-rail fencing. We’re creating not just your typical big-box centre, but something much more intimate and of a higher-quality urban design.”

Osmington purchased the site from the Barrie Agricultural Society late last year, for “in excess of $20 million,” according to the Ag Society, which announced its new location just outside the city’s southwest limits, at the corner of the 10th Line and 20th Sideroad of Essa Township.

The Event Centre site also includes the Barrie Curling Club, which has a long-term lease; Osmington and the club had discussed moving the club up the hill on Fairview Road, but ultimately could not reach an agreement. The club will therefore stay and the company will build around it, said Zucker.

Sticky Fingers restaurant also has a lease, which Osmington will honour, he added; the rest of the tenants in that Essa Road plaza have vacated, or will be leaving.

The site set for redevelopment does not include a series of other Essa Road retail addresses, including a monument company, a burger restaurant and the commercial building on the corner of Anne Street.

Osmington’s plan is to orient the development on Essa Road, with a main entrance halfway up the site, which will also have a traffic signal. A second entrance will be created on Tiffin Street, near Highway 400.

The company also purchased an industrial parcel now accessed via Wood Street; it is not included in the site plan for Phase 1, said Zucker. Together, the sites total 63 acres, with extensive Highway 400 frontage.

“Wood Street is Phase 2, with another 100,000 to 150,000 (square feet) of retail, perhaps some office and a hotel,” he said.

“We’re very excited about the project. It’s where what we think is the most visible location still available (for development) in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond. We’ve had tremendous response from tenants who want to be there. We think it’ll be a great project.”