There’s a nervous energy in the air at Plaza Pointe-Claire.
After nearly two years on the market, merchants recently learned that the iconic strip mall may soon have new owners.
“We have come to a deal, or arrangement, with a group to buy Plaza Pointe-Claire,” said Dan Scheunert, whose father, Kurt Scheunert is the plaza’s co-owner.
The plaza has been a fixture of the community for decades.
Built in 1958, it’s primarily known for its mom and pop shops to generations of West Islanders.
When it was put on the market back in 2020, business owners were worried about who would buy it and what that would mean for them.
Now, the president of the plaza’s merchants association says those fears have become a reality.
“Whether or not we’re going to be redeveloped and left as a shopping mall, or redeveloped as mixed-use, which is a term that keeps coming up over and over again,” said Mike Smith, owner of Aspirateur Vacupro, a shop in the plaza.
The potential new owner is Montreal-based real estate developer, Sotramont.
The company is well known in the area for developing the Greenwich district, south of Hymus Boulevard.
The plaza, however, is zoned for commercial use, and falls under Pointe-Claire’s recently-adopted interim control by-law, which puts the brakes on development in certain sectors of Pointe-Claire while the city updates its urban plan.
And though the developer can apply for zoning changes, Pointe-Claire mayor Tim Thomas says he hopes they will take the decades worth of history here into consideration.
“I mean don’t keep it exactly as is, but don’t change it completely either,” said Thomas. “It has to relate to the citizens and the way they love it as well. It’s not just about building whatever you want.”
The merchants association says the developer has invited businesses to an information session held by the developer on July 6 to find out more about the tentative deal and what may be in store for the building.
Global News reached out to Sotramont but did not receive comment by press time.