Home to former Mills Brothers location in Halifax to be demolished

Iconic Halifax retail location remembered Halifax’s Mills Brothers department store is set to be demolished in the summer – eliciting varying opinions. CTV’s Bruce Frisko reports.

HALIFAX — An entire block of Spring Garden Road in Halifax will be demolished in summer, including what used to be Mills Brothers department store.

Steeped in retail history, the iconic shop's former location is today anchored by a mall known as Sophie's Place.

In it's glory days, which lasted generations, Mills Brothers was a destination department store in Atlantic Canada, famous for its window displays until closing in 2015. However, the entire block, including Duggars and a former Royal Bank location, will soon be torn down.

"We all sort of knew it was coming," says cosmetics retailer, Tim MacPhee. "But it's harder to hear when it does eventually happen."

And others agree.

"It's kind of sad," says retail employee, Terry Ann Brideau.

Entrepreneur, Mickey MacDonald, who bought the location, says, while Mills was considered a landmark – the reality was different.

"The Mills building wasn't anything that was really historical; it was just a bunch of old buildings that were all pieced together," says MacDonald. "They had that Tudor front on it – but that was the only thing that was really of any significant, I think."

The new project will feature apartments and street-level retail – a "pedestrian arcade," according to the developer, who promises a project as iconic as the one its predecessor.

"When this development is completed in a few years, Spring Garden and Queen will be the intersection in Atlantic Canada with the library," says real estate developer Danny Chedrawe.

Demolition on the block is scheduled to begin early summer, with the new development expected in 2023. While it's the end of an era – it could be the start of a new one.

"Already said to Mickey' save me a space,'" says MacPhee.