New Elliot Lake mall scheduled for completion by end of 2013

After a fatal roof collapse shuttered their previous mall, the northern Ontario community of Elliot Lake is on track to receive a new shopping centre by the end of 2013.

City officials have selected a builder to develop and operate the new centre, which has tentatively been named “Pearson Plaza.”

McGowan & Associates plans to pay the city of Elliot Lake about $800,000 for the land.

The site, currently an expanse of dirt and construction equipment, will be levelled and converted into a one-level facility with a number of big-box stores. An existing Canadian Tire store will be incorporated into the plan.

A representative for ELNOS, the Elliot Lake and North Shore Corporation for Business Development, said they appreciated McGowan & Associates’ full commitment to the project.

“One of the things we liked about it is: He’s a developer who buys and continues to own. He doesn’t just develop a property and then sell it,” ELNOS General Manager William Elliott told CTV Northern Ontario.

Elliott, a volunteer firefighter who participated in rescue efforts during last June’s collapse, has been a key organizer in the effort to develop Elliot Lake’s retail sector.

“I think Elliot Lake has a history of surviving, of adapting, of moving forward and this is just another step,” he said in a Wednesday interview.

Two women died and several other people were injured when a rooftop parking garage crashed into Algo Centre Mall on June 23.

Relatives of the victims -- Doloris Perizzolo, 74, and Lucie Aylwin, 37 –are applying for standing at a public inquiry into the collapse, which is likely to commence in early 2013.

With a report from CTV Northern Ontario’s Ben Mercer