Former London big box store to become 'hub' for active families

Empty big box store to be hub for active families London’s southeast is about to get a multi-million dollar investment to help centralize services. CTV’s Sean Irvine on the Activity Plex.

A big box store, vacant since 2013, at Commissioners Road East and Highbury Avenue will soon have a unique use aimed at London kids and their families.

The Activity Plex is being billed as a one-stop shop for things parents often run their kids to, including piano lessons, gymnastics, tutoring and a coffee shop for the grown-ups.

“Think of it as those types of things that I did as a kid, maybe you did as a kid, that most people did. We are just giving them the best home possible,” Adam Jacobson of Activity Plex tells CTV News.

Jacobson says his group has purchased not only the big box store, but all the retail stores and restaurants in front of it, meaning the few business left have a new landlord.

Smita Agarwal says the plan offers existing retailers new hope.

The owner of the Mr. Sub franchise in the Summerside Shopping Centre says it’s been hard since the RONA, a Swiss Chalet and other businesses left the site.

She hopes the Activity Plex, slated to fully open in September 2020, will change things, “Something is happening. That is a good sign.”

Activity Plex already has an operation in Burlington, Ont., with another under construction down the highway in St. Catharines.

The business leases space to independent operators, and both of its first two facilities are already fully utilized.

The parent company is a real estate holding company.