The Royal City Centre retail mystery is solved.
Mayor Wayne Wright told a crowd of about 45 at his state-of-the-city address that Wal-Mart is the new anchor tenant at the Royal City Centre.
The Record reported last month that a local resident named Greg Daily received an email survey from Air Miles asking him if he will shop at an "urban" Wal-Mart at Royal City Centre.
In November, the Globe and Mail news-paper wrote a story about Wal-Mart's move toward "smaller stores tailored to urban cores."
The story states the company was on a building frenzy, but many of the stores were "smaller than the prototype box with more design and content tailored to the characteristics of the communities they are joining."
At the time, Monika Hildebrand, vice-president of the Western Canada corporate office of the company that owns Royal City Centre, Strathallen Capital Corp., was surprised to hear about the Air Miles survey. Hildebrand could not be reached for comment, and Royal City Centre staff would not confirm or deny the new tenant. Wright also could not be reached for comment.
