CORNWALL – The city’s downtown shopping mall will have a few holes to fill in the new year.
Luggage retailer Bentley and clothing store Garage are both winding down operations at Cornwall Square. The TD Canada Trust also plans to move in 2020.
In an email to Cornwall Newswatch, Bentley spokesman Ginette Harnois says the store will close by the first week of the new year. “It all depends how fast the liquidation happens. It should not exceed January 8 though.”
Four to six employees will be losing their jobs.
“It is our intention to offer available positions in Bentley stores to the employees where their location is closing,” Harnois wrote. “However, in some instances, it will be more challenging due to the location of the closing stores and the fact that their might not be another Bentley in the same geographical area.” The closest locations are Hawkesbury, Ottawa and Valleyfield, Que.
Harnois says there could be several reasons for the closure “however, the main one is the profitability of the location.”
Meantime, a notice outside Garage says the clothing store will close Dec. 27 and no refunds or exchanges will be processed after Dec. 24. An email to the company requesting comment was not returned.
Bank moving in branch consolidation
The TD Canada Trust branch in Cornwall Square will be moving sometime in the late fall of 2020.
“We will be opening a brand new branch at 31 Ninth St East in late fall 2020 as a new merged location, that will serve our customers from our Cornwall Square and Ninth & Sydney branches. Once we have determined the timing of the move, we will provide notice to each of our customers outlining details about the transition,” TD spokesman Carla Hindman told Cornwall Newswatch.
Hindman says because the timeline is so far away, no decisions have been made on staffing “but our approach will be to make every effort to transition our colleagues to the new location or elsewhere in the bank.”
She says the company continually reviews its real estate “assessing customer demand and the quality of our locations.”
Cornwall Square is staying
Mall management has indicated that the mall is not closing and it will be doing more redevelopment and improvements to the outside of the Water Street building.
Group Quint’s executive director told Seaway News that Rossy – a Montreal-based chain of variety stores in Quebec and Atlantic Canada – will be taking a huge space in the building.