IGA expected to bring 100 new jobs to Grenville

This holiday season, Grenville residents will be receiving a Christmas gift that is expected to boost the economy and deliver about 100 new jobs to the population of 1,398 residents.

After two years of working out the minutiae of details involved in purchasing a large piece of property, the contracts have been signed and the ground has been broken on a new IGA grocery store. It is expected to open its doors to clients by next March, according to Sobeys communications co-coordinator Anne-Hélène Lavoie.

Eric McLellan of Interra Development is aiming for a hat trick, by successfully building and promoting the development of three IGA grocery stores - two of which are being built simultaneously.

"My partner was in his car one day when he stumbled upon Grenville," McLellan said. "He came back to me to broker the idea of developing some properties and from there we spent two years negotiating the sale of a piece of property and getting Sobeys to commit to the project."

The 205,000-square-foot property on Maple Street will feature a large grocery store, with a brick facing, in addition to providing rental space for two other commercial tenants. Interra Group will remain the owners of these properties, which will be leased to prominent retailers.

And, as contractors race to put up walls on the IGA in Grenville, another one is also currently under construction in Saint-Agathe.

McLellan, a Saint-Sauveur resident, started in development about 10 years ago when he brokered a deal with his friends and neighbours in the Molson Brewery Family to demolish the 85 acres of farmland they owned in downtown Saint-Sauveur. It was converted into a successful housing development that now includes a 200-unit retirement complex and 60 luxury single-family homes.

"Our original plan was to develop just a section of the farm, but the city told us we needed a bigger, longer-term plan," said McLellan. "We went from a small project to a big one almost immediately."

Recognizing the need to create a greater vision for the project, McLellan forged a relationship with the administrators at a neighbouring retirement complex and re-envisioned his development to be one that caters to senior living, as well as family units.

The Cap Molson project started in 2000 and within eight years it was completed.

In order to facilitate the development of roads, a piece of the Cap Molson project was sub-divided from the property and given to the city of Saint-Sauveur in exchange for zoning and some help with initial infrastructure. The gifted piece of land was turned into a park and skating rink that in turn increased the value of the Cap Molson properties.

In 2007, as the Cap Molson project was nearing completion, McLellan and his partners began to expand their search for a new project. Shifting from residential to commercial properties, the team at Interra began to research building a Subway restaurant in Morin Heights.

"I found the Morin Heights site with the intention of building a Subway restaurant. When the franchise pulled out they recommended I contact Sobeys," he said.

Later that same year McLellan broke ground on the Morin Heights IGA, which has since created more than 60 new jobs and which is currently undergoing an expansion to meet the increased demand.