Changes coming to some St. John's eyesores

Changes are coming to some of the abandoned, shellsleft behind whengrocerystoresclosed in St. John's.

• St. John's, old supermarkets and economic black holes

The emptybuildingat the corner of Newfoundland Drive and TorbayRoad is one of the locations that'sabout to get a new life.

It used to be a Dominion but now a differentgrocery chainis getting ready to move in.

The new occupantisn't ready to talk about its plans yet, but numerous sources have toldCBCNews that Colemans is preparingto open anew grocery store on the site.

There are also signs of renewalat the Churchill Square Building that housed a SaveEasygrocery store until 2012.
Ward 4Coun.Sheilagh O'Leary saysshe gets complaints about the closure constantly.

"Look, people are very dissatisfied with what's going on with this building space right now," she said.

But as long as thebuilding's owner pays property taxes, there is very little the city can do.O'Leary said the formerSaveEasybuilding recently passed a city inspection.

She alsopushedto have thebuilding cleaned up, and had somesuccess. O'Learysaid she convinced the company to postarchival photos of St. John's in the building's windows.

But O'Learysaid what local seniors, families and Memorial University students reallyneedis a clean, newgrocerystore.

"People are really missing having a food outlet in the area," said O'Leary

Loblaw Companies Limitedhas committed to an environmental assessment.O'Learysaidonce it'scompleted this fall, she'll be encouraging the companyto do more.

A third building that housed a grocery storenear Ropewalk Lane has alsobeen empty for years.It also used to a house a Dominion store.Now there are plans toconvert the space into a strip-mall that will house, among other businesses,a Dollarama.