Yorkton is located along the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway #16 in east central Saskatchewan between Saskatoon and Winnipeg. It is 188 km northeast of Regina, 64 km west of the Manitoba border and 322 km southeast of Saskatoon. Other highways servicing the area include Highway #10 (between Yorkton and Regina) and Highway #9 from Hudson Bay to the US border. According to information provided by the City Economic Development Department, the current population is approximately 17,200 people with a trading area of 110,000+. This compares to a 1986 population estimated at 15,575 people. The population increase prior to 1986 was approximately 1% per annum since 1971. This indicates a very stable population base which is expected to continue. The economic base for the city continues to be agriculture. The area has good rolling arable land for the most part, ideal for mixed farming. In addition, the area is known for its production of pork, beef, chickens and turkeys, with most production coming from mixed farms. A few producers specialize and produce on a larger scale. There are two large abattoirs in Yorkton.

The large spike in vacancy in Yorkton would normally be of major concern, however, the significant increase in vacancy is attributable predominantly to the closure of the Bay store, which resulted in a single tenant vacancy of approx. 42,500 sq.ft. The remaining vacancy in the retail strip malls appears to be very stable and has declined in the west Broadway area and has increased slightly in the east Broadway area, with the overall vacancy in the strip category staying the same as in 2007.

The challenge for the owners of the Parkland Mall will be to find a new tenant or tenants for the former Bay space. In other cities, mall owners have been successful in finding new tenants to replace an anchor tenant that has vacated. However, this is expected to take between 12 and 24 months.

An emerging trend in Yorkton, like other small cities, that have a limited number of at-market, handicapped accessible, office buildings is that CRU space in strip malls that traditionally would be considered retail are being leased to office tenants.


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Economic Background | Retail & Commercial | Study Area & Inventory | Retail Mall Space
Rental Rates | Acknowledgements | Qualifications


3. Study Area & Inventory
The study area is the retail space contained either in strip malls or the enclosed mall in the city. The strip retail area is concentrated on or within one block of Broadway Street, which runs the entire length of the city in an east/west direction. This highway commercial strip was anchored on the west end by the West Broadway Mall site, the mall was demolished in 2001 and this is the site of the new casino complex that is now under construction with a proposed 74 room hotel. The east end of Broadway is anchored by the Parkland Mall, with the downtown core situated approximately halfway between these. Excluded from the survey were any free-standing buildings on pads and, in the strip category, strip retail developments, two units or under were also excluded from the survey. The total inventory in 2008 was 506,983 square feet.


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Economic Background | Retail & Commercial | Study Area & Inventory | Retail Mall Space
Rental Rates | Acknowledgements | Qualifications


4. Retail Mall Space Overview
The Yorkton market has a relatively small strip and enclosed mall component, with 506,983 sq.ft. As a result, the addition of any retail development, 10,000 square feet or over, can have an impact on the vacancy over the short term. Establishing absorption figures over a period of time is one of the objectives of the study and will come into play in the future as historical information is available. The information gathered and summarized on the following table is effective as of January 27, 2008.