At a special pre-Christmas meeting of Elliot Lake City Council on Thursday night, councillors took steps to finalize the sale of city land to make way for construction of a new 15,000 square foot RONA store now being built on Highway 108 in Elliot Lake.
At the special meeting, the land sale was approved by council to Sonnenberg Holdings.
Council passed an enabling bylaw that allows for the transfer of the land needed for Sonnenberg to continue with the next stage of construction for the new store.
Early in the new year, it's expected all necessary legal documents to close the deal, will be executed.
At the special council meeting, Mayor Dan Marchisella said, "We are only too happy to facilitate the new development on Highway 108 that will create jobs and improve retail options in Elliot Lake. I thank Chad (Sonnenberg) for his investment and the pace of work."
In a news release, Elliot Lake CAO Daniel Gagnon said, "With the site cleared and concrete pad poured, Mr. Sonnenberg is planning to continue construction throughout the winter for a store opening planned in the late summer or early fall 2020."
Sonnenberg told Council, "I'd like to thank the city for working with us along the way and we look forward to a new and much improved store later in 2020."
The President of Sonnenberg Holdings said the new store will be three times the size of his existing retail outlet on Timber Road and will feature a more diverse product offering along with a larger selection.of goods.