38 - Sunday, Novem

MOTHER NATURE gave
Rick Amantea a_ typical
North Shore welcome. She
turned the lights off on
him.

Sy Surj Rattan
News Reporter

Having just moved here from
Toronto and only two days on the
job as the new director of Park
Royal Shopping Ceatre Ltd.,
Amantea must have given second
thoughts to accepting the job as a
vicious rain and wind storm,
packing gale-force winds, lashed
the North Shore and knocked out
all the power at Park Royal Iasi
weekend.

And it didn’t help matters much
that it was a Saturday, probably
the busiest day of the week for the
West Vancouver shopping centre.

“I had an interesting first cou-
ple of days with the power failures
we expcrienced so it (his introduc-
tion to the job) was a bit of bap-
tism by fire’? says Amantea.
‘*But the tenants were great. They
were very responsive to the situa-
tion, as was the staff here at the
shopping centre.’*

But the storm allowed the
Calgary-born shopping centze ex-
ecutive, who has been working in
the industry for the past 11 years,
to witness first-hand just how
close the Park Royal famity is.

“There was a strong sense of
family, which you typically don’t
see in regional shopping centres,"*
says Amantea. “Even with the
difficulties of a power failure you
could see how people were
prepared to rally. It was nice to
see.””

Amantea took over the job of
running Park Royal on Nov. 12,
Before the Larco group, the
owners of Park Royal, lured him
away from Toronto, Amantea
worked for the large Trilea cor-
poration, managing a number of
their major retail shopping centres
in B.C., Alberta, Ontario and
Quebec.

He had teen vice-president of
operations for 10 of the com-
pany’s shopping centres across

Park Royal director gets baptism by

rr NH ORLA RE

@ NAME: Rick Amantes

© AGE: 33

@ RESIDENCE: Park Royal
Towers; locking for s house on
the North Shore

@ BORN: Calgary
@ FAMILY: Wife,
children

@ EDUCATION: Mount
College, Calgary

Gail, two

Roysl

Canada.

So how does Park Royal com-
pare with some of the other major
shopping centres he has worked
with?

‘*Park Royal probably repre-
sents about the third largest one
I've been involved with, but I
think the potential to move the
shopping centre forward is by far
the greatest I have been involved
with,

‘it’s in a terrific market area.
West Vancouver is known across
the country as being a market
area that has some very good
disposable income and has a lot to
offer. So, from that standpoint,
it’s probably the best development
situation that I’ve ever been in-
volved with,”’ says Amantea.

Gne of the biggest tasks facing
Amantea in his new job is
spearheading Park Royal's $2 mil-

-Hon redevelopment plans, plans

which he says will move the shop-
ping centre into the 21st century.

“From an industry view, the
shopping centre is very much a
"70ish type of shopping centre,
and we now have to move
ourselves forward to get it to the
"90s and beyond. I'm going to
apply the knowledge and experi-
ence I have to the project.”

Park Royal first opened its
doors on Sept. 1, 1950. It was, at
that time, the first regional shopp-
ing mall of its kind in Canada,
and began as a small strip plaza
with parking for 750 automobiles;
it has since grown to include three
major department stores, 190
shops and parking for 5,000
automobiles.

British Pacific Properties Ltd.
sold Park Royal to Larco in 1990.

While he has only been on the

See Strong page 39

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NEWS photos Mie Wakefiold

RICK AMANTEA, director of Park Royal Shopping Centre Ltd., says the key to marketing @ suc-
cesstul shopping centre Is a combination of customer service and retail selection.

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