Mills department store changing hands
Posted Oct 11, 2012 07:04:20 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Four local businesswomen are taking ownership of the iconic Halifax department store ‘Mills.’
Three of the new owners Lisa Gallivan, Candace Thomas and Deanne MacLeod are partners in the Halifax law firm Stewart McKelvey. The fourth, Katharine Perry, is a physiotherapist originally from Amherst.
Gallivan said in a press release that their “vision is to raise the bar for the shopping experience in Atlantic Canada” and make Mills’ a regional destination for high-quality brands offering “the most-amazing fashion-shopping experience this side of Toronto, Montreal and New York.”
Since 2007, Mills has been under the ownership of Mickey MacDonald who decided this summer he wanted to get out of women’s retail.
Of the new owners, MacDonald said in a news release “these ladies share a passion and talent for fashion that I don’t have, and they have the diverse business smarts and experience to pull it off.”
The change of ownership happens Oct.14.
MacDonald still owns Mills’ current Spring Garden Road location, so the department store will be moving to a new site.
The new owners will retain the store’s existing staff, but relocate to Spring Garden Place early in 2013, where the store will occupy the retail space left empty by Roots and Thornbloom.
Mills has been a Halifax retail destination since 1919, when it was founded by brothers Hugh and Willet Mills.
