Sackville’s Former Pizza Delight Is Back On The Market. What’s Keeping It There?
SACKVILLE – The home of the former Pizza Delight in Sackville is up for sale again after plans by a numbered company to open a business at the property fell through.
The commercial property at 24 Mallard Drive is listed for $655,000 by Platinum Atlantic Realty. It sits vacant on a prime perch that overlooks the Trans-Canada Highway near several fast food restaurants, Home Hardware, and Exit 504.
The building has changed hands three times since 2009. According to Information from Service New Brunswick’s Property Assessment Online tool, the building sold in April 2009 for $475,000. It later sold for $410,000, in September of 2017.
The property was then sold again on July 8, 2022 for $550,000.
According to an expired advertisement posted to the Canada Job Bank in August, a company called 734163 NB Inc. was looking to hire food-service staff to work at 24 Mallard Drive.
Information from the province’s Royal Gazette, which keeps track of business incorporations, shows that the company was incorporated in April 2022, and is registered as a Sackville-based company. New Brunswick’s Corporate Affairs Registry Database names the company’s sole director as Rashid Tufail, an accountant based in Mississauga, Ontario.
Huddle reached out to Tufail to ask about his plans to open a restaurant at 24 Mallard, but did not hear back. Grace Nelson, the Realtor with Platinum Atlantic Realty promoting the listing online, did not respond to a request for comment.
The kyboshed plans for 24 Mallard Drive may be related to Sackville’s zoning bylaw, which since 2001 has forbid the construction of new drive-thrus in the town’s highway commercial zone, where the former Pizza Delight is located.
If the previous owner of the highway-abutting property couldn’t get clearance to build a drive-thru, this would not be the first time a ban on new drive-thrus has stymied plans to bring new purpose to the 3,335-square-foot building — one that is easily spotted from the freeway, presumably making it a good location for a fast food joint.
According to local coverage from the New Wark Times, Pierre Barthe, the previous owner of the building, missed out on an opportunity to bring in a new tenant when a Dairy Queen franchisee walked away from a potential lease.
Sackville’s town council at the time refused to grant the franchisee an exception to a local bylaw against new drive-thrus in the town’s highway commercial zone.
The same bylaw amendment from 2001 was upheld by council in 2016, when councillors voted 5-2 against a request to amend it to allow the construction of a Robin’s Donuts with a drive-thru at the Ultramar gas station near Exit 506.
Huddle contacted town staff, who deferred questions to Plan360, the land planning arm of the Southeast Regional Service Commission.
We did not receive a response from Plan360 before our publication deadline.
Sam Macdonald is a Huddle reporter in Moncton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].