Two weeks after fire destroyed the Dollarama store in Waterloo’s Parkdale Plaza and damaged other businesses, operations at the plaza remain more about cleanup than commerce.
The Beer Store was the first business to reopen at the corner of Albert Street and Bearinger Road, by way of a temporary trailer.
Shoppers Drug Mart will soon open a trailer of its own.
For other businesses, the wait will be much longer.
A Winmar crew is looking after restoration work at three of the plaza’s tenants.
The one furthest from the fire and least impacted by it, a Pizza Pizza restaurant, could be serving customers by next week.
“There was a bit of smoke damage, but it wasn’t too bad,” said Winmar project manager Dave Douwes.
Douwes estimates that the K.W. Asian Food grocery store likely won’t be able to reopen for three months, with the owners of the IDarts pool hall facing an even longer wait.
“They’re probably looking at a minimum of six months before they’re back together and functional,” he said.
The wait won’t be that long at the Homestyle Diner, but the ongoing uncertainty has led owners Denise Price and Craig Yantz to lay off their 17 employees.
“They were very supportive,” Yantz said Friday.
“Everyone’s eager to get back to work.”
The restaurant owners say they’ve been doing what they can to ready their diner for reopening, but won’t be able to do much more until gas services is restored, allowing them to use hot water.
A Union Gas spokesperson said that the company expects gas to start running to the entire plaza by late next week.
That’s also the earliest demolition work would likely begin at the Dollarama.
A 14-year-old boy charged with arson endangering human life in connection with the Sept. 11 fire remains in custody.
His next court appearance is scheduled for Monday.
