The Yukon Centre Mall has been purchased by Northern Vision Development, company president Piers McDonald confirmed Tuesday.

Records at the territorial land titles office show the value of the strip mall property at the time the deal closed last week was $6.4 million.

'In order to balance out our business holdings, we thought it was a good acquisition,' McDonald said in an interview.

He noted the company is currently developing 47 Marwell industrial lots, along with the Spook Creek Station across Quartz Road from the Wal-Mart store. And it still has its waterfront condo development behind Boston Pizza on the books.

The company, he said, was interested in adding another revenue-generating property to its portfolio.

When Northern Vision bought the Gold Rush Inn last summer, the recorded value at the land titles office was $5.23 million.

A key feature of the Yukon Centre Mall is its proximity to the northern end of the downtown waterfront that is surely to be a magnet for residential and commercial development in coming years, McDonald acknowledged.

'It's going to be the site of a lot of new investment capital, and the mall across the street is well-located.'

He said another bonus is its location directly across Second Avenue from the Easyhome shop and Dominos Pizza, two other properties owned by Northern Vision.

There are no plans for any major changes to the Yukon Centre, which includes the Super Valu building, other than some capital maintenance work that was already scheduled, he said.

The Yukon Liquor Corp., for instance, recently announced major renovations to the liquor store at the Yukon Centre.

The strip mall was built in 1990 at the site of a former White Pass and Yukon Route warehouse that served briefly in the late 1980s as a theatre for local performers.

Mark's Work Wearhouse is moving to the Chilkoot Centre. McDonald said discussions are underway with a couple of parties to fill the vacated premises at the Yukon Centre.

The mall was formerly owned by Rick Peterson of West Can Development Corp., an Alberta-based company.