This 50 acre parcel was acquired by a very successful local developer of residential housing in 1958 as a possible future investment opportunity. Little did he realize the full potential of this site. The Sunrise Shopping Centre came to market in the late 90’s when it was apparent that big box retailing was in vogue and in demand. LINKS commenced its relationship with the owners in 1998 with the intent to build a solid tenant list with suitable anchor tenants.

By 2003, Canadian Tire had opened its doors and Home Depot and Wal-Mart were filling the other 2 key positions on site. Over 200,000 sf of additional CRU retail space was pre-leased in 2004 and by the spring of 2005, the centre officially opened to the public as the largest open centre in The Region Of Waterloo with 38 stores and over 500,000 sf of retail shopping area.