Rona store in Bayers Lake donated by developers for Syrian refugee efforts

A pair of Halifax developers isdonating a large retail space to the Nova Scotia government to help settleSyrian refugees coming to the province.

George Armoyan of Armco Capital and Joe Ramia of Rank Inc. say the province can usea vacant Rona building in the Bayers Lake Business Park.

"We have opened up the building so it can be used as a drop-off centrefor the next few months so people can dropoff items that might be needed by these refugees,"said Armoyan.

The building at 350 Horseshoe Lake Dr. will start taking donationsat 11 a.m. on Saturday. The centre will be run by a combination of volunteers and government workers.

Here's a 360-degreelookaround the new drop-off centre.

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Armoyan said theprovincial government had been looking for a sizeablespace and the Rona store with more than 100,000 square feetcan offera huge storage area.

Both developers are immigrants themselves.Ramia moved to Canada from Lebanon and Armoyan moved from Syria when he was a 14-year-old boy.

"My parents wanted to find us a better place to live and that's why they chose, back in the 1970s, to move us to Canada," said Armoyan. "It is very sad to see what has happened in Syria."