West Royalty is a neighbourhood of the city of

Charlottetown Charlottetown is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County, Prince Edward Island, Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, Charlott ...

in central Queens County,

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island is an island Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. While it is the smallest province by land area and population, it is the most densely populated. The island has several nicknames: "Garden of the Gulf", ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

History

West Royalty was originally a farming community in the western part of Queens Royalty, from which it derives its name. It was officially designated a settlement in 1939 and it became a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in 1980. It was amalgamated into the City of Charlottetown on April 1, 1995. Presently a neighbourhood, West Royalty has a mix of housing, commercial and light industrial districts as well as the major retail district centred on the intersections of Route 1 and Route 2, as well as Route 2 and the perimeter highway.

Geography

West Royalty is located in the northwestern part of the city on the border of Spring Park,

Sherwood Sherwood may refer to: Places Australia *Sherwood, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane * Sherwood, South Australia, a locality *Shire of Sherwood, a former local government area of Queensland * Electoral district of Sherwood, an electoral district fr ...

and Winsloe (all neighbourhoods of Charlottetown). West Royalty's western boundary is defined by the North (Yorke) River which separates Charlottetown from the town of

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. Its northwestern boundary (and that of the city) is shared with the adjacent village of Miltonvale Park.

Suburban growth

During the 1960s, Route 1, the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...

, was constructed through the community which led to increased residential and commercial growth. The West Royalty Industrial Park (now West Royalty Business Park) was established by the provincial government in the 1970s as part of an economic development program and became a major employer. West Royalty has experienced the majority of residential growth in the greater Charlottetown area from the 1970s-1990s and includes several residential subdivisions: * Orchard Hill subdivision * Lewis Point Park subdivision * Beach Grove subdivision * Highland View subdivision * Gates subdivision * Bell Heights subdivision * Richmond Hill subdivision * Park West subdivision * Upton Park subdivision * Sandlewood Park subdivision During the 1970s, the Charlottetown Mall was established at the intersection of Route 1 and Route 2, making this area of West Royalty the province's primary retail centre. Further

big box store A big-box store, a hyperstore, a supercenter, a superstore, or a megastore is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The ...

development in the 1990s and 2000s initially spurred by the establishment of the province's first big box store (a

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supermarket) in the vicinity of the mall has seen stores such as

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Best Buy Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was r ...

, and

Walmart Canada Walmart Canada is a Canadian retail corporation, discount retailer and the Canadian subsidiary of the U.S.-based multinational retail conglomerate Walmart. Headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario and Edmonton, Alberta, it was founded on March 17, ...

locate in the area. The construction of the Charlottetown Perimeter Highway in the early 2000s north of the mall location has seen a new big box retail development called the Royalty Power Centre.

References

{{PEI Former community municipalities in Prince Edward Island Neighbourhoods in Charlottetown