City Centre mall aiming to be a part of James North revival
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The buzz on James Street North is spreading south to the Hamilton City Centre.
Next week the mall is unleashing bumblebees, balloons and businesses in its launch of the new Busy Bee Shoppers’ Village.
It’s part of an overall push to position itself as a key part of the James North renewal, with new community-oriented activities, a cleanup of its exterior, efforts to boost mall traffic and plug into the growing arts vibe.
Dawn Murphy, the event co-ordinator, said the shoppers’ village itself is a multipurpose event. It’s a chance for established arts and crafts businesses to try out the mall without the high price tag, she said, and it’ll bring new traffic into the mall. It also fits with the reshaping of the mall to be more of a community centre.
“Most people can’t afford to get into a mall, especially when they’re smaller,” she said. “These are high quality items that you can’t find anywhere else — handmade aprons, handmade candles, handmade jewellery.”
Several health, church and charitable organizations will also have trade booths set up in the central two floor areas of the city centre.
It’s a big step forward for the mall, which was purchased last summer for $25 million by a Barrie-based developer after a series of long-standing problems with vacant space, unpaid taxes, inability to land anchor tenants and retailer turnover.
Cadillac-Fairview built the centre in 1990 for $70 million.
At the time of the purchase, the developer — who wishes to remain anonymous — indicated to city staff he wanted to fill it with creative and high-tech businesses.
Murphy was hired recently to help spearhead efforts to build a community profile for mall and create some excitement.
So far, Murphy has accepted 25 registrants for the shoppers’ village — double what she expected.
The official launch is Friday, July 6, with other shoppers village events planned for July 20, Aug. 10, Aug. 24 and then every Friday and Saturday in September.
Ana Cacilhas, the general manager of the Hamilton City Centre, said it’s one way for the centre to differentiate itself from Jackson Square.
“I’ve seen an increase in traffic, there’s a trickle effect from James,” she said. “With the Lister Block finally renovated, it’s lifted this big, dark cloud off the street.”
On Tuesday Cacilhas is meeting with Supercrawl organizers to find out ways the City Centre tenants can couple mall events with street events.
“It’s a gorgeous mall and people don’t even know what’s in here,” she said.
Next week, the City Centre will unveil its new social media presence with Twitter and Facebook accounts and new images will go up in its ad boxes facing James Street North.
A new sign just went up on the spiffed-up pedestrian walkway over York Boulevard. There are also plans to give the James Street façade and awnings a bit of a facelift.
Cacilhas said a new health and fitness company, T-Zone, will officially open on July 9 and she’s in talks with several retailers and businesses about leasing some vacant space.
She expects to be able to make some announcements in a few months about new tenants.