Dead Malls of Canada

[theshark]

Originally Posted by kirjtc2

They don't get any deader than this: Chaleur Centre, Bathurst, NB:

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_...4w2PNn_W_HEj66Pr7A&cbp=12,280.37,,0,1.18

Yes, it's still open.

It's all gone! Once Sitel closed and Rio Can realized that is needed so much work, they decided it would cost less to demolish the place than to renovate. It's now a big fenced field.

[Duke-Of-Waterloo]

Originally Posted by Cambridgite

I guess since we're broadening our definition of what constitutes a mall, I might as well through in a few little malls from Waterloo Region and Guelph.

A couple others you can add to the list Cambridgite:

Westmount Place in Waterloo

At one time, applied to be the next Regional Mall in Waterloo. This was when a 2-level Eaton's anchored the site in the 80s and 90s. Original anchors was a Sayvette discount department store, a small grocery store called Green Grocer and a pancake house restaurant. At one time had some pretty staple mall stores such as Timothy's coffee and Smith Books and a large and unique independent pharmacy (now a Pharmasave). A Michael's Arts and Crafts store was added in the mid 1990s to the rear end of the mall, taking out about 15 vacant and semi-vacant retailers and the small centre court. Unique due to the indoor-outdoor concept - the outdoor concept is still quite dominant. Clarica (now Sunlife) took over the Eaton's space a few years after the department store went bankrupt, and has since taken over the rest of the mall space. The outdoor portion underwent significant renovations a few years ago.

http://www.google.ca/maps?ie=UTF8&t=h&la....461544,-80.536931&spn=0,359.995864&z=18


Stanley Park Mall - Kitchener

Basic community based mall anchored by Zehrs and Zellers. Zehrs store underwent major renovations about 5 years ago, adding underground parking and a large expansion. Rest of mall full of independent businesses and other stores such as Reitmans and PharmaPlus. A new format LCBO was added as a pad tenant few years ago as well. Quite similar to Frederick Mall. Somehow it has kept pace quite well with the emergence of other dominant retail sites around the Region. I think the Zehrs expansion is what saved it from going under.

http://www.google.ca/maps?ie=UTF8&t=h&la....450251,-80.443933&spn=0,359.995864&z=18

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by Ramsayfarian

That better not be a crane shot.

I took the photo from the sidewalk on Oxford Street - there is a big drop down from the street to the parking lot as the mall is located in a valley.

I was in Frederick Mall in 2007. Coffee Time was the only tenant in the entire food court. It was quite retro in there - although the former Oakridge Mall in London was very retro when it closed in 2004. Oakridge Mall was enclosed circa 1972 with original anchors Woolco and Loblaws, and except for a refurbishment of the exterior in 1989, the inside remained very dated right to the end.

I do have some photos which I will eventually get around to posting.

[Ramsayfarian]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

I took the photo from the sidewalk on Oxford Street - there is a big drop down from the street to the parking lot as the mall is located in a valley.

I was in Frederick Mall in 2007. Coffee Time was the only tenant in the entire food court. It was quite retro in there - although the former Oakridge Mall in London was very retro when it closed in 2004. Oakridge Mall was enclosed circa 1972 with original anchors Woolco and Loblaws, and except for a refurbishment of the exterior in 1989, the inside remained very dated right to the end.

I do have some photos which I will eventually get around to posting.

My crane shot comment was a very obscure reference to SCTV. I tried to find the clip, but found this write up instead:

"The episode is built around Polynesiantown, an elaborate, albeit fairly loose two-part Chinatown parody featuring a famous crane shot that sent the show so over budget that the producers were chastised by NBC. SCTV later made repeated references to both the cost overruns involved in that glorious, glorious crane shot and the backlash from the network. Cause that's the kind of nerdy show SCTV was: the kind that goes to the mat over a single crane shot, then gets endless comic mileage out of it. To this day I cannot look at a really sweet crane shot (most recently the famous one in High Noon) and not think of John Candy's Johnny Larue, auteur, actor, sleazebag and crane-shot enthusiast."

I know return this thread to it's regularly scheduled topic.

Speaking of dead malls, is Boardwalk still a going concern in Edmonton?

[Tony]

Originally Posted by niwell

Honeydale mall in Etobicoke is certainly among the top contenders for dead malls in Canada. A relic from the 60s it was anchored by outlet retailers and later a Wal-Mart but now almost everything is closed. The only stores are a No-Frills supermarket, a flea-market which seems to primarily sell pirated DVDs and a dentists office. The interior retail space was completely vacant last time I was there.

http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/05/nothing_sweet_about_etobicokes_honeydale_mall/


From the street:

http://maps.google.ca/maps?client=firefo...437-kW9DYPH5FsImkg&cbp=12,156.44,,1,2.14


Most people blame the failure of the mall on the successful Cloverdale mall, which is basically across the street. While that certainly plays a part, the truth is actually a bit more interesting. Basically the property and nearby No Frills distribution centre share a common owner (not sure what company, but no doubt shrouded by numbered corporations) with intent to redevelop the site as residential. But, portions of this land are designated as "Employment Areas" which means no residential development. The way around this is to show that the land isn't viable for employment uses. Basically refusing to resign existing leases or new ones for anything better than a flea market is seen as a good way to do this. It's a classic trick for redeveloping industrial land in Toronto.

erh? Are you sure that's right? Honeydale has had redevelopment plans for a couple of years now. I believe it was already submitted to the City.

I don't think it's so much as a ploy to show the viability of the mall by not renewing leases. All that research would have been required as part of the original zoning amendment application in a market study which would not only look at current vacancy rates but also total amount of retail space in the study area.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

I took the photo from the sidewalk on Oxford Street - there is a big drop down from the street to the parking lot as the mall is located in a valley.

I was in Frederick Mall in 2007. Coffee Time was the only tenant in the entire food court. It was quite retro in there - although the former Oakridge Mall in London was very retro when it closed in 2004. Oakridge Mall was enclosed circa 1972 with original anchors Woolco and Loblaws, and except for a refurbishment of the exterior in 1989, the inside remained very dated right to the end.

I do have some photos which I will eventually get around to posting.

Looking forward to photos of the interior of one of London's shittiest malls (The London Mall)

Did you click on the link for the Honeydale mall (Etobicoke)? Wholly 🞵🞵🞵🞵, these photos are amazing in their depiction of utter patheticness in the form of a decayed mall!

Other dead/dying London Malls include:
-Oxbury Mall (Oxford/Highbury)
-Northland Mall
-Superstore Mall (Wellington South)
-Argyle Mall (🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵, 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵)

These malls should be dying, but amazingly, they aren't (yet):
-Sherwood Forest Mall
-Cherryhill village mall

These malls were on life support, but have undergone quintiple bypass surgury:
-The Galleria (downtown)
-Westmount Shopping Centre


Even Masonville is starting to look a bit shabby. Lots of closed shops. White Oaks is really ugly inside, but thriving for some bizarre reason.

[Winnipegger]

Well in my hometown of Altona, Manitoba, there is about 5000 people living there. Unfortunately, like 20 years ago they thought it would be a great idea to build a mall. Today, this mall houses a Grocery store, Fields (cheap necessities store), a local insurance agency, a small electronics store, and other small local amenities. Let me tell you it is one of the most depressing places to go into. It's poorly maintained, there are empty storefronts, and it wreaks of rural deadness.

Seriously, who builds a mall to serve a town of 5k (even less at the time it was built) and the surrounding population?

[niwell]

Originally Posted by Tony

erh? Are you sure that's right? Honeydale has had redevelopment plans for a couple of years now. I believe it was already submitted to the City.

I don't think it's so much as a ploy to show the viability of the mall by not renewing leases. All that research would have been required as part of the original zoning amendment application in a market study which would not only look at current vacancy rates but also total amount of retail space in the study area.

Yeah it's correct, or at least correct from the perspective of certain city divisions. The original proposal was refused outright IIRC and is more or less dead in the water right now. At this point property owners generally try and sit on things for as long as possible until someone relents and approves it. It's what happened in the Queen West triangle and is a fairly well documented phenomenon.

And "research" for zoning amendments is an interesting thing... in that it's very hard to quantify in any substantial way and you can modify things to show what you want seen. Look at the background information for any application, OMB hearing or secondary plan and you'll find that everything is very different. The entire reason the South of Eastern hearing was rejected was because of the failure of Smart Centres to perform adequate research on their end. Oh, and there's no real definition or set of guidelines for a "comprehensive municipal review", which is required to convert Employment Areas to non-employment uses.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Looking forward to photos of the interior of one of London's shittiest malls (The London Mall)

Did you click on the link for the Honeydale mall (Etobicoke)? Wholly 🞵🞵🞵🞵, these photos are amazing in their depiction of utter patheticness in the form of a decayed mall!

That is the worst mall I have ever seen.

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Other dead/dying London Malls include:
-Oxbury Mall (Oxford/Highbury)
-Northland Mall
-Superstore Mall (Wellington South)
-Argyle Mall (🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵, 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵)

These malls should be dying, but amazingly, they aren't (yet):
-Sherwood Forest Mall
-Cherryhill village mall

These malls were on life support, but have undergone quintiple bypass surgury:
-The Galleria (downtown)
-Westmount Shopping Centre


Even Masonville is starting to look a bit shabby. Lots of closed shops. White Oaks is really ugly inside, but thriving for some bizarre reason.

Cherryhill Village Mall is supported almost solely by the seniors living in the surrounding apartment buildings. To a lesser extent, the mall gets some traffic from Western students living in the area.

Likewise, Masonville seems to be supported to a large extent by Western students.

Is there even anything left in Superstore Mall? Last time I went in there was in 2005 (the one and only time I've ever been in there), and all I recall there being was a lottery ticket terminal.

[MolsonExport]

I went into the London Mall (London Ontario) last weekend, just to see how 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 it was since the closure of the Price Chopper. Saddest mall I have ever set foot in (I hope to check out the unbelieveably 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 surroundings of the Honeydale Mall in Etobicoke soon). Unbelieveably, there are still a few struggling tenants in the inner mall portion, even with one of the two major entrances barricaded on most days. These include (a) a greasy spoon catering to seniors on a fixed income and seeking a cheap lunch, (b) a store selling pakistani/indian saris, (c) loto booth, and (d) some import store selling bangladeshi wares. The remainder of the mall is empty (save for the great canadian chew-chew train). Wish I had my camera to record the crappiness.

[Dylan Leblanc]

Speaking of struggling malls, the former Eaton's Centre in downtown Victoria, now the Bay Centre, has finally after 20 years reached full capacity. For many years there was unleased space on the top floor of the mall, but it has now been converted to office and gym space and is occupied.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

I went into the London Mall (London Ontario) last weekend...

Hey, just to the east of that, on the other side of the McD's, is a good Persian place. They give you pita, some raw purple onion and parsley as an appetizer. The kebab plate is very tasty.

[MolsonExport]

^thanks for the tip. I've been curious about that place, but could not drum up enough enthusiasm to make a visit. I will do so in the near future, as I enjoy Persian food/culture.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Winnipegger

Well in my hometown of Altona, Manitoba, there is about 5000 people living there. Unfortunately, like 20 years ago they thought it would be a great idea to build a mall. Today, this mall houses a Grocery store, Fields (cheap necessities store), a local insurance agency, a small electronics store, and other small local amenities. Let me tell you it is one of the most depressing places to go into. It's poorly maintained, there are empty storefronts, and it wreaks of rural deadness.

Seriously, who builds a mall to serve a town of 5k (even less at the time it was built) and the surrounding population?

sounds like the mall on the outskirts of Port Alberni, BC. Somehow, when I go camping on Vancouver Island, I need to stop for some necessities (crappy Fields or some Dollar-Valu or Byway, or worse) at that mall, en route to Pacific Rim National Park. The deadness and tawdryness is overwhelming. I always feel a bit shellshocked after leaving a dead/dying mall. Really, it feels almost the same as leaving a funeral home (that is, for funeral of a relative of an acquaintance...). Death at an arms-length.

[SpongeG]

the whole town is like that though - its not much - they can't seem to get the town going as anything

[yaletown_fella]

aw man..RIP London Mall
Those pics are sad.

[SteelTown]

Hamilton's City Hall officially re-opened today after renovation started in 2007. City Hall was relocated to City Centre (former Eatons Centre). So City Centre will go from being completed filled to half empty.

Though the good news is that it'll be turned into a large new Creative Incubator Centre. City Centre is next to the emerging art district along James St North.

[SpongeG]

i wonder if any of these dead malls could house a target store? they are planning to open in canada in the next 2-5 years - which would be good candidates for a target? in the states target has helped revive some dying malls when say something like jc penny or macys moved out and they moved in...

[vid]

Originally Posted by toaster

A friend of mine who lives in Sudbury told me there is a TARGET opening in the Rainbow Centre. Would this be the first Target in Canada? Or is my friend getting mixed up? He sent me a picture with the sign and it looks legit.

Rainbow Centre is a strip mall in the Sudburian satellite town of Chelmsford. I doubt it is an actual Target, just a store with the same name.

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Hamilton's City Hall officially re-opened today after renovation started in 2007. City Hall was relocated to City Centre (former Eatons Centre). So City Centre will go from being completed filled to half empty.

You're lucky you found something to do with it. Ours has gone back to it's boring dead self now that renovations are over. The food court is half empty now, it was completely full during our City Hall renovations.

[Alexcaban]

Plaza Côte-des-Neiges - Montreal