Dead Malls of Canada

[davidivivid]

Originally Posted by miketoronto

Le Syndicat de Québec looks like one amazing building. Is that building still standing and in use as something now?

Wow it is just amazing how we have killed off so much of our cities, even here in Canada.
I guess St. Foy is just too popular for Quebec City residents.

Well fortunately, this part of town is becoming hip once again. It took about 30 years to achieve this makeover but nowadays, things seem to be moving in the right direction. The building you are refering to, the old Syndicat de Quebec, was renovated and expanded. You can see it in the center of the following picture. It now houses Quebec City's CGI offices, which employs about 1100 people with plans to hire 150 new employees this year. When CGI chose to be located in the St-Roch neighbourhood, it really created a positive reaction. Now, a lot of IT and video game companies are situated there, like Ubisoft, LG2, Beenox, Frima, Sarbakan, Taleo, CGI, etc etc etc. University campuses followed with the Visual Arts School of Laval University, Quebec's University of Public Administration, TELUQ HQ, Université du Québec HQ, the National Institute of Scientific Research, etc. There are now many new popular bars and restaurants. However, in order for this success to work in the long term, new residential units will have to be constructed in the area. Many projects are under consideration by the city but since this neighbourhood is very old, heritage issues understandably always arise.


http://www.quebecurbain.qc.ca/2008/05/19...ec-le-jardin-de-saint-roch-17-mars-2008/

[Marty_Mcfly]

The next time I'm home to visit my parents I'll take a few pictures of Marystown Mall. That place has an entire basement wing that's completely vacant. The only thing saving it from being nightmare fuel is the fact that it's at least well lit.

[southsider_1036]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

Before renovating to become an outdoor mall, Fredericton Mall was getting pretty sad. Now though it's fully occupied (just no indoor section any more, all entrances are to the outside).

Brookside Mall across the river has always seemed sad to me. Zellers and Sobeys anchor it and keep it alive, but the indoor section always seems to be mostly empty. Doesn't help that they traded retail space for call centre space through the years, which, IMO, breaks up the flow in the mall.

Was down in Moncton, to Highfield Square last Christmas, and next to the downtown malls in Kitchener, ON, it had to be the deadest mall I've ever seen (And the saddest Bay store I've ever seen).

It'll be interesting to see how Kings Place (back in Fredericton) does coming up. It was fully rented I think, but it has some slots opening up soon, and I'm not sure how reliable some of those slots will be moving forward. Then again, I'm rarely there during the workday, which is when it would get most of its business, and most of the places that are there have endured for years.

yes i remember fredericton mall being an indoor walk through mall. but since it changed into what they call a power centre they tore down the front part where stores use to be & made it into a parking lot & kepted back end & used it for stores u see today. i remember the entrance between zellers & staples the met use to stick out there then it transformed into a food court for awhile.then staples took over that space & food court was gone. then they transformed it into uptown centre & tore down the old staples that use to stick out almost to prospect st. staples moved down a bit from their old location before they tore down the old store. the open space became parking area for individual stores that are up there today.
brookside mall i thought when it opened was a poor location for a mall.i remember kmart opened up there & zellers.zellers was downtown on queen street next to an old met store that use to occupy across from CIBC bank.but when brookside opened up zellers closed the queen st. location & opened up over at brookside mall. but then dominion was also there but closed down & sobeys moved in. but when kmart left they tore kmart building down moved sobeys down there as sobeys builted a new store. i think rossys moved in the old sobeys area but now are gone.
i dont know whats in kings place since i dont go in there.but zellers over in brookside mall will be closing next january.the one up in uptown centre to my understanding will be turned into target.
highfield square is a dead mall.i was in there couple months ago & the bay looked drabby & dark. the rest of the mall was almost empty with few stores left in it.the old sobeys store behind has moved down by vaughn harvey blvd since they have a free standing store. but the bay was suppose to close in april but when i was down in may it was still there.but i did hear that the whole mall will be closing in the fall. think theyre talking about putting a new arena for the wildcats down on the mall site cause they want to build a new downtown arena and leave moncton coliseum.

[Taeolas]

When Fredericton Mall became the Uptown Centre, they tore down the old food court extension that Staples had taken over, but otherwise they didn't shrink it down much. IMO it worked out well; the flow along the front of that mall is a lot smoother now without that jut out. Other than tearing down the jut out, they just took out the inner corridor and let the stores extend back if they wanted. (Good Life extends behind a chunk of the store near Zellers). At the moment, it is a lively mall (if you can still call it that), fully occupied, with the Zellers to Target changeover on the horizon. Personally, I half hope that Target reorients the entrance to be towards Future Shop/Boston Pizza, so there will be more Front Parking.

For Brookside Mall, now that Zellers is closing, and with a new block of minimall opening up across the road, I can see it becoming "Brookside Centre" in the next year or two. Most of the slots are empty now (especially with Jayset moved to Smythe street), and of the ones that are left, many of them already have an outside entrance along the front. Convert Zellers and the rest of the inside space to callcenter space and they'll be set I guess. (But I'm going to miss being able to cut through the mall to reach the bus stop on the other side).

Kingsplace in downtown Freddy is doing well overall. It services the downtown workday crowd and seems to be doing quite well. A few empty slots, but it still feels like it has some life, even in evenings and on weekends. (A sluggish life at those times granted, but it does live).

In Moncton of course, Highfield has a date with the demolition ball in the next few months, hopefully to make room for the new arena complex there. So while it's sad (somewhat) NB is losing it's last Bay store, the replacements are looking way up for the city.

[Bluenote]

Originally Posted by armorand93

(1) -

(4) - LOL theres this mall in Winnipeg called court of st. james, its the DEFINITION OF DEAD!!! The only (successful) tenants are Sobeys (formerly the Courts IGA) and probably the bar at the other end of the complex. Otherwise, the Sals House (eatery) is empty as hell, Hallmark is empty, 50% of the building is pure dentist/doctor offices, Sangsters supplements store looks like nobody even visited it recently, and BOM (bank of montreal) left a long time ago. Also, the guy with no arms and no legs loitering around with his group kind of disturbed me...

Courts of St James is one of the OLDEST malls around, take that into account. As for it not having fancy outlets, it isn't tuned to this anymore. The mall is more office then retail, I know, we have one office in there that does very well. It is also extremly clean compared to a lot of other ones of that era. The Sals in there makes a lot of money to be honest. Not sure when you go there? It is also one of the malls that is very or was revolutionary for its time as having an underground parkade.

But for dead horse malls in Winnipeg, Garden City, Grant Park. These are actual MALLS. The down town malls are all fine dureing the day, it is in the evening they die off unlike Polo or St Vital center. KP is just hanging on by a thin string. But Portage Place does at least have a tad of a rebirth coming with the new tenants and new sports bars coming and I figure once they finish Center Point things will change even more. What it really needed though was the original design of having to Residential towers on either end, this way they would have traffic at night. Now this is still in talks so maybe it will happen, the foundations and or pads are there for 20 plus story structures...........

[MolsonExport]

I think we should also include "Dead powercentres" and/or decrepit strip malls in this thread. Let the shittiness flow.


any updates on the honeydale mall? still tops in my books for sheer depressing morgue-like atmosphere.

[O-tacular]

Here's a shitty stripmall off Maclead Trail in Calgary:



You can't see it in this picture but there's also a Brick furniture store and a Chapters on the other side of the parking lot.

[eemy]

It's certainly shitty by virtue of it being a strip mall; it definitely doesn't look dead though.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

It's certainly shitty by virtue of it being a strip mall; it definitely doesn't look dead though.

The Brick Plaza is only quiet by Macleod Trail standards. It never has any vacancies. The Brick store and Chapters are still big draws. The crappiest strip mall in Calgary is Canyon Meawows Shopping Center at Elbow and Anderson.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Doug

The Brick Plaza is only quiet by Macleod Trail standards. It never has any vacancies. The Brick store and Chapters are still big draws. The crappiest strip mall in Calgary is Canyon Meawows Shopping Center at Elbow and Anderson.

I think you might be right. But then again the area around there adjacent to Anderson and Elbow is pretty ghetto.

[Ramsayfarian]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

I think you might be right. But then again the area around there adjacent to Anderson and Elbow is pretty ghetto.

There's a stripmall in Dover than makes that one look like paradise.

http://goo.gl/maps/zff9

[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Here's a shitty stripmall off Maclead Trail in Calgary:



You can't see it in this picture but there's also a Brick furniture store and a Chapters on the other side of the parking lot.

I've ended up shopping there. That place ain't dead.

For comparison of dead, someone should post the Laurier Heights strip mall in Edmonton.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

I think you might be right. But then again the area around there adjacent to Anderson and Elbow is pretty ghetto.

Canyon Meadows is one of the more desirable areas in the city. The residential area immediately adjacent to the mall is all $500K+ housing. The duplexes kitty corner in Southwood are bad.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Doug

Canyon Meadows is one of the more desirable areas in the city. The residential area immediately adjacent to the mall is all $500K+ housing. The duplexes kitty corner in Southwood are bad.

There's also some terrible apartments directly south on the Canyon Ghettoes side. I know b/c my buddy lived in one.

[ArchiCAD]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Here's a shitty stripmall off Maclead Trail in Calgary:



You can't see it in this picture but there's also a Brick furniture store and a Chapters on the other side of the parking lot.

Is there a reason you posted this...?

[Windex]

I'd nominate the Burquitlam Plaza in Coquitlam. I've never seen more than maybe a tenth of the spaces taken up. Of course the parking lot is so huge compared to the number of stores, they could all be packed for all I know.

[Rusty van Reddick]

Originally Posted by ArchiCAD

Is there a reason you posted this...?

O-tac has this bizarre, sudden hate-on for Calgary.

The thread is on DEAD MALLS. Not "strip malls that are about as bad as the average strip malls in North America."

Canyon Getthoes? How sheltered are you?

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Rusty van Reddick

O-tac has this bizarre, sudden hate-on for Calgary.

The thread is on DEAD MALLS. Not "strip malls that are about as bad as the average strip malls in North America."

Canyon Getthoes? How sheltered are you?

Apparently neither of you read the post by Molson right before mine asking to post pics of stripmalls.

And no Rusty, I don't have a 'hate on' for my hometown. I simply enjoy a good laugh every now and then at its expense. No city is perfect (see the Ugly Canada thread where Montreal features prominently).

And the Canyon Ghettos remark was referring to the eastern strip of it abutting Anderson which extends accross the street into Southwood. The rest of the community is actually nice (beyond its depressing stripmall of course).

[memememe76]

Originally Posted by Windex

I'd nominate the Burquitlam Plaza in Coquitlam. I've never seen more than maybe a tenth of the spaces taken up. Of course the parking lot is so huge compared to the number of stores, they could all be packed for all I know.

But Fuji Sushi is one of the better sushi restaurants in the Lower Mainland.

[MolsonExport]

I recently visited White Oaks Mall (one of two such large regional malls remaining in the London area). Hitherto, the mall has been primarily a fashion centre (Bay, Gap, H&M, Tommy Hilfiger, etc., etc.). But now it seems to be showing early signs of struggle. This is what I noticed:

1) an almost 1:1 ratio of cellphone joints/kiosks to vacant storefronts. The greater number of vacancies, the greater number of cellphone joints. Christ, the White Oaks mall in London had at least a dozen places that sold only cellphones/packages, plus another dozen stores that sold cellphones in addition to other wares (e.g., "The Source").

2) profusion of places not normally associated with fashion malls: pedicure places, shiatsu massage parlours, dollar-stores, niche craft joints (the stamp store, porcelain collectables, hippy/hipster collectable crap, free-earth soaps and garbage), mortgage brokerages, etc.

3) they had a gaming place where people (all male, all appearing somewhat socially awkward) seemed to be gathered around a big table playing dungeons & dragons, surrounded by the usual D&D gear

4) there were 2 actual stores, plus at least 5 freestanding kiosks, just selling cellphone wrappers/cases/bling. Christ all mighty, how much of that crap do people actually buy???

Predictions:

1) more medical exam places (One stop shopping: get a Prostate exam, change your watch battery, and grab Samosas for lunch at the food court!), as leases expire and stores vacate to take up residence in the endless profusion of big box barf fringing the city.

2) more local/foreign craptastic stuff, bulk barrels, dollar-store ripoffs, Ardene/Bentleys (these places love loser malls), senior drop-in centres (wellness centres)

3) more stores converted to educational programs ("Westervelt College", "Everest College", "College Boreale").