Dead Malls of Canada

[le calmar]

Talking about chains that have nearly disappeared, I wonder why there are still three Dunkin Donuts left in Montreal. Those are the only locations still in operation in the country.

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

I'm remembering back to about 1995, that mall had the London Ice House (where the London Knights OHL team played), United Furniture Warehouse (bomp bomp!), a Zehr's grocery store, DZ (where kids want to be), and McDonald's. Zehr's moved out in 1996 and Liquidation World was in there for some time, and then DZ disappeared and McDonald's moved to a new standalone location in the parking lot sometime after the Knights moved to the JLC downtown.

In 2003, I was in London, (Ontario) briefly and recall going to an area south of the 401 where there was a Costco and a whole bunch of big box barf. Is that area still as ugly as it was.

In the 80's I dated a woman from outside of London and White Oaks was the go to mall for her family due to its proximity to the 401.no need to go any further in to the 'big city'.

[esquire]

It seems that nearly every city of a certain size has lost a mall or two over the years. Winnipeg's most prominent loss was Unicity Mall, a major mall on the western edge of the city. It stood for probably not even 25 years before being demolished around 2000 or so. I realize that's a long time compared to the giant new Target that lasted about 3 months before the liquidation began, but by Winnipeg standards where 100+ year old buildings are common, 25 years is nothing.

It had The Bay, Woolco (later Walmart) and a supermarket. It was a decent little mall in its day, but it quickly emptied out before it was all knocked down and replaced with the standard SmartCentre big box power centre mess.

[Acajack]

I see way fewer malls in the future but I don't see them going away completely.

There will be a consolidation of the market around a smaller number of powerhouse malls serving wider areas. They'll have a greater percentage of their floor space devoted to experiential stuff (restaurants, leisure, attractions) as opposed to "material" retail. And of course residential space is starting to take root in malls as well. They will serve as "town centres" more than traditional malls.

The forward-thinking malls out there that have the financial resources to reinvent themselves are already moving in this direction.

[esquire]

^ That seems to be the trend. There's a real stratification going on where you have a few winners that get the big-dollar tenants, while the losers satisfy themselves with the tier-two, less prestigious but still profitable stuff mentioned in this thread (the Ardenes and Dollaramas of the world).

[ue]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I see way fewer malls in the future but I don't see them going away completely.

There will be a consolidation of the market around a smaller number of powerhouse malls serving wider areas. They'll have a greater percentage of their floor space devoted to experiential stuff (restaurants, leisure, attractions) as opposed to "material" retail. And of course residential space is starting to take root in malls as well. They will serve as "town centres" more than traditional malls.

The forward-thinking malls out there that have the financial resources to reinvent themselves are already moving in this direction.

I agree with this. It seems like successful malls are all regional suburban centres. The neighbourhood malls are dying or being revamped as the new neighbourhood retail -- the power centre. Though there are regional or even metropolitan area focused power centres. I don't get how stores in power centres that cater to adolescents, who often want independence but don't drive. At least with the mall you could take the bus or be dropped off and spend the afternoon loitering with friends. You don't do that at places like South Edmonton Common.

But yeah, in terms of existing malls in Metro Edmonton, these seem to be the ranking

Successful, high demand, regional shopping centres
- West Edmonton Mall (for the west end)
- Kingsway Mall (for the north side)
- Southgate Centre (for the south side)

Decently successful malls with smaller regional scope
- City Centre (for downtown)
- Londonderry (for the northeast... though it's expanding in scope lately)
- Mill Woods Town Centre (for Mill Woods)
- St Albert Centre (for St Albert)
- Sherwood Park Mall (for Sherwood Park)

Dying malls that have minor scope
- Westmount Centre
- Bonnie Doon Shopping Centre
- Abbotsfield Mall

Malls that have been converted to medical centres, power centres, etc
- Meadowlark
- Mayfield
- Northtown
- Northgate (still has an interior corridor but it's successful stores all face outward)
- Capilano

Malls demolished for TOD
- Heritage Mall

[ue]

Question for people in larger cities like Toronto and Montreal. In, say, Mississauga, does Erin Mills have any decent draw still, or is everything just focused on Square One for a mall experience? Likewise, in somewhere like Laval, where does a mall like Centre Laval fit when Carrefour Laval is just down the autoroute? I've been to both Square One and Carrefour Laval, but never the other suburban malls in these areas.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

Five, to be exact. Others were rebranded as FreshCo back in maybe 2011, which is actually not a bad store. The one in Kingston used to be a Price Chopper, and in its current incarnation their produce is quite good, and they have some international stuff that nobody else in Kingston sells.

The old Price Chopper at London Mall was dilapidated in its later years.

yeah, it is long gone, replaced by a Chinese supermarket. still grotty.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

In 2003, I was in London, (Ontario) briefly and recall going to an area south of the 401 where there was a Costco and a whole bunch of big box barf. Is that area still as ugly as it was.

In the 80's I dated a woman from outside of London and White Oaks was the go to mall for her family due to its proximity to the 401.no need to go any further in to the 'big city'.

That area is still as ugly as sin. Nothing much has changed since 2003 down there. Soon to be remodeled with a New Costco to replace the old one, and an IKEA.

Not sure if London is a 'big city'
but then I am from Montreal

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

Even in the early 90s, dying malls were already commonplace in London. I remember visiting the late Wonderland Mall in early 1992, and it was already pretty much dead. The only tenant was Sears Outlet Store, and the rest of the mall had no tenants left. Three years later I experienced the London Mews downtown for the first time, and its only tenant was a six-screen Famous Players theatre. You had to go through several dark corridors of abandoned storefronts to get to the theatre. (One of the storefronts was used to showcase vintage toys during the original run of Toy Story.) Just across the street, Galleria was already suffering.

Those were in the days when if you wanted to go to the "good" mall, you went to Westmount. They had underground parking, they had Eaton's, they had a kickass food court and a movie theatre. Masonville didn't have a theatre in those days, but they did have the mini golf course.

In the mall hierarchy of London, Masonville is undisputed numero uno.

1) Masonville (yeah, they got the Apple Store)
2) White Oaks (nice reno but immediate neighborhood is getting ghetto-y, and the stores are a mixed bag of good, bad, ugly).
3) there is no third place. Westmount has been completely flushed down the toilet.

Some neighborhood malls hang on, and appear to be thriving:
1) Cherryhill village mall
2) Sherwood forest mall

Grotty and/or failing/failed malls (not ranked per se).
1) Westmount Mall
2) Northland Mall
3) Elgin Mall (St. Thomas)
4) Galleria/Citiplaza
5) London Mall (where the shitty Sears liquidation centre was)
6) Talbot Centre
7) Superstore Mall

Most of the other dead/dying malls have been converted to strip plazas or knocked down and replaced by big box barf, e.g., Argyle Mall, Oakridge Mall, the world-famous Oxbury Mall,

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

That area is still as ugly as sin. Nothing much has changed since 2003 down there. Soon to be remodeled with a New Costco to replace the old one, and an IKEA.

Not sure if London is a 'big city'
but then I am from Montreal

To them London was a 'big city'. They lived about a 7-8 minute drive from Dutton so you can imagine how busy the roads were there.

In all that time dating her every time she referred to London, my mind always thought of Big Ben, Trafalgar Square not the Seven Dwarfs restaurant and White Oaks Mall.

How long does a Costco last. In 2003, that costco must have been less than 10 years old..why replace it now.

[Proof Sheet]

What about this area
https://goo.gl/maps/1Rns9Ek8Za62

I remember being there in the 80's and it was pretty sketchy. It has a bit of a Brantford vibe about it in this image. Or Fargo could have been filmed there.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

What about this area
https://goo.gl/maps/1Rns9Ek8Za62

I remember being there in the 80's and it was pretty sketchy. It has a bit of a Brantford vibe about it in this image. Or Fargo could have been filmed there.

yeah this is skid row in London. fringes are gentrifying (e.g., the pottery place, and farther down towards the Western Fair Market) but this part of Dund-ass is still largely scuzzville central.

[GeneralLea]

Originally Posted by ue

Question for people in larger cities like Toronto and Montreal. In, say, Mississauga, does Erin Mills have any decent draw still, or is everything just focused on Square One for a mall experience? Likewise, in somewhere like Laval, where does a mall like Centre Laval fit when Carrefour Laval is just down the autoroute? I've been to both Square One and Carrefour Laval, but never the other suburban malls in these areas.

I can speak for Mississauga...

There's the biggest, most profitable one;
Square One (Missingsausages "Downtown")

Then you get to malls that are reinventing themselves or being expanded upon/are in growing neighbourhoods:
Erin Mills (West end)
Sheridan Gardens (South-east end)

Annnd then you get to the malls that are looking as though they might die someday, but will likely live, albeit gentrified and modified because they still draw in some people, because of schools and transit:
Westdale Mall (South-West End)
South Common Mall (West end)
Dixie Outlet Mall

The mall I've found to be closest to it's deathbed is....:
Sheridan Centre (South-West end)

This mall has gone downhill for years....the biggest draw is the Metro supermarket they have.....but the rest of the retail is Shoppers and a couple of smaller businesses, and chains/banks with separate stores in the parking lot.

[hipster duck]

Peterborough, ON has 3 malls: one that's expanded into a regional mall, doing okay for itself, and two that completely shat the bed.

The successful one is Lansdowne Place:



The ones that died include Peterborough Square, a 70s-era downtown revitalization scheme once anchored by an Eaton's:



And Portage Place (pronounced "Por-Taj"), in the city's north end.

[hipster duck]

In the City of Toronto, most of the malls seem to be doing well, even if they're not high end. Most of them became local malls for the working class immigrants who live in the slabs highrises nearby. Some of them are incredibly busy.

[GeneralLea]

Lansdowne Place is pretty nice....and yea, Peterborough place is somewhat run down...I hope it improves someday. Personally, I find retail in Downtown Peterborough to be better outside of that mall in the historic downtown that surrounds the mall.

[BradFromTO]

Originally Posted by GeneralLeeTPHLS

I can speak for Mississauga...

There's the biggest, most profitable one;
Square One (Missingsausages "Downtown")

Then you get to malls that are reinventing themselves or being expanded upon/are in growing neighbourhoods:
Erin Mills (West end)
Sheridan Gardens (South-east end)

Annnd then you get to the malls that are looking as though they might die someday, but will likely live, albeit gentrified and modified because they still draw in some people, because of schools and transit:
Westdale Mall (South-West End)
South Common Mall (West end)
Dixie Outlet Mall

The mall I've found to be closest to it's deathbed is....:
Sheridan Centre (South-West end)

This mall has gone downhill for years....the biggest draw is the Metro supermarket they have.....but the rest of the retail is Shoppers and a couple of smaller businesses, and chains/banks with separate stores in the parking lot.

Erin Mills is doing surprisingly decent. It's still never really slammed like SQ1 obviously, but compare it to 10 years ago and it's night and day

Here's a little before and after

[GeneralLea]

I love Erin Mills as a neighbourhood, and the mall is pretty good now....except they should redevelop the lands right around the mall, which is an issue that Square One has and is also present in other cases, like Scarborough's mall.

[itom 987]

Originally Posted by MacLac

No no....it's all good. The Ghermezians took over that mall in the mid-80's and turned it into WEM's little sister. Loved the cars in the food courts, 2 sets of theatres and another indoor ice rink. Pretty sure it's "not considered a dead mall." With WEM Phase 3 opening around the same time as this reno....it was mall "heaven" in Edmonton back from 84-87.....

You got the timelines wrong, the Ghermezians bought the mall in the mid 80s and completely renovated the mall with marble floors, fountains, skylights, movie theatres and food court with antique cars on the ceiling. The Ghermezians sold the mall in the early 90s to Cambridge? Oxford? I'm not sure but I do know that the real estate company is based in Ontario and has a number of malls in their portfolio. They renovated the mall's interior what you see today, they cut the food court in half got rid of the cars, added a bowling alley/billiard hall/pub. In the late 90s the mall was renovated again Safeway moved from the north side of the mall to the south side, Home Depot took over the old Safeway space. Demolishing the food court, movie theatre, bowling alley/billiard hall/pub etc. A new food court was built in the middle of the mall with an hockey rink beside it. In the early 2000s the mall was renovated yet again, the rink was replaced by Gold's Gym Walmart replaced Zellers Home Depot replaced Safeway etc. It's a sad story for a mall that still has some activity in spite of all the changes. Westmount Mall was a big part of my childhood.