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  #41  
Old Posted May 1, 2007, 10:09 AM
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Deerfoot Mall was planned around residential development that didn't really work out in their favor. Instead of miles and miles of residential they got a 12,000 foot runway and an industrial park next door.

The residential development west of Deerfoot trail is pretty marginal, not at all what was planned for in the development of Deerfoot Mall.

That having been said, it is a whole lot better today than it was in the early 90's when the entire east end of the mall between the center court where there was a fountain and the Woolco (now Sportchek) was almost completely vacant with the exception of a Radio Shack, a crappy toystore and a dump called collectors corner that was the worlds largest collection of old beer cans and professional bowling memorabilia.

Unfortunately they are facing looming trouble again, several outlets (including sears) have refused to sign new leases. Some are interested in the new mall to open in Balzac and the Sears outlet is likely to close entirely. Apprently it would be cheaper to throw the crap away than keep that store open.

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Originally Posted by lubicon View Post
Deerfoot Outlet mall came pretty close to dying I think. I believe it was a 'regular' mall when it opened but it never really took off. It's now been turned into an outlet mall and with Walmart moving in there it seems to be doing pretty well now. I never understood why it failed as a regular mall, it's location was pretty good.
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  #42  
Old Posted May 1, 2007, 10:24 AM
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What is that mall in Silver Springs on Silver Springs Blvd. last time I was around there it looked like it had been taken over by a Calgary police station on one end and a church on the other.

Beddington Town"e" Centre is also pretty rough, it is increasingly being taken up by professional office space as is the mall attached to the CO-OP across the street.
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  #43  
Old Posted May 1, 2007, 11:27 AM
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Having lived in Vancouver and Calgary both for a number of years I can add a few to the list.

Vancouver/GVRD:
  • Royal City Centre (once Woolworth's Centre) in New Westminster. After Woolworth's went belly up stores started to leave and it was a while before Zellers moved in to occupy the old Woolworth's location. The design looks very much if not exactly like the London Galleria, so I suspect it was designed, built and owned by the same company. As with the London Galleria, the top level is now devoid of shops and almost entirely occupied with an HSBC call centre.
  • City Square in Vancouver. Besides the Safeway, I've never seen anything in that mall that is busy.
  • Kingsway Mall in Vancouver. D - e - d. Dead. If the liquor store or library ever left the place would echo. It's desperately needs a redesign.

Calgary:
  • Marlborough Mall WAS dead until Walmart moved in and the mall renovated. I used to work in the RadioShack store back in the 90s and I can recall many long, boring days without customers. Walmart revived the mall in my opinion, but it seems they insist that every mall they are attached to make it as difficult as possible to get from Walmart to the mall. Both Westbrook and Marlborough have built those stupid access corridors to separate the mall from Walmart as much as possible (and Marlborough even crowed about their "new access corridor." Pathetic).
  • North Hill Centre. It's dead most of the time and without the fitness centre or the residential towers no one would shop there. I still remember when the movie theatres occupied the mall.
  • Deer Valley Mall. Without Co-Op this mall would have nothing to drive its business even with the Zellers. I am surprised the Zellers has remained in business at that location because even on weekends it is extremely dead.
  • Beddington Town Centre. I agree with Policy Wonk; it's dead. Without the liquor store or London Drugs it would die. Hell, it's already dead.
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  #44  
Old Posted May 1, 2007, 12:47 PM
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The design of the London Galleria reminds me somewhat of Brunswick Square in Saint John NB. Again, maybe the same designer. At least they've still got a few stores there.

It's probably the same across the country, but it seems every small- and medium-sized city in the Maritimes has one thriving mall, and everything else is fighting for its life. Loch Lomond Mall in Saint John has *four* call centres and maybe 10 stores.
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  #45  
Old Posted May 1, 2007, 1:22 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SunCoaster View Post
do any of you Edmonton forumers know if Eaton's Centre is still a disaster or has it revitalized itself?
It seems to have revitalized itself.... There doesn't seem to be a lot of vacancies right now.
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  #46  
Old Posted May 1, 2007, 1:30 PM
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Deader than any cemetary, this is the Decarie Mall (Montreal)




Lies next to the Hippodrome, and Walmart, adjacent to the Decarie Expressway (intersection Jean-Talon). Not to be confused with another former dead mall, farther south along the decarie (near Queen Mary) which became a call-centre (glassed in...I also believe that there was a recent murder committed there by a call-centre worker that had gone 'postal').
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  #47  
Old Posted May 1, 2007, 1:37 PM
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Suncoaster it was reno'ed, combined with Edmonton Centre and renamed City Centre Mall.

http://www.oxfordproperties.com/Leas...st.asp?regID=2

This is the current lease listings for the mall. You can see its pretty full if you add up all the components.
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  #48  
Old Posted May 1, 2007, 1:37 PM
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_mall

http://www.deadmalls.com/

DEADMALLS.COM FEATURE:
GALLERIA LONDON: LONDON, ON, CANADA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Jeff Lowry's Commentary:
Posted March 21, 2005 (user submitted)
Galleria London is a 2-story mall that opened in downtown London, Ontario (population 350,000) in 1989. At the time, London was going through a retail boom, with major expansions at two suburban malls (Westmount and White Oaks) and the construction of a large mall (Masonville) in the north end of the city a few years earlier. Galleria was built on the site of Wellington Square, a small shopping centre that dated from the 60's. The new mall incorporated the existing Eaton's store and added an outlet of The Bay, a major Canadian department store, which moved from another downtown location.

Architecturally the mall was (is) quite impressive, with marble and vaulted skylights throughout. It was quite upscale for London, containing stores like Ralph Lauren and Harry Rosen, as well as London's first Gap and Eddie Bauer, and a six-screen theatre. Unfortunately, it ran into problems within a couple of years. The economy went south in the early 90's, causing a number of the high-end stores to close. The design was a problem as well. The mall was built over two city blocks, and the two sections of the first floor were cut off from each other. The upper floor had a 'racetrack' design, but all of the traffic going from Eaton's to The Bay went across the eastern walkway. The western walkway was pretty much dead within a few years. Furthermore, the mall had a fortress look to it, there were no windows or shops facing the surrounding streets downtown.

After a rocky start, the mall stabilized in the mid-90's as the economy came back. It was still a decent destination for my friends and me in high school. There was a new food court built on the second floor, and shops began moving back in. Problems began again in the late 90s when the troubled Eaton's chain started closing stores. The Galleria outlet survived the first round of closings in 1997 but was reduced to half its former size. Eaton's was never able to recover and the chain went out of business for good in 1999.

After that it was a quick slide downhill. Gap and Eddie Bauer had outlets in the suburban malls by that time so didn't need the downtown locations. The Bay moved to the former Eaton's space in the busy Masonville Place in 2000, and the chain stores began leaving in droves. The theatre closed in 2001, though it was later replaced with a second-run theatre. The mall owners have tried creative methods to fill the space, such as opening a call centre in the former Eaton's, while the city renovated the former Bay store to be the new location of the public library. I haven't been to the mall in a few years, but judging from the website it looks like there are about 50 stores left (down from 180 or so originally), most of them locally owned. It's a shame as this was by far the nicest mall in southwestern Ontario when it opened. London just wasn't big enough to support four malls. The three suburban malls are still thriving though.


^Edit: Westmount Mall is inexorably dying. At least half empty now. And even if the glass is 'half full', we are talking about craft stores and cheap-ass distress and/or temporary outlets. And the Galleria is down to 20 'stores'.
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  #49  
Old Posted May 1, 2007, 2:06 PM
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I worked at the London Galleria when in first opened in the fall of 1989. It was packed back then.

Other dead malls in Calgary:
Macleod Mall - used to have a Safeway and a Woolco. Safeway moved across the street to Southland Crossing in 1989. All of the mall except for Woolco was demolished an replaced with a Revy (now Rona). The Woolco became Walmart

TransCanada Mall - located on south side of 16th Ave NE at 52 Street. Originally had a Kmart. Was demolished and replaced with a Safeway and strip mall in 1991.

Mayfield Crossing in Edmonton was originally Centennial Mall. It had a Safeway, Woolco and Sears. Being so close to WEM, it quickly died and was demolished in 1990, except for the Woolco, which later became Walmart.
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  #50  
Old Posted May 1, 2007, 2:52 PM
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Halifax's 'Village at Bayer's Road' was once quite nice and busy, but now its mostly empty and just kinda erie. It lost out to the Bayer's Lake Business Park and the nearby Halifax shopping center + annex.

Penhorn mall is now on the decline and now will probably close thanks to the truely massive 'Dartmouth crossing' development.
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Last edited by skyscraper_1; May 1, 2007 at 2:58 PM.
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  #51  
Old Posted May 1, 2007, 2:53 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SunCoaster View Post
do any of you Edmonton forumers know if Eaton's Centre is still a disaster or has it revitalized itself?
I've heard second/third-hand that its sales PSF are
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  #52  
Old Posted May 1, 2007, 2:57 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by malek View Post
what ?? maybe I'm mistaken it for some other shopping mall, the one I was posting about is on the service road of Decarie highway. All white metal and glass!
You're mistaken Decarie Square with Insight ofifces at Edouard Montpetit and Decarie.
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  #53  
Old Posted May 1, 2007, 2:58 PM
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Great thread. Reading through these posts one can't help but think that there's something more going on here: that the whole mall concept is endangered and outdated.
When I was a kid growing up in the 70s I couldn't wait to go to the mall, hang out in the mall, ogle girls in the mall, play pinball in the mall -- especially in the fricking winter.
Now whenever I find myself in a fake light, sterile environment with the everpresent muzak in the background I get a headache or feelings of being trapped, what I have come to call "mall head." I start getting claustrophobic and start looking for an exit, and of course good malls make it difficult for you to leave.
So maybe I'm not alone. This shopping experience is apparently undergoing an evolution.
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  #54  
Old Posted May 1, 2007, 3:04 PM
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It is funny... in Pickering Ontario we had the Pickering Town Centre and it to fell into decline once the theaters left. Then the food court kind of died and finally it went into suspended animation.

I left and moved out here to Vancouver, and since then they have gone in and totally redesigned the place. They have couches and sitting areas with area rugs down the centre of the mall. It is so busy now.

Despite the fact that the "Power Centres" are bigger and expanding everywhere, nothing beats going into a mall and shopping without having to enter the cold Ontario winters everytime you leave a store.

I still like malls... but now that I live in North Van... there aren't to many that I visit.
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  #55  
Old Posted May 1, 2007, 3:11 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BSLetters View Post
North Land Village is slow here in Calgree
This one is strange. It is anchored by stores such as Future Shop, Best Buy, WalMart, and Lazyboy which always seem to be doing a strong business yet the inside of the mall always seems very quiet.
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  #56  
Old Posted May 1, 2007, 3:28 PM
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Thanks, where was it exactly?
It's on Maurice Duplessis, corner Fernand Gauthier.
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  #57  
Old Posted May 1, 2007, 4:30 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SpongeG View Post
sort of like how middlegate mall went from dead one level huge parking lot waste of space to highgate village!





Hell, I certainly remember the old MIDDLEGATE MALL (on the Kingsway, about 3 kms down the road from Metrotown, in Burnaby). I used to work on Kingsway in Burnaby in 1995. What a shitty mall that place was. It had no roof, but otherwise was just another crummy dying mall.

The gang at work used to make jokes, like: "Nice shirt; where'd ya get it-MiddleGate Mall?"
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  #58  
Old Posted May 1, 2007, 5:23 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lubicon View Post
This one is strange. It is anchored by stores such as Future Shop, Best Buy, WalMart, and Lazyboy which always seem to be doing a strong business yet the inside of the mall always seems very quiet.
Depends on your definition of quiet. It's no where near as busy as say Chinook is, but theres always a steady flow of people inside when I am there (mid to late afternoon typically). And the food court is easily sustained by the students from the schools across the street during the lunchhour, usually at a 10:1 ratio of students to other people it seems.
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  #59  
Old Posted May 1, 2007, 5:33 PM
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Anyone in Calgary remember how dead Frankin Mall was a few years back?? They really turned that mall around with T&T Supermarket and others...
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  #60  
Old Posted May 1, 2007, 5:42 PM
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Some might have called Le Faubourg more of a market than a mall, but it contained dozens of shops in an enclosed space before Concordia University bought it and killed it. I spent many hours there as a Concordia student reading and studying in the early 90s and loved it for the natural light and window on the streetlife that the third floor provided. Now it is well and truly dead. Too bad.


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