Market Mall (Saskatoon)

Market Mall is a shopping centre located in the Nutana Suburban Centre neighbourhood on the east side of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Built in the 1960s as Saskatoon's first enclosed shopping centre, it has undergone four major expansions since the late 1970s and now houses approximately 90 stores and services, anchored as of February 2020 by Giant Tiger and Planet Fitness. It also contains an 18-hole indoor miniature golf course, Ticketmaster booth, a branch of Service Canada, and a six-bay City of Saskatoon Transit terminal that was added in 2006. A branch of the Dollarama discount chain opened in 2014, replacing a bingo hall that had operated in the mall for a number of years.

Market Mall
Market Mall facing East, McEown Avenue entrance. The former Zellers can be seen in this photo.
LocationSaskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Coordinates52.10129°N 106.62005°W / 52.10129; -106.62005
Address2325 Preston Avenue South
Opening dateNov. 22, 1966[1]
ManagementRedcliff Realty Management[2]
OwnerStrathallen Management Corporation
No. of stores and servicesover 90
No. of anchor tenants2
Total retail floor area285,611 sq ft (26,534.1 m2)[3]
No. of floors1
Parking921 surface, 452 in two level underground parkade
Websitesaskatoonmarketmall.com
Market Mall sign
Market Mall facing West, Preston Avenue entrance, seniors' complex visible in background.

Market Mall is located on Preston Avenue on land bounded by Adelaide Street to the North, Louise Street to the South; Preston Ave South to the West, and McEown Avenue to the East.

Former anchor tenants have included Zellers, Kmart, Canadian Tire, Stedmans and a department store that at varying times used the brandings Macleods and Gambles before it was finally closed in the early 1990s.

In September 2011 it was reported that Target Canada, as part of its takeover of the Zellers chain, had purchased the leasehold for the Market Mall location with the possibility of it being converted to a Target store in the future.[4] Prior to this, in June 2011, mall management announced that the Zellers location would close in 2012 to facilitate plans to build an 18,000-sq.-ft. expansion to the mall and add a residential component.[5] Ultimately, the Zellers location did close in the spring of 2012, and the department-store sized bay did not become a Target, remaining vacant and used for a succession of seasonal and short-term retailers.

In March 2018, the mall changed ownership. The new owners announced that the plans to add 440 condominium units had been cancelled, and that the bay formerly occupied by Zellers would be taken over by two new anchor tenants, Giant Tiger and Planet Fitness. Both opened for business in the fall of 2018.[6]

In February 2020, Canada Safeway, the mall's last remaining original anchor tenant, closed. The grocery chain's owner, Empire, announced that the Market Mall location will be replaced by its discount grocery brand, FreshCo, later in 2020.[7]

Expansions

During the history of the mall, it has undergone 4 major expansions.

  • 1980: 4,738 sq. metre expansion off the southeast corner of the mall added a number of shops as well as a liquor store.[8]
  • 1982: 3,500 sq. metre expansion on the west side of the mall allowed Canada Safeway to double the size of its store and added Mark's Work Wearhouse as a new anchor tenant.[9]
  • 1987: 4,000 sq. metre expansion sparked by the departure of Canadian Tire from the mall added a food court and more retail to the northeast side of the mall.[10] This project also included an expansion of the mall's parking lot with the demolition of a neighbouring one-storey building formerly used by the Nutana branch of the Royal Canadian Legion.
  • 1992: 8,000 sq. metre expansion following the closure of Macleod's added a Kmart (later Zellers) anchor store and added an indoor miniature golf course attraction and underground parking. The 1980 expansion was also reconfigured.[11]
  • While not an expansion, in 2018 the anchor bay formerly occupied by Zellers and vacant since 2012 was redeveloped into several smaller retailers, including new anchors Giant Tiger and Planet Fitness and a relocated Fabricland outlet. A new entrance to the mall was added with the Giant Tiger renovation.

See also

References
  1. "Unique Mall to Open", Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, Nov, 21, 1966
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-12-05. Retrieved 2006-12-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. https://web.archive.org/web/20070929033822/http://www.redcliffrealty.com/leasing/retailFacts/marketmall.pdf
  4. Three Target stores proposed for Saskatoon, Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, Sept. 23, 2011, retrieved Jan. 6, 2012
  5. "Zellers leaving Market Mall", SaskatoonHomePage.ca, Paul Burke, June 3, 2011; retrieved Jan. 6, 2012
  6. Condos at Market Mall not going ahead under new ownership, Global News, March 1, 2018, retrieved April 12, 2018
  7. 4 Safeway locations in Saskatchewan converting to FreshCo stores, Global News, July 24, 2019, retrieved March 10, 2020
  8. "Market Mall Grows Into the Future" (promotional advertising feature), Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, Sept. 4, 1980; retrieved June 25, 2012
  9. "Market Mall to Expand", Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, Feb. 23, 1982; retrieved June 25, 2012
  10. "Mall Plans $3-million Expansion", Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, Oct. 1, 1986; retrieved June 25, 2012
  11. "Market Mall a-buzz with changes, expansion". Saskatoon Sun. Oct 4, 1992.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.