Place Versailles

Place Versailles is a super regional mall located at the corner of Sherbrooke Street East and Highway 25 in the Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. At more than 1,100,000 square feet (100,000 m2) [4] with 225 stores, it is one of the largest shopping centres on the island of Montreal. Its anchors are Canadian Tire, Maxi, Winners/HomeSense and Bureau en Gros.[5]

Place Versailles
Coordinates45.5918°N 73.5407°W / 45.5918; -73.5407
Address7275, Sherbrooke St. East
Montreal, Quebec.
H1N 1E9
Opening dateNovember 7, 1963
DeveloperLanabar Realty Inc.[1]
ManagementPlace Versailles Inc.[2]
OwnerPlace Versailles Inc.
No. of stores and services225 [3]
No. of anchor tenants4
No. of floors1 (a small portion of the mall has two floors)
ParkingOutdoor
Websitewww.placeversailles.com/en

Most of the mall is one storey high, but a section of the mall, which was added in the 1980s, has two floors. Place Versailles is situated next to the Radisson metro station and is less than 2 km south of the Galeries d'Anjou mall.

History

The mall was originally announced as Place Métropolitaine in March 1963 and it did indeed opened under that name in August of the same year with only Steinberg and Miracle Mart as tenants.[6][7] When some 30 boutiques were added between Steinberg and Miracle Mart three months later in November 1963, the mall was renamed Place Versailles.[8] Place Versailles was the first indoor shopping mall to be built in the Montreal area.[9][3] Although there were already shopping centres in Montreal that had been covered on their sidewalks, Place Versailles was the first mall to be fully enclosed. Today, the original section of Place Versailles can be recognized as the corridor of Canadian Tire and Maxi.

Place Versailles went through several expansions throughout its history. Just in the 1960s decade, the mall had expanded twice. By August 1969, Place Versailles had a Pascal hardware store.[10]

When arriving in Quebec in 1971, Consumers Distributing opened on that year in the shopping mall a Distribution aux Consommateurs store. On March 15, 1973, the Hudson's Bay Company opened a The Bay department store.[11][12]

From 1973 to 1987, Place Versailles was anchored by The Bay, Miracle Mart, Steinberg and Pascal.

Miracle Mart at Place Versailles was rebranded under the M brand name on August 19, 1987; one of the last stores in Montreal to transition to the new nameplate.[13][14][15] In the late 1980s, Place Versailles expanded again and a new section was built with two floors, instead of one floor as in the rest of the mall.

On May 16, 1991, the Pascal hardware chain went bankrupt.[16] Rona - Le Quincailler and Fabricville both took the space during the first half of 1992, the latter opening specifically on May 13.[17][18] A SAQ store and other small tenants also took the former space of Pascal. Also in 1992, Steinberg was converted to Maxi, and the M store closed down and replaced by Zellers.[19][20][21] In 1996, Consumers Distributing went bankrupt and the Distribution aux Consommateurs' local was replaced by Le Monde des Athlètes, now occupied by Ardene who also took the local of the Rivoli restaurant at the right.

From 1992 to 2003, it was anchored by The Bay, Zellers, Maxi, and Rona- Le Quincailler.

Decrease in sales, coupled with the presence of another store in nearby Galeries d'Anjou, resulted in the Hudson's Bay Company closing its The Bay store at Place Versailles.[22] Although The Bay was originally scheduled to close for August 2003,[22] it ended up lasting until early 2004.[23] The Bay's anchor space has since been dismantled by Winners/Homesense, Globo, Style Exchange (today Econosports), Safari, Sports Experts, Dollarama and McDonald's.

Rona closed in 2005 and Bureau en Gros took its space a year later.

Zellers closed its doors in 2012 and was replaced by Target on September 17, 2013.[24] Target did not want the former Zellers entrance that connected directly to Place Versailles' food court and, as a result, it was replaced by a graphic water fountain that the mall claims on its website to be the first in North America.[25] Target closed in 2015 and lease sold to Canadian Tire in May 2015.[26]

2017 Santa Claus incident

In 2017, the mall faced criticism for promoting their Santa Claus' arrival to be on November 11, which is when Remembrance Day is observed in Canada. Furthermore, their Santa would be arriving at 10 a.m., one hour before the 11 a.m. Remembrance Day ceremonies would take place in Ottawa.[27][28] Local veterans were quick to shun the mall for their decision, claiming that it showed a "lack of respect" towards Canadian veterans, especially given that 2017 marked the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele, a key battle that took place during World War I.[29] Requests were made for the mall to reschedule Santa's arrival, with some also asking to delay his arrival until once the ceremonies have concluded,[30] but the mall kept his arrival date and time unchanged. Their Santa Claus was scheduled to make his entrance via helicopter and due to logistical concerns beyond the mall's control, his arrival could not be rescheduled to a different day. The mall did however try to make amends to the veterans over this issue in a Facebook post that has since been deleted and apologized for their decision.

See also

References
  1. http://scc.lexum.org/en/1976/1977scr2-1118/1977scr2-1118.html
  2. Place Versailles Inc. http://www.whois.net/whois/placeversailles.com
  3. "Place Versailles". www.placeversailles.com.
  4. http://cmm.qc.ca/vision2025/vision2025_docdeclencheur_4.pdfand
  5. "Stores - Place Versailles". www.placeversailles.com.
  6. "Nouveau centre commercial à l'automne dans l'est de l'île". La Presse. Montreal. 26 March 1963. p. 4.
  7. "Steinberg and Miracle Mart advertisement". La Presse. Montreal. 10 August 1963. pp. 10–11.
  8. "Place Versailles opening advertisement". La Presse. Montreal. 6 November 1963. p. 59.
  9. "Place Versailles: premier centre commercial complètement fermé". La Presse. Montreal. 6 November 1963. p. 61.
  10. "Pascal advertisement page". La Presse. Montreal. 20 August 1969. p. 72. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
  11. "La Baie a la Place Versailles". La Presse. Montreal. 14 March 1973. p. C14. Retrieved 2018-12-01.
  12. "Morgan devient La Baie". Le Devoir. Montreal. 16 June 1972. p. 16. Archived from the original on 2017-10-17. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  13. "M advertisement page". La Presse. Montreal. 5 August 1987. p. D14. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  14. "M advertisement page". La Presse. Montreal. 30 July 1987. p. C14. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  15. "La fin d'une époque". La Presse. Montreal. 22 August 1987. p. A7. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  16. "Pascal:succès des ventes de liquidation". La Presse. Montreal. 21 August 1991. p. D9. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  17. "Place Versailles advertisement". La Presse. Montreal. 30 June 1992. p. D3. Retrieved 2019-02-24.
  18. "Super magasin de 22 000 pi carées". La Presse. Montreal. 13 May 1992. p. A11. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  19. "Maxi's advertisement page". La Presse. Montreal. 7 October 1992. p. A6.
  20. "Magasins M: la liquidation est lancée". La Presse. Montreal. 5 July 1992. p. B4. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  21. "Place Versaille's advertisement page". La Presse. Montreal. 6 July 1993. p. A7.
  22. "Baisse d'achalandage - La Baie ferme son magasin de la Place Versailles". Le Devoir.
  23. "La Baie advertisement page". La Presse. Montreal. 19 January 2004. p. A9. Retrieved 2018-12-01.
  24. https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/630879/target-quebec-ouverture-magasins
  25. "About". www.placeversailles.com.
  26. "Canadian Tire to acquire 12 former Target locations". CBC News. May 6, 2015.
  27. "Montreal Mall Slammed For Santa Visit On Remembrance Day". HuffPost Canada. 2017-11-09. Retrieved 2020-01-05.
  28. Keenan, Edward. "Disgraceful timing as Santa set to fly into Montreal mall on Remembrance Day". thestar.com. Retrieved 2020-01-05.
  29. "Veterans will have to share Remembrance Day with Santa Claus at east end mall". CTV Montreal. CTV News. 2017-11-08. Retrieved 2020-01-05.
  30. "Bad idea to trot out Santa Claus before Remembrance Day". Revelstoke Review. 2017-11-10. Retrieved 2020-01-05.
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