Facelift of Centre Mall welcome east-end project

City councillor Sam Merulla says the owners of Centre Mall are about to undertake a $100 million redevelopment project that will see the aging
east-end shopping centre transformed into a modern power centre.

Merulla says he’s not at liberty to go into details, but that the developers are expected to announce their plans in a month or two, with shovels breaking ground as early as fall.

“At this point, I can identify that fact that Centre Mall is going to be redeveloped. That it’s going to be the single largest inner-city redevelopment project in Canada.”

“It’s approximately a $100 million development. And their decision to actually proceed with this megaproject is directly correlated to highway access and our construction of the Red Hill Creek Expressway.”

Neil Everson, Hamilton’s executive director of economic development, acknowledges the city is discussing a multimillion redevelopment project
with the mall.

He says finishing touches are being worked on, but stops short of confirming the $100 million figure or that it’s going to be a centre for big-box retailers.

Nonetheless, Everson says the massive facelift could result in hundreds of jobs and increased assessment for the city, as well as helping meet provincial targets for urban intensification.

“What’s really neat about this is it’s intensification in the inner city,” which, he says, taken together with the Lister Block and other downtown projects is good news for urban redevelopment.

A spokesman for Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investment Board, which bought Centre Mall from Cadillac Fairview in 2003, declined to comment.

John Cappelletti referred questions to Nick Sabot, vicepresident of development at the Toronto head office of Redcliff Realty Group, which manages Centre Mall for CPP.

Sabot declined to confirm or deny.

“We know, hopefully, in the next few months where we’re going with various things, and we’ll talk to you guys when it’s appropriate. Right now it’s just not appropriate for us.

“When we get involved in redevelopment ... there’s some sensitivities here and there and it affects people and we have to be sensitive to that.”

In an interview with The Spectator’s Eric McGuinness, Don Burton, senior vice-president of Redcliff’s shopping centre division, said the Centre Mall story is a “wee bit premature and the number is pretty big, but you never know.”

Burton also said, “We’re always looking at things,” and “Centre Mall needs to be something it isn’t.”

The mall, which opened in 1955, is on a 28-hectare site on Barton Street between Ottawa and Kenilworth. It has about 125 shops and services, as well as a stand-alone Canadian Tire and weekly outdoor market, but it’s grown tired over the years.

Merulla, the councillor for Ward 4 where the mall is located, says he was approached by Redcliff several months ago to set up contacts with the city.

He says the project will be entirely funded by the private sector, with some 80 per cent of financing coming from the owners and the remainder from
other private investors.

Everson says the city’s main role will be “facilitating and expediting” things like traffic and permit issues.

Like Merulla, Everson understands one of the driving factors is the construction of the expressway, which will increase access to the mall for
east-Mountain shoppers and others.

Merulla says the project doesn’t just prove the expressway will help create a positive investment climate for the whole city. It will also mean a lot to his ward, including economic spinoffs for commercial districts such as Ottawa Street and Kenilworth Avenue.

“From a pride perspective, it also means that people are again investing in the east end.”

The expressway, now officially called the Red Hill Valley Parkway, will intersect with Barton about three kilometres east of Centre Mall. The enterchange will actually be closer to Eastgate Square on Centennial Parkway, which is also owned and managed by CPP and Redcliff.

CPP Investment Board is a federal Crown corporation that invests funds received from the Canada Pension Plan to help pay for the pension of
future retirees. It has about $27 billion invested in capital markets.

Redcliff’s services include acquisition, property development and asset management. It specializes in pension fund clients and reports a portfolio
of nearly $1 billion of office, retail, industrial and multiresidential properties.

In April, it announced a major redevelopment of a 450,000-square foot shopping centre in Thunder Bay, including the expansion of a Zeller’s
and the addition of a Home-Sense store.

I’m not exactly sure how I am supposed to feel about this. For one it’s big box coming to inner city. I guess that’s a good trend?

Another good thing is that investments are being made in east end Hamilton which is so badly needed.

One thing I know is that it’s gonna piss off anti-Red Hill Creek expressway people lol. Good things are coming out of this expressway.

Yesterday VIA said they were interested in building a VIA station near Centre Mall. Maybe this is the reason why there interested.

Extreme Makeover for Centre

The "store closing" and "everything must go" signs are already up as Naresh Kaura at Seawood Furniture tires to get rid of 8,000 square feet of home furnishings by the end of July.

About 20 stores at the west end of Centre Mall on Barton Street have been told to relocate to vacant spots or close up.

Leases are now month-to-month and, as revealed in yesterday's Spectator, something new is in store for the east Hamilton mall.

Historic - but tired - The Centre is celebrating its 50th anniversary and starting to transform itself into what may become a unique open-concept, urban plaza with possible big box stores.

Top brass at Redcliff Realty Group, which manages the mall, are tight-lipped about any new retailing concept.

Don Burton, senior vicepresident of retail, says someone leaked a rumour, but there is nothing to report and everything is premature.

“Everyone is getting excited but nothing is signed,” he said.

“We are not close to ready; there are so many balls up in the air.”

Burton says there’s no sense in paying taxes on the K-Mart that closed years ago but still stands empty at the back of the Centre
and mall areas are coming down.

Mall manager Wayne Roberts says the north-end food court will be relocated to the front and closer to Sears this summer before areas are demolished.

But that’s likely not until early next year and any large-scale redevelopment will take years, he said.

Retail consultant Richard Talbot, of Talbot Consulting, says The Centre was not a good fit for previous owners, Cadillac Fairview, and he was involved in recommending it be sold. It was
no longer high-end and there was no good, short-term turnaround strategy.

But it’s a “good hunk of land” in a good urban location and bulldozing and dynamiting it is an appealing approach, he said.

Something had to be done and “de-malling” would be a good and positive strategy for new owners, the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investment Board, that could lead to revitalizing the entire area, he said.

“With de-malling, you blow out the mall keep, Sears and … Zellers big boxes and add restaurants and have more of an open plan,” he said.

That’s what they did in the blue-collar, shipyard area of Long Beach, Calif., and it worked.

Major retailers returned, housing was added and the tattoo parlours and sex shops have been replaced by million dollar condos.

Talbot says the big mistake mall owners made 15 years ago was pushing out food stores, where shoppers go 1.5 times a week, and replacing them with fashion stores.

That’s why Wal-Mart is adding food stores to its department stores, he said.

There are rumours and speculation among merchants who are on the move in the mall about what’s to come.

“That’s not confirmed,” said Roberts to the buzz that Fortino’s is coming in with a big supermarket.

The Barn supermarket — owned by A&P — currently has a stand-alone store at the mall.

Fortino’s headquarters did not return a call but A&P spokesperson Tammy Smitham said the chain plans to continue operating its store.

Sears and Canadian Tire own their own property on the land between Ottawa Street and Kenilworth Avenue, says Centre manager Roberts.

Zellers anchors one end of the mall.

Marketing consultant John Williams, of J. C. Williams Group, says it certainly makes sense for The Centre to re-invent and revitalize itself.

All the retail action in the past decade has been in big box stores and outlets, and enclosed malls have reached maturity, he said.

A large food store, a larger discount department store and selected big boxes, combined with some residential, would be ideal for The Centre, a B-class mall, he said.

Patty Despinic, executive director of the Ottawa Street Business Improvement Area, says the mall is an active participant of the streetfest events held by the niche business area.

For years she and others have heard rumours of the mall becoming a casino, a GO station or subsidized housing.

And she is not going to get excited about any mall redevelopment that may bring more street traffic and business to Ottawa Street until there are shovels in the ground, she says.

And Ottawa Street merchants thrive on competition, she said.

Likewise, says Peter Smith, a manager at successful East Hamilton Radio at Barton and Kenilworth.

Even if Future Shop or Best Buy shows up, “We will match them tooth and nail in pricing and we have people who know what they are talking about,” he said.

big box coming to the innercity is not a good thing because it will compete even more with urban buisnesses because it will be closer to downtown, within walking distance of houses

I would rather see locally owned businesses prosper everywhere, but if Big Boxers are downtown then at least they will draw people back into the city.

for what reason, why clog innercity streets with big box traffic only to kill local buisness in the process. no one will go to stores downtown when they can get everything in one place cheap. why bring people into the city for no reason

We gotta wait and see the plan for Centre Mall. From what I'm hearing it's mostly "demalling", demalling means to knock down some parts of the mall and have single building so like big boxes. A lot of this has been happening in the states.

Centre Mall area can definitely handle the traffic, the area used to be heavy industrial area. Plus once the Red Hill Creek Expressway is completed it can handle even more traffic.

The only urban businesses I'm worried about from the Centre Mall redevelopment is Ottawa Street. Now Centre Mall is what hurt Ottawa Street but over the years Ottawa Street has improved and is one of the strongest BIA in Hamilton. Ottawa Street specializes in home decoration and improvement. So I would help that Centre Mall doesn't get stores like Home Depot, Lowes, Home Hardware and so on.

My biggest hope for the plan is to include residential development and brownfield redevelopment as well. The area has lots of brownfields since it used to be industrial area.

Is this bigger than St. Lawrence? I doubt it....

I really don't like the idea of big box stores there, but if it is in the inner city, then I might change my mind about it, but still it might kill smaller independent businesses in the area. De-malling eh. That is what a lot of old ugly strip malls are doing and becoming separate stores, like Oakridge Mall and London Mall in London.

It would have been much better if the project was something innovative, rather then the same old automobile based shopping experience. Being the largest redevelopment project should not be its only distinction, it should put Hamilton on the map as the place to be! (Which this won't :( )

I really don't like the idea of big box stores there, but if it is in the inner city, then I might change my mind about it, but still it might kill smaller independent businesses in the area. De-malling eh. That is what a lot of old ugly strip malls are doing and becoming separate stores, like Oakridge Mall and London Mall in London.


Stone Road Mall in Guelph is also street-facing outdoor now, too, on one of its sides. Except its not streetfront retail- its parking-lot-front retail.... :(