Scarborough Town Centre

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Mall facts and statistics
Scarborough Town Centre
Miniature hot air balloons at the Scarborough Town Centre

Location	Scarborough, Ontario
Opening date	1973
Developer	Oxford Properties
Management	Oxford Properties
Owner	Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System
No. of stores and services	220
No. of anchor tenants	7
Total retail floor area	1.3 million ft² (121,000 m²)
Parking	3000 spaces
No. of floors	2
Website	ScarboroughTownCentre.com

The Scarborough Town Centre (also known as '"Town Centre"' or '"STC"' by many locals) is a shopping mall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located in the former city of Scarborough. The mall was constructed in 1972 and was opened on May 2, 1973. At that time it included two major Canadian department stores, Simpson's and Eaton's. Miracle Food Mart, a supermarket was also located in the mall. It was designed to serve as part of the civic and commercial centre of the then Borough of Scarborough. Scarborough Town Centre opened with 130 stores adjacent to the borough's administration buildings. It provided a central landmark in an otherwise newer suburban areas of Toronto.

The Scarborough Town Centre is just across a square from the Civic Centre. The people-friendly square is two-thirds the size of Toronto's Nathan Philips Square, and was constructed around a stand of trees preserved from the original 69 hectare parcel of land.

The twin-level, Y-shaped shopping centre featured a centre court with a giant turntable built into the floor, and two secondary courts; one with a water fountain with glass spheres and bubbling tubes, and the other with hot air balloons rising and falling over a noisy pool.

Although anchored by only Eaton's and Simpsons at the time, the Scarborough Town Centre also had one of the few Brewers Retail (now The Beer Store) stores located within a shopping centre and the first to contain a completely refrigerated storeroom. At the Scarborough Town Centre's Taste of the Town, visitors could enjoy a meal or snack under a vaulted double-glazed glass ceiling that let the sun shine in.

The mall is served by Highway 401, one of the busiest highways in the world. The mall can also be reached through a turnaround ramp on McCowan Road, Progress Avenue, and Brimley Road. The TTC's Scarborough RT line also has a station adjacent to the mall, Scarborough Centre, opened in 1985 with service running southwest to Kennedy station on the Bloor-Danforth subway line and east to McCowan Station.

As the mall moved into the 1980's and 90's the mall was expanded to allow more anchor stores and retail space. The most recent being in 1998 when Scarborough Town Centre added an additional 16,000 m² of space devoted to entertainment. A brand new two-level Indigo Books, Music & Café was designed to be the ultimate browse-and-buy experience. Famous Players Coliseum opened 12 state-of-the-art theatres with stadium-style seating and a lobby loaded with video games and movie snacks. It can also be noted that the Rainforest Cafe also opened its first Canadian restaurant in the new wing, though once novelty wore off only the location in the Yorkdale Shopping Centre (which opened a bit later) remained in operation. The Bay (formally Simpsons) added a whole new floor and Sears completed extensive renovations where Eaton's was after purchasing the entire Eaton's chain. Wal-Mart has since moved into where Sears once was.

It currently includes The Bay, Sears, Wal-Mart, Sportchek, Old Navy, and a Famous Players Coliseum cinema as its anchors, and Dollarama as a mini-anchor. It has more than 121,000 m² and about 220 stores, making it the fourth-largest shopping centre in Greater Toronto, after Square One Shopping Centre, Yorkdale Shopping Centre, and Toronto Eaton Centre. Town Centre is east end Toronto's most important transportation hub. In addition to the RT, Scarborough Town Centre is a busy terminus for a significant number of TTC bus routes, as well as GO Transit.

The Real Canadian Superstore will be constructed on the outpad at 1755 Brimley Road (at the 401). A Krispy Kreme branch closed after the Canadian operator ran into financial trouble. The mall itself and most of the land surrounding it are owned by OMERS (the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System) pension company under their Oxford Properties division.