Billings Bridge Plaza

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mall facts and statistics
Billings Bridge Plaza


Location	Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Opening date	1954
Management	20 VIC Management Inc.
Owner	Capital City Shopping Centre Ltd.
No. of stores and services	85
No. of anchor tenants	2
Total retail floor area	460,000 square feet
Parking	1519 spaces
No. of floors	2
Website	http://www.billingsbridgeplaza.com

The Billings Bridge Plaza is a shopping centre located in Ottawa, Canada. Originally built in 1954, it is the first shopping centre built in the city. It did not become enclosed until 1975. It is located immediately south of the Rideau River on the corner of Bank Street and Riverside Drive. The anchor stores are a Zellers and a Loblaws. It is a medium sized mall by modern standards with 85 stores.

When it was built it had only 6 stores, of which four remain to this day: Loblaws, CIBC, Fairweather and Reitmans. In 1962 the mall underwent a major expansion to 23 stores which made it the largest shopping centre in Ottawa at the time. Ogilvy's opened a location at Billings Bridge in the 1962. Later it was replaced by a Robinson's, which was itself replaced by the Zellers in 1996. The second major expansion came in 1975, which saw the addition of an office tower housing federal government offices, and the mall became "enclosed" which was the trend in retail at the time.

The shopping centre was extensively refurbished in 1999. A large new atrium and food court was added. In July 2006 another major renovation programme was started, expanding by 25,000 sq.ft. Construction is due to be completed by 2007.

6.2 million people visit Billings Bridge annually. At 450,000 square feet (42,000 m²), it earns C$543 (2003) per square foot (C$5800/m²), up from C$332 per square foot (C$3600/m²) in 1998. Capital City Shopping Centre Ltd. has owned the plaza since 1962, when they bought it from the original developers. It is the 9th largest mall in Ottawa in terms of retail area, and the 6th largest in terms of number of stores.

The shopping centre is located on the transitway, and serves as a major OC Transpo hub. (see Billings Bridge Transitway Station) The mall uses the slogan: It's all at the bridge, all at Billings Bridge.

Billings Bridge is named after Braddish Billings an original settler of Ottawa. The bridge built over the river, near the site of the current mall came to be known as Billings' Bridge, since it led to his property.