| Location | Gatineau, Quebec |
|---|---|
| Opening date | 1978 |
| Management | Dominique Guindon |
| Owner | Canpro Investments/David J. Azrieli |
| No. of stores and services | about 165 stores |
| No. of anchor tenants | 5 (Mega Meubles, Archambault, la Baie, Costco, Laura) |
| Total retail floor area | 845,329 square feet (78,533.6 m2) |
| Parking | over 4 000 spaces |
| No. of floors | 1 |
| Website | www.lespromenades.com |
Les Promenades de l'Outaouais is a major shopping centre located in Canada's National Capital Region. It is located in the city of Gatineau near the intersection of Greber and Maloney Boulevards, one of the city's busiest intersections and just off Autoroute 50.
It is considered to be the second largest shopping centre in the area in terms of retail space trailing only St. Laurent Shopping Centre's 972,000 square feet (90,301.8 m2). The website claims it has about 845,000 square feet (78,503 m2) in total space including its three-story office building in the south side of the complex that houses a dental clinic and federal government offices. [1]
The mall is sprawled out on one single level with several secondary corridors and sections lined up in different directions which makes it difficult to locate smaller boutiques. The shopping centre does have several anchor tenants which includes la Baie, Costco, Mega Meubles, Laura and Archambault.
It is located in the middle of a major shopping district in the Gatineau sector in which several other strip-malls and big-box stores are lined-up all along Maloney or Greber Boulevards in and around Les Promenades. The Village Greber is located just across Maloney and les Galeries Gatineau which includes Winners and Zellers is just across its eastern street.
Several small stores and restaurants are located scattered on its northern parking lot.
The Polyvalente Le Carrefour High School is located just across the street from Chemin de La Savane. During the lunch hours, numerous teens from the school cross the street to the mall.
According to various surveys, almost 80% of its shoppers are women and the average age is 38 [1].
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The mall opened its doors in 1978, becoming instantly the former city of Gatineau's prime shopping destination.
During the 1990s and early 2000s, the mall did experience some difficulties as several large retail spaces were left vacant frequently as several stores and even anchor tenants closed their doors. In the 1990s, K-Mart, Eaton and Steinberg, which at one point were the mall's three anchor tenants, all closed their doors.
The K-Mart location is now occupied by a Mega Meubles as well as the Laura superstore. It was also, briefly, the Bay's appliance section location.
In the late 1990s, the shopping centre made a major expansion on its eastern end. Previously, the mall ended where the Famous Players cinemas were located. When the renovation process ended, a new anchor tenant was in place: la Baie. Also, a Dollarama, a food court, a new office building, a Christopher International hair salon and an artisan or small merchants (Boulevard des Artisans) zone were added.
Also during the 1990s, the Eaton store on the western end of the shopping centre closed its doors. During the next several years that area was for the most part left vacant except when Laura occupied the area for a small period. However, in March 2006, Costco had relocated its location from the north end of the city to its current location at les Promenades bringing a new life to its western end which was often plagued with numerous vacant spaces for several years. Archambault, a Quebec music franchise store also opened a location in 2005 near Costco and the Buffet Dragon, the mall's Chinese restaurant.
Steinberg also had a supermarket during the mall's first years, but closed when the company folded. It was later occupied by SuperC and Metro.
The mall during most of its existence had a movie theater although a small one. During the late 1990s, the Famous Players cinemas which occupied a location in the previously eastern end of the mall closed, in part due to the opening of the Cinema 9 theater located just a few minutes away from the centre. Most recently, a new movie theater, called Cine-Starz opened its doors at the same location.
Several retailers of various sizes have been added in various areas of the mall including Garage, Videotron, Bath and Body Works, Jack & Jones, Urban Planet, Fruits & Passions, Sirens, Thai Express, Second Cup, Terra Nostra, BCBG Maxzaria and Vision Underground.
Being at one of the city's busiest intersections and near the city's main highway, it is very easily accessible and parking space is abundant.
The Société de transport de l'Outaouais offers several routes that travel to various areas across the city from the shopping mall. It is considered, outside of the downtown core, the most important transit hub in the city. On average per day, 8 000 shoppers use public transit for shopping [1].
The STO has a major Park And Ride facility of over 500 parking spaces in proximity the mall. It has also recently rebuilt the transit terminal and built a new client service centre inside the mall.
Routes that serve the shopping centre include:
Starting in 2011, the Rapibus transit route will travel just north of the shopping centre alongside Maloney Boulevard. A transit station will be located there, although it is unlikely that it will serve as the future terminal due to the lack of space for buses and the dangerous nature of the Greber/Maloney intersection which includes an at-grade rail crossing.
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