Honeydale Mall

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Honeydale Mall
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Exterior of Honeydale Mall
Location 5555 Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Opening date 1974
Owner Azuria Group - former
Gagnon Law Bozzo Urban Planners - current
No. of stores and services 4 (originally 12)
No. of anchor tenants 1 (originally 2)
Total retail floor area 20,200 m2 (217,000 sq ft)
No. of floors 1

Honeydale Mall is a community shopping mall located in Eatonville (part of the former Borough of Etobicoke), Toronto, Canada, at the intersection of Dundas Street and The East Mall Crescent (the latter being a link connecting the grade-separated roads, The East Mall and Dundas Street).

It opened in 1973 with a supermarket anchor, a Woolco department store, and a short enclosed mall. In 1994, Wal-Mart took over the Woolco location and remained in the mall until 2003.

The mall has declined since Walmart's departure, has many vacancies, and has been described as being on "death row".[1] In 2007, The Bay Furniture Outlet opened inside the mall, and then a flea market. But soon, both stores were gone because of low traffic. A clearance warehouse opened temporarily, but was closed within two months.

In May 2009, it had two anchor stores (a No Frills supermarket and a flea market), a restaurant and dental office.[2]

Azuria Group, the owner of Honeydale, has allowed the property to decline and it attempted to pursue high density residential redevelopment options which may include land for a new subway station. However, the application has stalled as the city of Toronto has required Azuria to do studies on the project.[3]

Reasons for decline

Honeydale Mall was one of the numerous post-World War II small neighbourhood community malls that were built in the inner suburbs of Toronto where residential neighbourhoods were growing. All of these community plazas were strip malls with one or two anchors, and most of these fared poorly by the 1990s, as shopping trends changed to power centres anchored by big-box stores. The one exception to this was Bayview Village Shopping Centre, which was largely comparable to Honeydale until the 1990s. Unlike Honeydale, the owners of Bayview Village frequently overhauled the property to keep up with current trends, and found high-end independent boutiques not available in larger malls. Bayview Village is located in the affluent area of Willowdale where significant transit-oriented condominium development has enabled it to thrive despite being close to the larger Fairview Mall.[1]

Near to where Dundas Street crosses The East Mall is Cloverdale Mall. Both Honeydale and Cloverdale are in the shadow of the considerably larger and affluent Sherway Gardens. Although Cloverdale is only a mid-size retail centre, it has nonetheless managed to thrive as it maintains four anchor stores and it had a major renovation in 2003-04. By contrast the owners of Honeydale have been reluctant to spend money to keep the mall competitive since the departure of Wal-Mart, instead attempting to rezone the land for sale or a condo development.[1]

An application has been sent to the city by Azuria Group to request the site and the A&P site to the west be re-zoned from industrial class to residential, thus allowing to build homes and condos on the site.[4] The residential development is being built by Gagnon Law Bozzo Urban Planners.

Stores

Former stores

  • Walmart, 1994-2003 - relocated to SmartCentre at North Queen Street and The Queensway
    • Woolco, closed in 1994 and converted as Walmart
    • The Bay Furniture Outlet 2007 - closed and relocated to Woodbine Centre
    • Festival Flea Market
  • Brands Gone Wild Liquidation Centre - recently closed
  • Bank of Montreal, closed in 2007; closest branch at Six Points Plaza
  • Golden Griddle restaurant, closed in 2008, turned into unknown name Vietnamese restaurant
  • Picture Framing, closed
  • Dollar Club, closed
  • Dundas LINC Education Centre
  • Bert and Ernie's Diner, changed names to Rockpile
  • Ortho Depot (shore store), closed
  • Lotto kiosk, closed
  • No Frills, closed June 2013
  • Dentist @ Honeydale
  • Xpression Hair Salon (Nail/Hair Salon)

Mall is now completely closed and fenced off. Public can only access the area for the Rockpile (former Bert and Ernie's)

See also

Other strip or former strip malls in Toronto:

With Golden Mile Mall, Honeydale is one of many strip plazas that are in process of closing and redeveloping as retail scene in Toronto has moved to larger regional mall or power centre/smart centre format.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "A Saga Of Two Plazas". National Post. November 17, 2007. Retrieved March 8, 2010. 
  2. ↑ Jerrold Litwinenko (May 20, 2009). "Nothing Sweet about Etobicoke's Honeydale Mall". BlogTO by FreshDaily. Retrieved March 8, 2010. 
  3. ↑ Tamara Shephard (September 14, 2006). "Subway expansion west to be studied". Metroland Media Group (InsideToronto). Retrieved March 8, 2010. 
  4. ↑ http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2011/ey/bgrd/backgroundfile-42066.pdf

Coordinates: 43°37′46″N 79°32′48″W / 43.62940°N 79.54679°W / 43.62940; -79.54679

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