Bramalea City Centre

The Bramalea City Centre is a large shopping mall located in the city of Brampton, Ontario, Canada. With over a 1.5 million square feet of retail space and more than 300 outlets, it is one of Canada's largest shopping malls. Regarded as a super regional mall, the Bramalea City Centre has a market of more than 500,000 residents and attracts 16 million visitors annually.^[1] Since opening its doors to the public in the 1970s, the Bramalea City Centre has been an important retail hub for the city of Brampton, pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy. Extensive renovation and expansion have improved the mall's atmosphere. In 2005, the Bramalea City Centre was congratulated by Brampton's mayor and council for the success of these renovations.^[2]

The Bramalea City Centre is located at 25 Peel Centre Drive, near the intersection of Queen Street and Dixie Road. It is just east of Highway 410. Brampton Transit's Bramalea Terminal was moved in 2010 from its original site on the southeast side of the mall to a location to the north, to accommodate the Züm bus rapid transit service on Queen Street.

Major retailers

• Hudson's Bay (131,438 sq ft (12,211 m²))
• Best Buy (31,108 sq ft (2,890 m²))
• Metro (63,809 sq ft (5,928 m²))
• Old Navy (21,010 sq ft (1,952 m²))
• FreshCo (25,989 sq ft (2,414 m²))
• Sears (157,156 sq ft (14,600 m²))
• Sport Chek (22,512 sq ft (2,091 m²))

Former anchors

• Eatons - converted to Zellers
• Zellers - closed 2012 (now Target)
• Target - closed April 2015 (Now Empty)
• Food City - converted to Price Chopper, space now demolished and redeveloped
• Miracle Food Mart & Miracle Mart (later operated together as Miracle Beaucoup) - sold to A&P and operated as Ultra Food & Drug, later converted to an A&P, now Metro
• Beaver Lumber - closed, store area divided into new mall corridor (south-west lower level area)

History

North-west mall extension entrance, prior to the addition of a multi-level parking structure.

Development

In the 1960s, when Bramalea existed as an independent and fast-growing town, area planners implemented a master plan to oversee local development. Included in this master plan was a series of residential areas, industrial development, open parks, and amongst other things, a central shopping centre.^[3] An eighty-five acre site, situated in the heart of Bramalea, was designated for mall development. Bramalea Consolidated Developments Limited (later shortened to Bramalea Limited in 1976), the local real estate developer responsible for developing much of Bramalea, began mall construction towards the end of the decade on what was then the largest retail development in North America.^[4]

The first phase of construction entailed the "service centre" portion of the mall at the north end, about 75,000 square feet consisting of a Food City grocery store, LCBO, and various other small shops and offices, completed by 1971. The second phase added 600,000 square feet of mall space, including a two-level Eaton's (120,000 square feet total, officially opened October 7, 1971 while the rest of the mall was still under construction), the two-level main mall corridor of 300,000 square feet stretching east to another anchor store yet to have a tenant (The Bay would end up occupying this space, with 131,000 square feet on two levels), and Steinburg's retail space to the south, consisting of an 80,000 square foot Miracle Mart department store and a 20,000 square foot Miracle Food Mart supermarket, both next to each other on the upper level (later operated together as a Miracle Beaucoup).^[5]

Construction was completed in 1973, as the surrounding landscape experienced rapid change as the result of a population boom. The Bramalea City Centre had its grand opening on March 28, 1973;^[3] this was only four years after Brampton's first mall, Shoppers World Brampton, opened its doors in 1969. Initially opening with 160 outlets, Bramalea City Centre housed various retail stores, large anchor store tenants, grocery stores, restaurants and even a hardware store and a movie theatre (Bramalea Cinemas, closed in the late 80's when Odeon moved to Gateway 6 Cinemas). The nearby Bramalea Civic Centre was also constructed around this time in the early 70's, housing various municipal government offices, a theatre and the Brampton Public Library's Chinguacousy branch. There was a short underground tunnel under Team Canada Dr. connecting the mall and Civic Centre outside areas, visible in early aerial imagery but since removed.

Although Bramalea later became part of the city of Brampton during a 1974 amalgamation, the Bramalea City Centre, Brampton's largest mall, retained the name of the original community in which it was built. Mall expansion continued throughout the 1980s and 1990s under Bramalea Limited and Trizec Corporation (under Trilea Centers Inc) ownership and operation, including a northwest wing extension for the present Sears store location, and new bus terminal in 1991. A Holiday Inn, various separate external stores and the Region of Peel office buildings were built within the malls' site boundaries, but were not directly connected to the main mall.

New ownership & renovation

In the early 1990s, Bramalea Limited underwent financial hardships that eventually bankrupted the company in 1995. As its assets were liquidated to creditors, ownership of their 100% owned Bramalea City Centre went to the Toronto-Dominion Bank. In 1997 after increasing their ownership of it, Gentra Inc bought the rest of TD's stake in the mall.

Singer-songwriter Jason Collett commented on Bramalea City Centre's shady side: "The only real culture was at the Bramalea City Centre before they cleaned it up. It was this centre of drug trade for Ontario, because you could fly small planes into Orangeville, so there was this really cool underbelly, interesting and dangerous. But that's not what the suburbs are supposed to be about, so they cleaned it up."^[6]

The Bramalea City Centre was acquired by Canadian real estate firm Morguard Investments Limited in 2002.^[7]

In 2004 under the new ownership, the mall underwent a $165 million reconstruction to improve all common areas. The renovation, commencing in February of that year, transformed the mall into a more vibrant, aesthetically pleasing open shopping environment—adding automated kiosks, improved lighting, ceilings, floors, furnishings, increased security, and accessibility for shoppers; the renovation was completed in eight months, a majority of which was done during the night while the mall was closed.^[1] Upper and ground level corridors at the southwest end of the mall mainly composed of smaller tenant stores were removed in favour of larger store space occupying these areas for Old Navy, Shoppers Drug Mart, and Best Buy. Additional renovation projects were carried out in 2005 and 2006, revamping the food court, escalators, and other areas of the mall. Petroff Partnership Architects was in charge of the redesign; construction was carried out by Vanbots Construction. Morguard has spent over $165 million in mall improvements.^[7]

2010 expansion

A $165 million expansion project is underway at the Bramalea City Centre. The three-year project will create 417,292 square feet (38,767.7 m²) of underground parking space, six new pad buildings constructed on the property, add an additional 325,000 square feet (30,200 m²) of retail area on two levels, erect new architectural centerpiece at northwest corner of the property and relocate loading docks and chiller units. In November 2010, the expansion was opened to the public, though some tenants were still moving in.^[8]

See also

• Brampton
• List of largest enclosed shopping malls in Canada
• List of shopping malls in Canada

References

External links

• Official website
• Management website