Opened in 1964, Yorkdale Shopping Centre was the first enclosed, automobile-centred shopping mall opened in Toronto.
Toronto has several shopping malls across the city, including five major destination malls that are among the largest and profitable in Canada. The first enclosed shopping mall in Toronto was the Toronto Arcade in the downtown core. The first shopping mall of the enclosed, automobile-centred design type was Yorkdale Shopping Centre, which opened in 1964.
Major shopping centres
Toronto's five major shopping centres each have over one hundred stores and are anchored by multiple department stores, international brands and luxury retailers. They are also the five largest malls in Toronto by floor space. Each provides thousands of automobile parking spaces. With the exceptions of Sherway Gardens and Scarborough Town Centre, all of these malls have direct pedestrian connections with the Toronto subway system, though Sherway Gardens has a bus terminal connecting Toronto Transit Commission and MiWay bus routes and Scarborough Town Centre was connected to Scarborough Centre station of Line 3 Scarborough until July 2023. Yorkdale Shopping Centre is Toronto's first of its kind and was the world's largest shopping mall at the time of opening,[1] while Toronto Eaton Centre is the most visited shopping mall in North America. These five malls were completed within a 13-year span in the 1960s and 1970s. The five malls are owned by either Cadillac Fairview or Oxford Properties, two of Canada's largest commercial real estate investment companies. A sixth major mall is planned by Cadillac Fairview in Toronto's planned East Harbour neighbourhood by the intersection of Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway / Lake Shore Boulevard and be also served by the planned East Harbour Transit Hub on the Ontario Line and GO Transit's Lakeshore East line.[2]
The district or neighbourhood level of shopping centres in Toronto are typically built around one or a few department stores or grocery supermarkets and are enclosed. These shopping centres typically provide a surrounding free parking lot. Most of these are located in the suburbs of Toronto, where land was available for parking. There are only two shopping malls of this type within Toronto's pre-1998 city limits: Dufferin Mall (on Dufferin Street south of Bloor Street and north of College Street) and Gerrard Square (on Gerrard Street East east of Pape Avenue and west of Jones Avenue). The third shopping mall in Old Toronto, Galleria Shopping Centre (at Dufferin Street and Dupont Street), was demolished in January 2020. There are a few ethnic malls of this type as well.
Malls located within major office buildings and condominium towers
College Park is one of several buildings in Toronto that is used as an office complex and a shopping centre.
One configuration of shopping mall in Toronto is the self-contained type located within a commercial office building, sometimes around a central atrium. This type typically does not provide a surrounding parking lot. These malls typically house from a dozen to several dozen stores. Most of these are connected to a station of the Toronto subway system. In the case of the Hudson's Bay Centre, the mall connects the department store to the Toronto subway system at Bloor–Yonge station. Some of these malls can be located in the taller condominium towers. These malls are located in the core (Old Toronto), unless marked otherwise:
The Atrium on Bay (Dundas Street West and Yonge Street)
Aura (Yonge Street and Gerrard Street); mixed-use with retail on the first four floors and the first basement
In Downtown Toronto, primarily in the Financial District, there are interconnected shopping malls located at least one flight of stairs underground. The complex as a whole is named 'Path'. The Toronto Eaton Centre (see above) is connected to the complex. The complex has 1,200 stores, and according to Guinness World Records, the Path is the largest underground shopping complex in the world with 371,600 m2 (4,000,000 sq ft) of retail space.[4]
Open-air shopping plazas are larger collections of stores built with surrounding parking areas, with parking spaces separated from the storefronts by sidewalks. These shopping centres generally serve the local surrounding area and have a large proportion of family-run businesses, some of which serve ethnic communities.
Dufferin Business Centre (Dufferin Street between Castlefield Avenue and the former York–North York boundary), York
Iranian Plaza (Yonge Street between Cummer Avenue and Steeles Avenue), North York; ethnic mall
Lawrence Plaza (Bathurst Street and Lawrence Avenue West), North York
Milliken Wells Plaza (McCowan Road and Alton Towers Circle), Scarborough
Peanut Plaza (Don Mills Road and Van Horne Avenue), North York
Sheppard Plaza (Sheppard Avenue West and Bathurst Street), North York
Shops at Don Mills (Don Mills Road and Lawrence Avenue East), North York
Sunnybrook Plaza (Eglinton Avenue East and Bayview Avenue), East York
Tam O'Shanter Plaza (Sheppard Avenue East east of Kennedy Road), Scarborough
The Landmark (Steeles Avenue and Middlefield Road), Scarborough; ethnic mall
Victoria Terrace (Victoria Park Avenue and Lawrence Avenue East), North York
Whiteshield Plaza (Kennedy Road and Lawrence Avenue East), Scarborough
York Mills Gardens (Leslie Street and York Mills Road), North York
Power centres
Power centres mainly consist of major national and international big-box stores with large amounts of parking space separate from the stores themselves, and which serve a larger area than the open-air shopping plazas do.
The following shopping malls have been demolished or closed. Some have been replaced by new strip plazas or re-developed for non-retail uses:
The original Yonge Street Arcade building, circa 1885. The shopping centre was opened in 1884 and operated until it was demolished in 1954 and replaced with the new Arcade Building.
The original Yonge Street Arcade (1884–1954) at 137 Yonge Street and consisting of 52 stores was considered Canada's first indoor mall. It was demolished in 1954 following two fires and was replaced in 1960 by the Arcade Building, which had a similar arcade-style concourse on its main floor until 2008 when the floor was redeveloped with the arcade being replaced with a fitness centre and offices.
Golden Mile Plaza (1954–1986) at Eglinton Avenue East and Victoria Park Avenue, demolished after the 1986 fire and later replaced with a power centre named Golden Mile Mall.
Morningside Mall (1979–2007) at Morningside Avenue and Kingston Road, Scarborough; the indoor mall was demolished to make way for an outdoor big box plaza called Morningside Crossing[7][8]
Northtown Shopping Centre (1950s–2000s) – located at 5421 Yonge and built on part of Cummer Pioneer Cemetery (north Parr along Yonge) and demolished and replaced by condominium complex (Delmanor Northtown).
Rexdale Plaza (1957–2004), Islington Avenue and Rexdale Boulevard, Etobicoke[9] and enclosed in 1972. Most stores closed by 2003 and demolition of south end in 2004 with north end of mall retained (with an Asian supermarket and a few small stores). Since 2004, its south end was redeveloped as an outdoor mall with Wal-Mart Supercentre as a stand-alone big box store.
Warden Woods Mall or Warden Power Centre (1981–2005) at Warden Avenue north of St. Clair Avenue East near Warden station, Scarborough[10] was a full mall with three anchor stores (The Bay, Simpson's and a Knob Hill Farms grocery store) and later as clearance centre. It has since been demolished and replaced with townhouses.
Weston-Finch Mall (1960s–2006), Weston Road and Finch Avenue West, North York — former strip mall (with Zellers, Canadian Tire and McDonald's as tenants) and later as outlet facility; demolished 2006 and vacant lot[when?] awaiting redevelopment for rental apartments.
Westside Mall, Eglinton Avenue West west of Caledonia Road, York — replaced with a power centre of the same name during the early 2000s (with Canadian Tire, Rogers Wireless (originally Rogers Video then Rogers Plus), FreshCo (renamed from Price Chopper), Dollar Tree (formerly occupied by Shoppers Drug Mart) and CIBC as major tenants) and will be connected to Caledonia station of both GO Transit's Barrie line and the Toronto subway system's Line 5 Eglinton in 2023 at the earliest.
Honeydale Mall (1973–2013): Located in Eatonville neighbourhood of Toronto; officially closed on 28 June 2013.
Former flea markets
Flea market at the southwest corner of Midland Avenue and Sheppard Avenue East is closed since the early 2000s and the property was to be redeveloped concurrent with the Sheppard East LRT's construction; the construction of the LRT was cancelled and LRT has been replaced with Line 4 extension.
Dufferin and Steeles Flea Market, replaced with The Home Depot.
Toronto Weston Flea Market, Old Weston Road and St. Clair Avenue West, Old Toronto (later relocated to a much smaller site nearby on St. Clair Avenue West at Hounslow Heath Road between Old Weston Road and GO Transit's Barrie line)
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