Yorkdale Shopping Center , or just Yorkdale , is a major retail shopping mall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located a few kilometers northwest of Downtown Toronto at the intersection of Highway 401 and Allen Road, adjacent to Yorkdale subway station in the former North York town.
Yorkdale is the fourth largest shopping center in the country and has the highest sales per unit area of ​​any mall in Canada. It goes beyond the Vancouver Pacific Center, with current merchandise sales levels around CA $ 1,610 /square feet. At 18 million annual visitors, this is the busiest mall in the country. This mall contains over 250 stores, including many luxury retailers. Many international companies have opened their first retail location in Canada in Yorkdale, including Apple, Microsoft, Tesla Motors, the White House Black Market, and The Cheesecake Factory.
Yorkdale is currently owned by a joint venture between Ontario City Employee Retirement System through its subsidiaries Oxford Properties Group and Alberta Investment Management Corporation.
Video Yorkdale Shopping Centre
History
Construction and design
In the 1950s, department stores T. Eaton & amp; Co bought a 40-hectare (99 acre) site on Dufferin Street and Highway 401 for a new location on the outskirts of the city. In 1958, Simpson's rival chain store bought an 8-hectare (20-acre) site to the east and plans to build the complex were announced that year. The mall design was given to consulting firm John Graham Seattle, except for the Simpson store, designed by John Andrews from John B. Parkin Associates. Howard Lesser is a planning and development consultant. Using Lesser market research, developers determine how much floor space is assigned to each category of retailers, and chooses retailers that will appeal to many buyers.
The mall opened on February 26, 1964, under the ownership of Trizec Corporation. The gross leasable area (GLA) is over 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m 2 ), by far the largest in Canada at the time. It is also one of the largest shopping centers in the world. When it opened, Yorkdale is the first Canadian mall that includes two major department stores: Simpson's and Eaton's, under the same roof. Built at a cost of $ 40 million. Before the big malls in the suburbs like Yorkdale became popular, most people in the Toronto area did their major shopping malls. Yorkdale is on the edge of the urban city. The new shopping center has required the construction of the Spadina Express Line, later renamed Allen Road, as developers will not proceed until the toll road is approved for development.
The mall is built with a new system for retailers to receive merchandise. While other Canadian shopping centers have their receivers located on the back side, Yorkdale is built with one-way streets, two lanes for trucks running under the center that lead directly to the retailer's basement. The mall design includes a 60-foot (18 m) high atrium, 40-foot wide (12 m) and a 27-foot (8.2 m) ceiling. The corridors still retain the look and feel of this even though the renovations in 2006 replaced the ceilings, windows, floors and skylights.
Expansion and renovation
The Universal Man sculpture in the western parking lot was moved from the base of the CN Tower to accommodate the construction of the Rogers Center (later known as SkyDome) in 1987 and moved to Yorkdale in 1994.
In 1999, Yorkdale completed a major overhaul by adding the Rainforest Cafà ©  © restaurant, a cinema of Famous SilverCity player (which has been taken over by Cineplex Entertainment), and the Indigo Books and Music store on the north side of the mall, overlooking Highway 401.
In 2005, a $ 60 million expansion in its former Eaton department store location increased Yorkdale's size to 1,404,646Ã, sqÃ, ft (130,495.9m 2 ), and increased the number of stores from about 210 to 260 The culmination of this expansion was the construction of a 60 foot (18 m) green atrium over 300 feet (91 m), which hung from the exterior support structure. The expansion adds Old Navy, Zara, H & amp; M, Tommy Hilfiger, and Home Outfitters as sub-anchors. This gave Yorkdale the title of the third largest mall in Ontario after the Square One Shopping Center in Mississauga and the Toronto Eaton Center, in front of Scarborough Town Center in terms of retail floor space.
The renovation project continued into 2006 and 2007. The renovation fits into the early part of the mall for style expansion in 2005. The main elements of the project include new public toilets, the opening of Moxie's Grill & amp; Restaurant bar, and new automatic sliding doors at all entrances. The ad campaign, labeled as "Change It Up!" launched in conjunction with renovation and redevelopment, won the MAXI Award from International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) in 2007.
Expansion continued in the second half of the decade. In April 2008, Yorkdale opened a Michael Kors store. Further additions include Armani Exchange, Crate & amp; Barrel, BOSS shop, and Tiffany & amp; Together.
In January 2011, Yorkdale announced another expansion, adding 145,000 sq., Ft (13,500 m 2 ), enough for 40 storefronts, and 800 underground parking spaces. This new wing takes the southwest parking space. Expansion also moves and doubles the number of seats in the food court, improves public access, and landscape portions of the property. The expansion, costing $ 35 million, opened in summer 2012, and completed in November 2012. Foodstuffs are being moved to a new location on the third level of the former Eaton department store. The new food court, named "Dine on 3" includes 45,000 sqÃ, ft (4,200 m 2 ) and features 18 different restaurants. The former area of ​​the food court was redeveloped into a new wing, which housed new stores including Microsoft Store and Tesla showrooms, as well as the larger Apple Store. A new parking garage was built under the wing.
In June 2013, Sears Canada announced the closing of its store in Yorkdale. The former Sears room is used for Sporting Life and Restoration Hardware (branded as RH), both open on October 19, 2017.
In April 2013, Yorkdale announced a $ 330 million expansion, which will add 298,000 sq ft (27,700 m 2 ) retail, featuring three levels of 188,000 sqÃ, ft (17,500 m 2 ) Nordstrom Shop and Uniqlo Shop. The project involves the closure of the Rainforest Cafà ©  © (in Yorkdale since 1999), as well as the demolition of a multi-level parking garage in the southeast of the complex bordering Yorkdale Road. The project starts in January 2014 and new wings are opened for business by the end of 2016.
Incident
Two stabbings occurred at the mall in 2008. In the first half of 2013, two shootings occurred in the mall. The first occurred outside the surface of the lot late on Saturday night in March 2013, leaving one person dead and one person injured. In May 2013, a man was injured by a shot to Joey's restaurant at midnight on Friday night. Yorkdale improved its security with a new $ 3.4 million video surveillance system that came into use in March 2014. The new system provides full 360 degree surveillance of malls and parking lots. It also includes a plate recognition technology at the parking entrance.
Maps Yorkdale Shopping Centre
Reseller
Retail mix
When it first opened, Yorkdale had a large number of clothing retailers along with major department stores in various stores. Yorkdale is the first Canadian mall that includes two major department stores: Simpson's and Eaton's, under the same roof. Eaton went bust in 1999 and its space was rebuilt into a new wing opened in 2005.
Since the late 1990s onwards, the management of Yorkdale has focused on attracting luxury brand retailers, especially those selling clothing and accessories, as well as top-class electronics, a strategy also adopted by Sherway Gardens. These include Versace, Bulgari, Burberry, Cartier, Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Kate Spade, Tory Burch, Moncler, Jimmy Choo, Apple, and Bose. Yorkdale also attracts American and international retailers who want to expand to Canada. Yorkdale bought Sears rent in 2014 to reallocate the space to higher-priced department stores.
Unlike other major shopping malls in Toronto, such as the Toronto Eaton Center, Scarborough Town Center, Sherway Gardens, and Fairview Mall, Yorkdale has no grocery stores or discount store tenants. In the vicinity of Yorkdale, there are factory outlets and discount stores nearby on Orfus Road, while the big box stores are located on Dufferin Street just north of Highway 401. Lawrence Square Shopping Center to the south on Lawrence Avenue at Allen Road serves local communities.
Yorkdale places a requirement on each tenant to renovate on a regular basis. When each tenant renews the lease with the mall, they are asked to renovate their store.
Department store
Department stores in the mall are Hudson's Bay, Nordstrom and Holt Renfrew
First person in Canada
Yorkdale has become a point of entry into the Canadian market for many well-known international commercial companies. Companies that have opened or plan to open their first Canadian store in Yorkdale include:
According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, more than 30 American retailers contact mall management, looking to open their first Canadian store in Yorkdale after Crate & amp; Barrel revealed that their first store outside the United States will open here in 2008.
Yorkdale's Nordstrom is the fourth location in Canada, opened after locations at the Toronto Eaton Center, Chinook Center in Calgary and Ottawa Rideau Center. The Yorkdale Uniqlo Shop is the second of its kind in Canada when it opened in late 2016, a few months after Uniqlo first opened at the Toronto Eaton Center in September before. Yorkdale's Lego Store is the second in Canada after its first opening at Fairview Mall.
See also
- List of shopping centers in Canada
- List of shopping centers in Toronto
- List of the largest shopping malls in Canada
References
External links
- Official website
- Yorkdale store directory
- Oxford Group Properties
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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