Centre Mall

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Centre Mall was an enclosed shopping mall in Hamilton, Ontario. It was one of the first shopping centres in Hamilton and all of Ontario. The mall lasted for many years before competition from other malls made Centre Mall decline, and this led to its eventual closure and redevelopment and demolition in 2008.

History[]

Before the Centre Mall, there was the Hamilton Jockey Club. In the early 1950s, the jockey club closed and the large piece of land sat vacant. Soon after, the land was purchased and the Greater Hamilton Shopping Centre was constructed. The mall had an opening date of October 26th, 1955. Originally, the mall was open-air. The malls original anchors were Dominion, Morgan's and Simpsons-Sears.

The mall was very popular, and continued to operate. In the 1960s. Kmart was added as a fourth anchor and the two screen Centre Cinemas was added. In the early 1970s, the mall was enclosed and the name was changed to "Centre Mall". This name was used up until the malls closure.

Throughout the 1970s, malls such as Lime Ridge, Eastgate Square, and Mapleview Shopping Centre opened in the same area as Centre Mall. This made more competition for Centre Mall.

In 1972, Simpsons-Sears was converted to a standard Sears Canada location. In June of the same year, Morgan's was acquired by the Hudson's Bay Company. As there was a Hudson's Bay location at Eastgate Square, this location closed. Later on, a Robinson's department store moved into the former Morgan's space.

In 1992, Robinson's ended their operations and closed all stores. Later on, a Zellers moved into the space.

In April 1986, the two screen cinema was upgraded to a 6 screen cinema, and was rebranded as Cineplex Odeon.

In the 1990s, Centre Mall began to lose tenants. The mall was old and outdated looking at this point, and most people shopped at other nearby malls that were modern and offered more selection.

In 1998, Kmart permanently closed after they left the Canadian market. This space stayed empty for the rest of the malls life.

On October 21, 2001, the Centre cinemas permanently closed. This caused even more tenants to close.

Centre Mall's End[]

By 2006, it was decided that the Centre Mall would be redeveloped into a power centre called The Centre on Barton. In 2008, Centre Malls interior permanently closed. The first parts of the mall to be demolished were Sears, which moved to Eastgate Square in September 2008, and the former Kmart store. By mid 2009, a Canadian Tire was built and opened where Sears used to be. The last part of be demolished was Zellers, which stayed up until mid 2009, a year after the mall closed. On December 4th, 2009, a new Zellers opened at the power centre. The Centre Malls outparcel which included Canadian Tire and Metro were demolished to build a Walmart Supercentre.

Gallery[]

Centre Mall

The Centre on Barton

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