Eastgate Square is an enclosed shopping mall in the eastern suburban area of Hamilton. Eastgate Square is one of the most popular malls in the Hamilton area, however, larger malls such as Lime Ridge overshadow the mall.
The malls current anchors include Fortino's, Winners, HomeSense and Sport Chek. Past anchors include Sears, Walmart, and Hudson's Bay.
History[]
Eastgate Square opened in 1973. Its original anchors were Robinson's, Eaton's, Loblaws, and Woolco. Along with these anchors, there were over 100 other retailers and services within the mall.
In the late 1970s, Loblaws moved into a larger space on the other side of the mall by Eaton's. The former space was reconfigured into several store spaces.
In the mid 1980s, Loblaws was converted to a No Frills location. In 1989, No Frills closed and was converted to Fortino's which opened in 1990.
In 1992, the Hudson's Bay Company converted the Robinson's location at Eastgate Square to a Hudson's Bay location as part of the phase out of the Robinson's name.
In 1994, Woolco was purchased by Walmart. All Canadian locations were converted to the Walmart Canada banner in March, including the Eastgate Square location.
In 1999, Eaton's, one of the most popular tenants of Eastgate permanently closed as the company went bankrupt and ended operations. The space was left vacant for a year before it was demolished. A new Fortino's location was built on the land. The old location was converted into a HomeSense.
Around 2007, Eastgate Square underwent a renovation. This redid all of the mall entrances and modernized the property.
In 2008, a brand new Hamilton Street Railway bus terminal was built in the parking lot of the mall which is served by 8 different bus routes.
In the same year it was announced that the Hudson's Bay location at the mall would permanently close. The store closed in May. In September, Sears opened a new location in the space, relocating from its former location at Centre Mall. Around this time, speculation began that Walmart would relocate to a new supercentre location away from the mall.
In late 2011, suspicions were confirmed when Walmart began the liquidation of the Eastgate Square location. The location closed in January of 2011 and relocated around 2 kilometers away.
As soon as Walmart closed. The owners of Eastgate Square announced a new expansion of the mall which utilized the Walmart space. On August 20th, 2013, the new wing of the mall opened which added several new tenants such as Sport Chek, Dollarama, Winners, and Urban Planet. With this expansion, the rest of the mall also had renovations done.
In 2017, it was announced that all Canadian Sears locations would permanently close following the bankruptcy of the chain. With a closing date of January 14th, 2018, the Eastgate Square location was one of the last to close.
After Sears closed, speculation began on what would move into the vacant space. In 2022, Designer Row, a clothing store, moved into part of the space. However, this store closed only a year later in 2023. In October 2023, Labels moved into the space, which continues to operate today.
Redevelopment Plans[]
In June of 2022, Harrison Equity Partners announced new redevelopment for part of the site. The plan involves demolishing the former Sears space and part of the mall to build 10 residential towers which go up to 42 stories tall. This new space would be transit-oriented as many bus routes serve the mall. Eastgate Square would be downsized to 300 000 square feet.
Gallery[]
Stores & Services[]
- Main article: Eastgate Square/Stores
Eastgate Square currently has just over 100 stores and services. The mall is almost at a 100% occupancy rate, with only a few vacancies.