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Highland Square Mall is a regional enclosed shopping centre in New Glasgow, NS. It serves all of Pictou County.
History[]
The location of Highland Square Mall was originally a rural highway, farmland, and some houses, as more development came to Pictou County, a regional shopping centre was built right off the highway 104, which is part of the trans-Canada highway system. In preparation for the mall, people that lived on the land were evicted from their homes in 1979. Soon after, the buildings on the property were bulldozed so mall construction could start. The malls construction costed 12 million dollars and was complete by early 1981.
Highland Square Mall had an opening date of February 1981. Its original anchors were Dominion, Canadian Tire, Consumers Distributing, and Woolco. Later on, the mall expanded to add Sears as another anchor. Other original tenants include Toronto Dominion Bank, Shoppers Drug Mart, and Smart Set. Cole's Books is one of the last original tenants that are still open today, there was also an arcade called "Starcade". When the mall opened, it employed over 500 workers. [1]
The mall enjoyed lots of success for many years, the mall was filled with many national tenants, and hosted community events like a Sunday flea market. The area around the mall started to develop, housing and various other shopping plazas were built in the area, with more people in the area, the mall became even more popular.
In 1985, Dominion left the Nova Scotian market. Soon after, the location at Highland Square was replaced with Sobeys Food Village, which was later rebranded to just Sobeys.
In March 1994, Woolco was rebranded to Walmart Canada following the buyout of the Canadian division of Woolco from Walmart.
In the 2000s, the mall had some renovations done. The floor tile was replaced and the mall logo was changed. During this time, Sobeys closed its store at the mall.
In the late 2000s, many changes happened at Highland Square. Sears was demolished in 2006 to build a new Walmart Supercentre directly adjacent to the mall, In 2007, Walmart closed its original location and moved into the new Supercentre. Soon after, Canadian Tire moved into the old Walmart space. Winners moved into the old Canadian Tire space and Sears moved into the old Sobeys space. After these changes, a Future Shop was built next to the mall. Around 2008, Shoppers Drug Mart closed and moved to another part of New Glasgow.
Because of the demolition of the old Sears, there was no longer an anchor in that area of the mall. This started a decline in foot traffic, causing some stores to close.
In 2015, Future Shop closed, this location wasn't turned into Best Buy and it remains abandoned. In the same year, Sears was turned into a Sears Outlet Store and a Michael's opened at the mall.
In 2017, Sears closed its location at Highland Square, it was replaced with Boston Pizza and Great Canadian Dollar Store.
In the 2020s, the mall declined even further with the departure of Michael's which still remains vacant. Stores like Ardene, The Source, Hallmark, Stokes, Naturalizer, Alia & Tanjay, Showcase, and more all closed their doors at Highland Square. The mall has never seen any major renovations for two decades, these days, the mall is dark and old, and half or more of the store spaces are now vacant. It seems like the Walmart Supercentre really started the downfall of Highland Square. Hopefully, the mall will receive some much needed renovations and the mall can get back on its feet. If not, the mall will continue to die until its potential closure in the future.
Public Transportation[]
Highland Square Mall is served by Pictou County Transit, which is a public transit service that serves the Pictou county region. The main PCT bus loop stops at the mall hourly.
Maritime Bus, a regional transit service that runs throughout the Maritimes of Canada also has a stop nearby.
Highland Square Mall Tenant List[]
Main Article: Highland Square Mall/Stores
Newfoundland Nova Scotia New Brunswick
Newfoundland Nova Scotia New Brunswick Prince Edward Island "Former" doesn't always mean that the mall is no longer in operation, sometimes it means that the mall was sold to another company.
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