Demolition of West End Mall Sears (2001)
West End Mall (Currently Mumford Professional Centre) was an indoor shopping centre located in Halifax, NS Canada. It is now a Professional / Business Centre.
History[]
In 1919, Simpson's department store opened its first location in Halifax. It was the largest department store in Halifax and did well for many years.
In 1963, The now Simpson's Sears location had a major expansion and renovation to the store, they also added a Mumford Road level entrance.
In 1972, the store was renovated to become a Sears Canada.
A couple of years later, Crombie REIT decided to build an indoor shopping mall attached to this Sears Canada location to compete with Halifax Shopping Centre directly across the street. It opened on August 1, 1975, with its original anchors were Simpson's, Sears Canada, and a Sobeys grocery store. The mall did fine throughout the 1970s and 1980s, although Halifax Shopping Centre always did better.
In August 1983, Simpsons built a new store at the opposite end of the mall. The previous location became the Sears Distribution Centre.
On July 30, 1986, all Nova Scotia Simpson's department store locations were bought out and rebranded into Hudson's Bay, including the West End Mall location.
In the early 1990s, the Sobeys closed and moved to Halifax Shopping Centre. The old Sobeys location became Access Nova Scotia offices.
In 1998, West End Mall received a renovation. The inside was redone with new tile, and the exterior entrances were redone. By this time, the second floor was only used for offices, retail was only on the first floor
In 1999, Eaton's closed at Halifax Shopping Centre. While this may of seemed like a good thing for West End Mall, it wasn't, as the Sears at West End Mall moved into the HSC Eaton's space soon after. In 2001, the Halifax Shopping Centre owners bought the old Sears space at West End Mall and demolished it. In its place, they built a Walmart Supercentre and Sobeys.
With the Sears gone, and Sobeys not having a mall entrance, the mall quickly declined ever further. By 2003, the remaining tenants were Hudson's Bay (Keep in mind that Hudson's Bay owned their own building, and thus the store didn't make any money for Crombie REIT), A Buck or Two (Later Cost-U-Less Dollar Store), A&W, Access Nova Scotia, Charm Diamond Centres (Later Whatever Giftware), DownEast MT&T Mobility Centre (Later Aliant), Dr. LA Mendelson & Associates Optometrist, Halifax Regional Municipality, Ink Jet Exchange, Lotto Booth, Melrose Cafe, Shoppers Drug Mart, Subwich (A rip off of Subway), The Head Shoppe, Tim Hortons, Trans Canada Credit and Whatever Giftware. The rest of the mall was either empty or offices.
In October 2008, Crombie REIT sold West End Mall to the owners of Halifax Shopping Centre. Soon after, they converted the mall into the Mumford Professional Centre (A.K.A. HSC Annex) All of the remaining retail within the mall closed, and was converted to offices.
In late April 2011, The Hudson's Bay location closed at the former mall. It was converted to Bay West Centre, which includes CBC News, Eastern College and several offices. 5 years later, construction of a 3 level office tower above it was completed in 2016.
In November 2023, Primaris bought the Halifax Shopping Centre & Annex and Mumford Professional Centre.
On March 11, 2024, the Winners at the former West End Mall closed and moved into part of the former HSC Sears space.
Stores[]
- Main article: West End Mall/Stores
Gallery[]
