Toronto’s Fairview Mall upgrades in response to a changing market

In the world of shopping malls, competition is fierce. That’s why Cadillac Fairview and Ivanhoe Cambridge took the redevelopment of the Fairview Mall in Toronto very seriously.

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$90 million redevelopment focus on move to larger tenant stores

In the world of shopping malls, competition is fierce. That’s why Cadillac Fairview and Ivanhoe Cambridge took the redevelopment of the Fairview Mall in Toronto very seriously.

The $90 million objective was to give a fresh face to the mall’s common areas and bring in a host of new trendy retail shops. While the jury is out on how successful the retooling of the 37-year-old mall will be (the final stores open their doors in November), the centre’s general manager Kevin Gray is optimistic that the changes will draw many customers.

Most major malls have the same or similar retail tenants so what gives one mall the drawing edge over another?

“The experience of different amenities” is part of the answer, says Gray, noting Fairview’s new amenities will set it apart from other regional malls. New features include rotating floral arrangements, extensive landscaping, new fountains and many small touches with customers in mind.

Furthermore, about half of the retail space in the mall has been reconfigured to allow for new tenants. The mall will see a drop from 240 stores to 175 — a response to a retailing trend for larger stores. “If we didn’t convert space for larger tenants (requiring 4,000 to 15,000 square feet) we would be running the risk of not being competitive with other malls,” explains Melody Fallis, senior marketing director of Cadillac Fairview.

Consumers are smarter than ever, she notes, and big mall developers are constantly playing with new ideas to maintain their customer base.

To successfully pull off the renos, the mall’s two secondary wings were closed and the space reconfigured to accommodate larger stores fronting the main mall corridor. Now, three tenants occupy the same amount of space that the 25 or so previous tenants did in one secondary corridor. The two wings were isolated and, therefore, didn’t provide tenants (often in stores less than 1,000 square feet) enough business.

“The new layout is L-shaped and almost ensures that our customers will see every store as they walk through the mall,” explains Gray.

Changes go beyond retail at Fairview. The mall’s food court, for instance, was moved from the upper level to a more visible location on the main floor.

“Rather than hide food courts in a corner of a mall, like developers did in the 1970s-’80s, they are now seen as an important feature,” says Fallis, noting that new centralized location features skylights, extensive landscaping (including two-storey high Olive trees) and colorful floral arrangements.

“We have over 55,000 people working within a five-kilometre radius. This food court gives them an opportunity for lunch.”

The mall will also feature floor-to-ceiling renovations in common areas, contemporary lounge soft-seat furniture, “zen-like fountains” and landscaping that will cover about 80 percent of the mall’s public spaces. That’s an increase of abut 70 percent.

Most of the construction was done at night to minimize disruption during shopping hours but the renos weren’t “sectioned off” so a two-hour cleaning routine was scheduled daily before the mall opened for business, says Gray.

“When you have a shopping centre expansion off to the side of the main mall, you may be able to get away with doing a lot of the work in the day, but we didn’t have that luxury,” he points out.

To do the job right (the development is only slightly over the initial budget and time frame) started with a complete audit of the building, says Mike Doole, director of development, Cadillac Fairview.

Knowing everything about the existing building’s structure helped minimize surprises during construction.

Throughout the two-year redevelopment retailers were kept in the know daily and even customers were apprised of the changes through construction updates published in the mall’s newsletter and other communication means. To ensure public and staff safety, security personnel were stationed throughout the mall.

Constructed in 1971, Fairview Mall expanded in 1988 and was redeveloped over the past two years. EllisDon is the construction manager.