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Shopping Centers Today -> May 2003
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RICHARD C. BAXTER, 81, CANADIAN MALL PIONEER
Richard C. Baxter, an ICSC past chairman and one of Canada’s first shopping center developers, died March 7. He was 81.
“Canada has lost a great visionary and entrepreneur,” said Ian Thomas, chairman of Vancouver, British Columbia-based retail consulting firm Thomas Consultants and a former ICSC provincial director for British Columbia.
Baxter was ICSC’s chairman for the 1974-1975 term. He entered the Canadian real estate development scene in the late 1950s, when he formed R.C. Baxter Ltd. (renamed The Baxter Group in 1971), a Winnipeg, Manitoba-based commercial real estate development company. He started out building apartment complexes in Winnipeg, said J. Lorne Braithwaite, chairman of Ethan Allan Canada, Toronto, and ICSC chairman for the 1995-1996 term. But retail soon caught Baxter’s eye.
Baxter became best known for developing the 750,000-square-foot Market Mall, Calgary, Alberta, in 1965. The enclosed regional mall introduced some retail development innovations, recalls Allan Waisman, a Vancouver-based architect and former company partner. The architectural and construction team limited the height of the interior walls between stores to 10 feet, which allowed the heating and air-conditioning lines to be run through all the stores instead of having separate systems for each tenant. This was both more energy-efficient and could be built all at once, rather than in stages as each tenant leased space.
Market Mall was also conceived as a project with the potential to expand into a town center format, said Waisman.
“There was room for an entertainment section, a community center, apartment buildings — [essentially,] 24-hour activity,” he said.
Among Baxter’s other retail projects were the 300,000-square-foot Saskatoon (Saskatchewan) Market Mall and several early power centers, including the Grant Park Mall and Polo Park, both in Winnipeg.
The company relocated to Vancouver in 1971.
Baxter served his community as a founding member and past president of the West Winnipeg Rotary Club. He also served as a former board member of the National Theatre School and the Vancouver Playhouse.
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