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Shopping Centers Today -> July 2003
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MILLS BREAKS GROUND IN CANADA
BY IAN RITTER
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| Mills’ first Canadian mall is going up near Toronto. |
The Mills Corp. began work on its second international project last month, though this time a little closer to home than its newly opened Madrid Xanadú, in Spain.
Mills is building a 1.2 million-square-foot value megamall called Vaughan (Ontario) Mills, north of Toronto. When the retail-entertainment center opens in the fall of 2004, it will be the company’s 15th megamall. (Meanwhile, Mills is scheduled to open two other value megamalls: St. Louis Mills this fall and Cincinnati Mills in the spring of 2004.)
Montréal-based REIT Ivanhoe Cambridge, which owns 50 regional and super-regional shopping centers in Canada, the United States and Poland, will be Mills’ partner in the project. In the past Mills has often teamed with German investment firm Kan Am on its megamall projects.
“In terms of super-regional access, this is the site,” said Tom Balkos, associate vice president of retail services in the Toronto North office of CB Richard Ellis. He noted that the center will be located mere minutes from three major highways and Paramount Canada’s Wonderland theme park. “This is going to be one of Toronto’s biggest tourist draws.”
Vaughan Mills’ retail and entertainment anchors will include Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, Burlington Coat Factory, The Children’s Place Outlet, ESPN X Games Skatepark, H&M, Lucky Strike Lanes and Tommy Hilfiger Factory Store. The center, to be themed “Discover Ontario,” will architecturally mimic various aspects of the Canadian province, such as its small towns, its more urbanized areas and its nature settings. Some 7.5 million people live within 60 miles of the center, according to the companies.
The project could serve as an entryway into Canada for many U.S. brands.
“This would be an appropriate testing ground for any retailers that have not crossed the border,” Balkos said. “It’s the safest test spot they can pick in the country.”
Neither company would reveal the project’s cost at press time, but both said the center will be a significant economic driver in the area.
“Vaughan Mills represents an important investment for our company in the Greater Toronto area,” said Ivanhoe Cambridge President and CEO René Tremblay, in a press release. “Together with the Mills, we are introducing a one-of-a-kind destination to the Canadian marketplace.”
Mills received more good news last month. The California State Lands Commission approved its plan to redevelop piers 27-31 in San Francisco. There the company, along with the YMCA, has proposed 300,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, as well as a YMCA facility, office space, boat ramps and other developments.
Doubt over the project’s prospects arose this spring, when state Deputy Attorney General Alan Hager said the development violated land-use laws. Mills must still get the approval of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, the Port of San Francisco and the San Francisco Planning Department.
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