Montreal Eaton Centre

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This article is about the shopping mall in Montreal. For other shopping malls named Eaton Centre, see Eaton Centre.
Montreal Eaton Centre
French: Centre Eaton de Montréal
Le Centre Eaton de Montréal - panoramio.jpg
Interior of the Montreal Eaton Centre (2016)
Map
Coordinates45°30′11″N 73°34′19″W / 45.503°N 73.572°W / 45.503; -73.572Coordinates: 45°30′11″N 73°34′19″W / 45.503°N 73.572°W / 45.503; -73.572
Address705, rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest
Montreal, Quebec
H3B 4G5
Opening date1990
ManagementIvanhoé Cambridge
OwnerIvanhoé Cambridge
No. of stores and services125+[1]
Total retail floor area45,000 square metres (480,000 sq ft)[1]
No. of floors
  • 5 (mall arcade)
  • 11 (highest number of levels of office component)
Parking472
Public transit accessMontreal public transit icons - Métro.svg MtlMetro1.svg at McGill
Montreal public transit icons - Autobus STM.svg McGill Terminus
Montreal public transit icons - Autobus STM.svg STM Buses
Websitewww.centreeatondemontreal.com/en/

The Montreal Eaton Centre (French: Centre Eaton de Montréal) is a shopping mall located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located in the downtown core within the borough of Ville-Marie, and is accessible through the Underground City, and is connected to the Montreal Metro via McGill station.

The Montreal Eaton Centre opened on November 14, 1990.[2] In 2018, it absorbed its adjacent sister mall Complexe Les Ailes and the two shopping centres were combined into a single property which retained the Montreal Eaton Centre name. As such, the property consists of two separate buildings at 677 Saint Catherine Street West (the former Eaton's flagship store which became the Complexe Les Ailes mall in 2002) and 705 Saint Catherine Street West (the former Les Terrasses mall, which became the original Montreal Eaton Centre).

The Montreal Eaton Centre shopping mall has a 45,000 square metres (480,000 sq ft) of gross leasable area. The building features an additional 51,000 square metres (550,000 sq ft) of office space on the upper levels, branded as "1500 University." A bronze statue of hockey player Ken Dryden and a three-storeys-tall tableau made by fine arts enamel painter Bernard Séguin Poirier are located in the mall.

History

Les Terrasses

The entrance to the Eaton Centre on Saint Catherine Street in downtown Montreal

The site at 705 Saint Catherine Street West originally featured a shopping mall name "Les Terrasses" from 1976 to 1987. It was built atop the now-defunct Victoria Street; the road and its buildings were expropriated for construction of the mall. The mall layout was a triangular spiral, with gradually-rising interconnected floors, approximately 45 feet (14 m) high in total. Though it had three escalators, one at each point of the triangle, patrons could gradually walk to the top of the mall.[3] Floors were colour-coded and the mall was adorned with trees, plants and ivy. It housed 140 stores,[4] each facing towards the centre of the triangle. Les Terrasses was demolished after only one decade of use and, following extensive construction, reopened as the Montreal Eaton Centre in 1990.[1] Like Les Terrasses, the new Montreal Eaton Centre was connected to the Montreal Metro, the Underground City, and the Eaton's department store. Eaton's department store, for which it was named, closed in 1999.[5]

The property was managed by Rouses Quebec Corporation Development and York Hannover Development from 1978 to 1993. In September 1997, after the demise of Services de Gestion CEM Inc., Cadillac Fairview took over the shopping centre.[6] In July 2000, Ivanhoé Cambridge (then known as Ivanhoe) acquired the mall through an exchange of assets. Cadillac Fairview ceded the Montreal Eaton Centre in exchange for Ivanhoe's stakes in Carrefour Laval and Promenades Saint-Bruno.[7]

On April 19, 2013, Musée Grévin Montreal, the first overseas Grévin, was opened on the fifth floor of the mall.[8] The museum closed in 2021 due to a decline in visitors amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Montreal.[9]

Goodwin's / Eaton's

Eaton's building in 2013

The building at 677 Saint Catherine Street West was originally three storeys tall, and was built for the Goodwin's department store in the early 1900s. The building was sold to Eaton's in 1925, at which time it was referred to as the Eaton's building. Through the Ross and Macdonald architecture firm, the first three-floor expansion was completed in 1927, and the second three-floor expansion was completed between 1930 and 1931. The top floor included Eaton's Ninth Floor Restaurant, which features an Art Deco design that was inspired by the dining room of the SS Île-de-France and was created following Jacques Carlu's plans. The building was expanded toward de Maisonneuve Boulevard between 1958 and 1959, and access to the Montreal Metro via McGill station was opened in 1967. The Eaton's building was home to Montreal's largest department store for decades.

In 1999, Ivanhoé Cambridge acquired the property following the closure of the Eaton's chain. After considerable redevelopment work between 2000 and 2002, including gutting and completely redesigning the interior (with only the exterior facade and parts of the 9th floor preserved), this flagship of the Montreal retail scene was transformed into the building known as Complexe Les Ailes and 1500 University. Along with Place Montreal Trust and the Montreal Eaton Centre, Complexe Les Ailes constituted Ivanhoé Cambridge's self-branded Sh3pping trio of shopping malls.[10]

The mall was named after the Les Ailes de la Mode department store which was its main retailer for over a decade and occupied a third of its total area. The store closed in 2016 and was replaced in 2019 by Decathlon which is one of the largest tenants of the current Montreal Eaton Centre.[11]

Unification project

In March 2014, Ivanhoé Cambridge announced it would merge Complexe Les Ailes with the Montreal Eaton Centre, and the newly merged complex would be renamed, dropping the Eaton Centre branding in the process.[12] However, it was later decided that Complexe Les Ailes would just be used to expand the Montreal Eaton Centre, and preserve the latter's name.[13] The two malls will be renovated so that they will have the same "look and feel" once merged.[12] In coming full circle, this change will restore the Eaton's name back to the same building that once housed Montreal's flagship Eaton's department store.[13]

List of anchor stores

Name No.
of floors 		Area Year
opened 		Notes
Uniqlo 2 32,000 sq ft (2,972.9 m2) 2020
Decathlon 2 35,000 sq ft (3,251.6 m2) 2019
Time Out Market 1 40,000 sq ft (3,716.1 m2) 2019

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Montreal Eaton Centre – Shopping Centre in Montreal, Canada" (PDF). Ivanhoe Cambridge.
  2. ^ "Eaton Centre opens today 130 of possible 230 stores are ready". Montreal Gazette. Montreal. 14 November 1990. p. D1.
  3. ^ "Les terrasses: One-stop downtown shopping for ..." Montreal Gazette. February 19, 1976 – via Google News Archive Search.
  4. ^ Halter, Fran (November 13, 1985). "Les Terrasses to be transformed into Le Centre Eaton of Montreal". Montreal Gazette – via Google News Archive Search.
  5. ^ "Eaton tire sa révérence, rue Sainte-Catherine". Les Archives de Radio-Canada (in French). 25 July 2000. Archived from the original on 2017-10-17.
  6. ^ "Centre Eaton: nouveau propriétaire". Le Devoir (in French). Montreal. April 10, 1997. p. C3. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  7. ^ "Ivanhoe buys Eaton Centre in Montreal. Cadillac gets full ownership of two suburban malls". National Post. Toronto, Ontario. July 5, 2000. p. C04.
  8. ^ "Grévin Montréal wax museum opens". Montreal Gazette. April 17, 2013. Archived from the original on July 13, 2013. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  9. ^ "Montreal's wax museum is closing for good, and looking for new homes for its statues". CBC News. September 19, 2021. Retrieved September 29, 2021.
  10. ^ "Sh3pping". Ivanhoé Cambridge. Archived from the original on October 23, 2013. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
  11. ^ "Shopping Mall Map | Montreal Eaton Centre".
  12. ^ a b "Quebec's busiest mall (Montreal Eaton Centre) to change its name in a merger". March 24, 2014.
  13. ^ a b "Montreal Eaton Centre Overhaul Details Revealed". Retail Insider. January 25, 2018. Retrieved January 11, 2020.

External links

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