Rockland Centre
Centre Rockland | |
STM: 100, 119, 179, 365, 460 | |
Website | centrerockland |
---|
Rockland Centre (
Modern tenants
Rockland Centre is home to
Anchors are
Current structure
Rockland Centre has three floors. But only the second and third floors are shopping space.
The first floor has only four tenants: Sports Experts, Nautilus Plus
The second (main) floor features boutiques and the anchors
The third (top) floor consists of boutiques and the mall's food court. The second floor of Hudson's Bay is located on the mall's top floor.
Historical
Original shopping centre (1959-1982)
Rockland Centre first opened in 1959 with Steinberg's, Morgan's, Woolworth's, Holt Renfrew, United Cigars and 35-40 other tenants.[1][2]
The original Rockland Centre was an outdoor shopping centre.[3] It was a single-story shopping centre.[4] Morgan's, however, had three floors. It was designed by architects Victor Prus,[2] and Ian Martin.[5] It was the first shopping centre in the province to bring the "mall" concept, meaning a central corridor in the form of an open walkway surrounded by shops on each side.[6]
Some of the tenants of the original centre included Reitmans, Laura Secord Chocolates, Browns Shoes and Bank of Montreal.[7]
The Morgan's stores in Montreal were rebranded as
Conversion into an upscale indoor mall (1982-1983)
By 1982, Rockland Centre was in steady decline due to the emergence of newer shopping malls.[10] In particular, Rockland was considered a small shopping centre even by the standards of that time and it also lacked an enclosed mall.[10] Compounded with the fact that it was located in the prosperous town of Mount Royal, the owners saw an opportunity to redevelop the centre.[10]
Rockland Centre began in August 1982 a major renovation to transform itself into the upscale shopping mall it is today.[11] Most of the original shopping centre was demolished. Only Steinberg's, The Bay and a handful of small tenants were spared from demolition.[3] The Bay temporarily closed its store on January 15, 1983 for renovation with the intent of reopening in August 1983 with the new mall.[12]
Rockland reopened on August 24, 1983 as a three level shopping centre with 175 stores anchored by The Bay, Eaton's, Steinberg's and Holt Renfrew.
The $65-million reconstruction of the mall was handled by a three-company developer group made of property manager Westcliff Developments along with
Demise of Steinberg's and afterwards (1992-present)
Steinberg's became a Metro in 1992.[18]
Today the space is shared between
Demise of Eaton's and afterwards (1999-present)
Rockland's Eaton's was one of the remaining six stores[a] left in the Montreal area by the time of the retailer's collapse in 1999.[19]
After 17 years on the same site in the basement, the existing Linen-Chest store moved upstairs on December 5, 2001 into the former Eaton's location, almost doubling size from 15,000 to 25,000 square feet.
The second floor of Eaton's was initially taken over by Sports Experts. In 2005, the Sports Experts store was moved to the vacant food court area on the first floor (The Bay's until 1983). In a swap of locations, the food court was moved to the second floor where Sports Experts had been (and which had been Eaton's second floor). 15 years later, the food court was closed for many months in 2018 to undergo a major renovation.[24] A fresh new food court was launched in early 2019 as "La Cuisine".[25]
Other contemprorary tenants located within the former Eaton's building are Renaud-Bray bookstore[26] and a relocated SAQ.[27] The aforementioned second floor also used to have one of the H&M stores at Rockland but it moved next to Hudson's Bay within the same level and its previous location in the Eaton's building has remained vacant ever since.[21][22]
Remnant of the original Rockland Centre
Although revitalised into mall space in 1983, the exterior of the old Morgan's/The Bay building can still been seen to this day from the multi-level parking lot.
Popular culture
The mall was the filming location in 1992 for the season 1 finale "Tale of the Pinball Wizard" from the children's horror/fantasy television show Are You Afraid of the Dark?.
See also
- List of largest shopping malls in Canada
- List of malls in Montreal
- List of shopping malls in Canada
Notes
- ^ Rockland Centre, Downtown, Fairview Pointe-Claire, Carrefour Laval, Promenades Saint-Bruno and Galeries d'Anjou
References
- ^ "Phone directory (1959)". Lovell. p. 376. Retrieved 2019-09-08.
- ^ a b "Anniversary promotion to mark our 60th anniversary".
- ^ Montreal Gazette. Montreal. August 5, 1982. p. C1.
- ^ Globe & Mail. Toronto. 12 August 1983. p. B3.
- ^ "Shopping Centre". Canadian Encyclopedia.
- Montreal Gazette. Montreal. September 23, 1959. p. 24.
- Montreal Gazette. Montreal. September 23, 1959. p. 21.
- ^ "HBC Heritage — Morgan's of Montreal".
- ^ a b "The Bay anchors Centre Laval mall". Women's Wear Daily. New York. 18 August 1972. p. 49.
- ^ Montreal Gazette. Montreal. 2 March 1982. p. 19.
- ^ Globe and Mail. Toronto. 6 August 1982. p. B2.
- Montreal Gazette. Montreal. January 5, 1983. p. C8.
- Montreal Gazette. Montreal. August 24, 1983. p. D2.
- ^ Montreal Gazette. Montreal. August 24, 1983. p. F1.
- ^ a b "Rockland, le centre commercial des années 80". La Presse. Montreal. 24 August 1983. p. E1.
- ^ Montreal Gazette. Montreal. February 22, 1983. p. C2.
- ^ Shaw, Hollie (September 20, 2014). "How Linen Chest grew to take on its big box rivals | Financial Post". Financial Post.
- Montreal Gazette. 8 June 1992. p. A5.
- Montreal Gazette. Montreal. August 24, 1999. p. E1.
- Montreal Gazette. Montreal. 6 December 2001. p. C1.
- ^ a b c "Archived copy" (PDF). centrerockland.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 August 2009. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ a b "Mall Map". Rockland.
- ^ TRUST, COMINAR REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT. "Centre Rockland pleased to welcome IGA". www.newswire.ca.
- ^ Patterson, Craig (February 23, 2018). "Cominar Announces Significant Rockland Centre Investment [Renderings]".
- ^ "Rockland Centre Launches Innovative Food Destination". Retail-insider.com. 2019-03-19. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
- ^ "Google Timeline (Renaud Bray)". Google Maps Timeline.
- ^ "Google Timeline (SAQ)". Google Maps Timeline.