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Montreal Eaton Centre

Interior of the Montreal Eaton Centre (2016)
Coordinates	45°30′11″N 73°34′19″W / 45.503°N 73.572°W / 45.503; -73.572
Address	705 Saint Catherine Street West Montreal, Quebec H3B 4G5
Opening date	1990
Management	JLL
Owner	Ivanhoé Cambridge
No. of stores and services	125+
Total retail floor area	45,000 square metres (480,000 sq ft)
No. of floors	5 (mall arcade) 11 (highest number of levels of office component)
Parking	472
Public transit access	at McGill McGill Terminus STM Buses
Website	www.centreeatondemontreal.com/en/

The Montreal Eaton Centre (French: Centre Eaton de Montréal) is a shopping mall located in the downtown core of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is accessible through the Underground City, which is connected to the Montreal Metro's McGill station.

The Montreal Eaton Centre opened on November 14, 1990. 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 had become 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 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 14 metres (46 ft) 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. Floors were colour-coded and the mall was adorned with trees, plants and ivy. It housed 140 stores, 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. 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.

The property was managed by Rouses Quebec Corporation Development and York Hannover Development from 1978 to 1993. In September 1997, Cadillac Fairview bought the shopping centre for 113 million$ from a consortium of lenders that had taken over the Montreal Eaton Centre from its previous owner in 1996. 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.

Goodwin's / Eaton's

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 in 1967. The Eaton's building was home to Montreal's largest department store for decades.

In 1999, following the closure of the Eaton's chain, Ivanhoé Cambridge acquired the property. After considerable redevelopment work between 2000 and 2002, involving the total gutting and complete redesign/rebuilding of the interior (preserving only the exterior facade and parts of the 9th floor), the former flagship of the Montreal retail scene was transformed into the building known as Complexe Les Ailes and 1500 University. At this time, Place Montreal Trust, the Montreal Eaton Centre and Complexe Les Ailes constituted Ivanhoé Cambridge's self-branded Sh3pping trio of shopping malls. For over a decade, the new mall was named after the Les Ailes de la Mode department store which occupied a third of its total area and was its main retailer. When the store closed in 2016, and the company permanently ceased operation, the mall's name would be changed. In 2019, Les Ailes' former store space was taken over by Decathlon, which today is one of the largest tenants of the now merged Montreal Eaton Centre.

Mall expansion

In March 2014, Ivanhoé Cambridge had announced it would add Complexe Les Ailes with the Montreal Eaton Centre, and the newly merged complex would be renamed, dropping the Eaton Centre branding in the process. 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. The two malls were renovated to have the same "look and feel". and in coming full circle, brought the Eaton's name back to the building that once housed Montreal's flagship Eaton's department store.

List of anchor stores

See also

• Eaton Centre
• List of shopping malls in Montreal

References

1. ^ "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. ^ "Quebec's busiest mall (Montreal Eaton Centre) to change its name in a merger". Retail Insider. March 24, 2014.
6. "Cadillac buys Eaton Centre in Montreal: Deal estimated at more than $100-million". Globe and Mail. Toronto. August 8, 1997. p. B2.
7. "Cadillac Fairview completes mall purchase [Montreal Eaton Centre]". Financial Post. Toronto. September 24, 1997. p. 11.
8. "Ivanhoe buys Eaton Centre in Montreal. Cadillac gets full ownership of two suburban malls". National Post. Toronto. July 5, 2000. p. C04.
9. "Sh3pping". Ivanhoé Cambridge. Archived from the original on October 23, 2013. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
10. "Shopping Mall Map | Montreal Eaton Centre".
11. ^ Patterson, Craig (January 25, 2018). "Montreal Eaton Centre Overhaul Details Revealed". Retail Insider. Retrieved January 11, 2020.

External links

• Official website

• Art Deco architecture in Canada
• Buildings and structures completed in 1927
• Downtown Montreal
• Eaton's
• Landmarks in Montreal
• Ross and Macdonald buildings
• Shopping malls established in 1990
• Shopping malls in Montreal
• Department store buildings in Canada
• Ivanhoé Cambridge
• 1990 establishments in Quebec