Toronto Sherway Gardens Expansion | ?m | 2s | Cadillac Fairview | DIALOG

[Marcanadian]

Finally visited Sherway for the first time since the expansion. Nothing really you haven't already seen before, but here's some pics of the place as it looked Saturday afternoon:

Sherway Gardens by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Sherway Gardens by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Sherway Gardens by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Sherway Gardens by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Sherway Gardens by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr


Looks like a bit more cladding needs to be installed along the upper western side of The Keg:

Sherway Gardens by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Sherway Gardens by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Sherway Gardens by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Sherway Gardens by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Sherway Gardens by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Sherway Gardens by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Sherway Gardens by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Sherway Gardens by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Sherway Gardens by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

 

[Student99]

Thanks for the picks of the older Gourment Fair area... Sigh. Wish they would have kept food court there and the older Sherway style. All the 80s-ish decor and lighting was in good condition and had lasted so long, why couldn't they have just kept it. Could've become what Sherway could be "known" for, and a tourist draw in its own respect.
Now the mall's just like any other in the GTA. Pretty much the same experience wherever you go.

 

[junctionist]

The Keg looks great with its pavilion-like form.

 

[Skeezix]

Now the mall's just like any other in the GTA. Pretty much the same experience wherever you go.

That's the Cadillac Fairview approach. Strip out unique and interesting elements, replace with common, unremarkable spaces that could be in any mall anywhere. Couple that with unimaginative leasing.

 

[gabe]

That's the Cadillac Fairview approach. Strip out unique and interesting elements, replace with common, unremarkable spaces that could be in any mall anywhere. Couple that with unimaginative leasing.

Yep. Now CF malls look just like every other sterile suburban mall that you find across North America.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

That's the Cadillac Fairview approach. Strip out unique and interesting elements, replace with common, unremarkable spaces that could be in any mall anywhere. Couple that with unimaginative leasing.

No kidding, just how many L'Occitane en Provence or Le Creuset do we need?

AoD

 

[interchange42]

We need enough of them that you don't drive all the way to the Oxford owned mall across the city that has them.

Is it really a surprise that malls repeat retail offerings, mall after mall? The idea of any owner is to keep locals shopping at the most convenient location to them, and not to lose them to competition further away. If they can also lure people from further away with special offerings, great, but the #1 market is the one that's close at hand.

42

 

[Skeezix]

We need enough of them that you don't drive all the way to the Oxford owned mall across the city that has them.

Is it really a surprise that malls repeat retail offerings, mall after mall? The idea of any owner is to keep locals shopping at the most convenient location to them, and not to lose them to competition further away. If they can also lure people from further away with special offerings, great, but the #1 market is the one that's close at hand.

42

I have no doubt that's true of neighbourhood malls, like The Promenade, etc. And while regional malls like the Eaton Centre and Sherway Gardens certainly have their local draw - their success is also tied their ability to draw from the whole region, not to mention tourists. And as the malls are increasingly indistinguishable, they undermine their ability to do so over the long-term.

Don't get me wrong - I have no expectation that these malls won't be full of chains (that's always been the case), and that there will duplication of tenants among large, regional malls. But as the owners strip away the unique characteristics of each mall, and focus on what seems like an ever-narrowing group of key tenants, one starts to wonder why anyone would ever bother driving to Sherway. When they do announce "unique" tenants, it's usually first-to-market banners that often have half-a-dozen additional locations in the area in a relatively short time frame -- in other words, differences have become time sensitive. Of course, the mall owners do it because it's successful. But as we have all seen over the last two decades, retail trends can change quickly and abruptly -- what was once on top can in a few years be struggling to survive. I worry about the long-term prospects of these centres (and the planning function they play in the areas where they are located) when owners like CF seem to be blindly following a strategy where its main centres are all seem to be rapidly losing a sense of place. Oxford seems to be doing a better job with Yorkdale, although that might simply be due to having gone so high end.

I don't know what the solution/alternative would be, but my guess is that it involves offering visitors something a little different and being creative in one's offerings. We'll see.

I'm guessing you are correct when you say "so you don't drive all the way to the Oxford-owned mall", as I can only assume that these firms are racing to sign what they imagine to be top-shelf tenants, because a competitor will.

 

[Amare]

That's the Cadillac Fairview approach. Strip out unique and interesting elements, replace with common, unremarkable spaces that could be in any mall anywhere. Couple that with unimaginative leasing.

Couldnt have said it any better myself. At the end of they day, they pat themselves on the back because it is a job well done in their books.

Sherway looks odd from the inside now, and I cant put my finger on what makes me feel that way. It could be the lighting that has gone from a nice airy white, to a yellowish tinge throughout the mall which makes things seem more clustered. Or it could be the weird stuff they've done with the gardens that once upon a time actually existed in the mall. I'll just put it this way; from the outside the renovations are nice, however from the inside things just dont work at all.

 

[innsertnamehere]

Sherway isn't really a regional mall. The only two true regional malls are the Eaton Centre and Yorkdale. Nobody is going to drive from Scarborough to go to Sherway, but they will for Yorkdale.

 

[Skeezix]

Sherway isn't really a regional mall. The only two true regional malls are the Eaton Centre and Yorkdale. Nobody is going to drive from Scarborough to go to Sherway, but they will for Yorkdale.

I'm not sure everyone would agree with your assessment. The first few results in Google demonstrated that a lot of people in the industry consider it a regional or super-regional mall (e.g. here, here, here, here, etc.).

 

[Filip]

Sherway isn't really a regional mall. The only two true regional malls are the Eaton Centre and Yorkdale. Nobody is going to drive from Scarborough to go to Sherway, but they will for Yorkdale.

Lol what? People will go to whatever regional mall is closest. Full stop. Sherway, TEC and Yorkdale are the big sexy malls of the 416. Of course someone from Scarborough will go to Yorkdale as it's the closest. Meanwhile, Sherway is over 30km away for someone from Scarborough.

The last time I've been to Yorkdale, Eaton's was still a thing.

 

[toaster29]

Sherway is also unique in that it acts as a regional mall even for people who aren't necessarily in the region. People living downtown who don't want to deal with congestion getting to Eaton (walking or having to pay for parking), often don't mind taking the 10/15 minute drive on the Gardiner to pick up a few things.

 

[innsertnamehere]

Lol what? People will go to whatever regional mall is closest. Full stop. Sherway, TEC and Yorkdale are the big sexy malls of the 416. Of course someone from Scarborough will go to Yorkdale as it's the closest. Meanwhile, Sherway is over 30km away for someone from Scarborough.

The last time I've been to Yorkdale, Eaton's was still a thing.

Maybe you are right. I've beem an east end guy for most of my life, so my experience has always been with Yorkdale or TEC.

 

[Skeezix]

Sherway is also unique in that it acts as a regional mall even for people who aren't necessarily in the region. People living downtown who don't want to deal with congestion getting to Eaton (walking or having to pay for parking), often don't mind taking the 10/15 minute drive on the Gardiner to pick up a few things.

I have friends in the Beaches who will routinely go to Sherway over the Eaton Centre because of the parking, and avoid Yorkdale because the parking is more of a nightmare than it is at Sherway.