Conestoga Mall is a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

located at 550 King Street North in

Waterloo Waterloo most commonly refers to: * Battle of Waterloo, 1815 battle where Napoleon's French army was defeated by Anglo-allied and Prussian forces * Waterloo, Belgium Waterloo may also refer to: Other places Australia * Waterloo, New South Wale ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. Located at King Street's interchange with the

Conestoga Parkway The Conestoga Parkway, officially the Kitchener–Waterloo Expressway, is a controlled-access highway in the Canadian province of Ontario, located entirely within the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. The route travels east and then north throu ...

, it is the largest shopping centre in Waterloo, and third-largest in

Waterloo Region The Regional Municipality of Waterloo (Waterloo Region or Region of Waterloo) is a metropolitan area of Southern Ontario, Canada. It contains the cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo (KWC or Tri-Cities), and the townships of North Dumfri ...

. The mall is owned and operated by Primaris REIT. Conestoga Mall has over 130 stores and services. The mall has a Food Court featuring 14 vendors and a Galaxy Cinema. Anchor tenants include Hudson's Bay,

Zehrs Zehrmart Inc. (doing business as Zehrs Markets or simply Zehrs ) is a Canadian supermarket chain in southern Ontario. The chain has 42 locations and is a part of Loblaw Companies Limited, which purchased the Zehrs chain in the mid-1970s. Histo ...

Galaxy Cinemas Cineplex Inc. (formerly Cineplex Entertainment and Cineplex Galaxy) is a Canadian operator of movie theater and family entertainment centers, headquartered in Toronto. It is the largest cinema chain in Canada; as of 2019, it operated 165 loc ...

Winners Winners Merchants International L.P. is a chain of off-price Canadian department stores owned by TJX Companies. Its market niche is similar to the American chain TJ Maxx, and it is a partnered retailer to department stores HomeSense and Marshall ...

Sport Chek Sport-Chek International 2000 Ltd. (doing business as Sport Chek) is the largest Canadian retailer of sporting clothing and sports equipment, with 191 stores throughout Canada as of 2020. It is the only national big box sporting goods retailer i ...

Old Navy Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay, San Francisco, Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of t ...

, and

Shoppers Drug Mart Shoppers Drug Mart Inc. (colloquially Shoppers; named Pharmaprix in Quebec) is a Canadian retail pharmacy chain based in Toronto, Ontario. It has more than 1,300 stores in ten provinces and two territories. The company was founded by pharmacist ...

. The mall, built in 1978, was one of the only buildings on this section of King Street. Since it opened, the mall has been expanded several times, and has contributed to the retail success of this area. Several big box retailers have opened on King Street North around the mall.

Acquisition by Primaris REIT

In June 2023 Primaris REIT announced an intention to acquire the mall for $270 million from

Ivanhoé Cambridge Ivanhoé Cambridge Inc. is a Canadian real estate company based in Montreal, Quebec. With assets around the globe, its areas of activity are investment, development, asset management, operations and leasing. The company's real estate portfolio co ...

. The transaction closed in July 2023.

Redevelopment

Conestoga Mall underwent a major $75 million redevelopment project. The project began in mid-2006, and was completed in the spring of 2010. Details of the project include a expansion on the south end of the property, a renovation and upgrade to the existing building, a new 700-seat food court with a new south end mall entrance, and a pedestrian-friendly façade. The redevelopment was also to include significant traffic improvements to the King Street entrance of the mall. The intersection of Conestogo Road and Kraus Drive were replaced with a roundabout at the City of Waterloo's request. A second entrance was added to King Street in the form of a right in-right out intersection. The traffic upgrades were paid for by

as a condition of the City of Waterloo issuing a building permit for the expansion of the shopping centre.

The Bay

The Bay (now " Hudson's Bay") was moved slightly to the south and was completely rebuilt into a larger store. The new prototype Bay at Conestoga Mall was the first "green" store in the company's portfolio - complete with environmentally-conscious measures such as solar panels, wind turbines, recycled carpet, and waterless urinals. The company also introduced higher end products such as

Chanel Chanel ( , ) is a French luxury fashion house founded in 1910 by Coco Chanel in Paris. It is privately owned by French brothers, Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, through the holding company Chanel Limited, established in 2018 and headquarte ...

cosmetics to serve Waterloo's growing affluence. It will close by June 2025, due to the chain's bankruptcy.

City of Waterloo Museum

Conestoga Mall donated in the new expansion to the City of Waterloo to establish a permanent museum for the city's heritage artifacts. Over 10,000 of the city's historical artifacts will be displayed in the City of Waterloo Museum. Waterloo's heritage collection has been mainly in storage over the past decade, with most of these artifacts coming from the closure of the

Seagram Museum The Seagram Museum was a museum in Waterloo, Ontario, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, preserving the heritage of the once venerable Canadian distillery Seagram. Located at 57 Erb Street West, the museum operated from May 1984 to March 1997. Designed b ...

. The City of Waterloo Museum will be located between the new Bay store and food court entrance.

Environmental commitment

Conestoga Mall supports green electricity, purchasing 30% of its common area electricity requirements from Bullfrog Power.

Loblaw Superstore controversy

Loblaw Companies Loblaw Companies Limited is a Canadian retailer encompassing corporate and franchise supermarkets operating under 22 regional and market-segment banners (including Loblaws), as well as pharmacies, banking and apparel. Loblaw operates a private ...

, which operates the

chain of grocery stores, has owned a large parcel of land to the southwest of Conestoga Mall. Despite much controversy with local citizens and the City of Waterloo, Loblaw planned to close the Conestoga Mall Zehrs and replace it with a much larger approximately

Real Canadian Superstore Real Canadian Superstore is a chain of supermarkets owned by Canadian food retailing giant Loblaw Companies. Its name is often shortened to Superstore, or, less commonly, RCSS (pronounced “Rick’s”). Originating in Western Canada in the l ...

.http://www.guelphmercury.com/pdfs/2007Oct23/A04.PDF In September 2008, Loblaw sold its land holding to Intelligent Mechatronics Systems, a high tech company for $14.5 million.

Anchors

* Hudson's Bay * Zehrs Markets *

Indigo Books and Music Indigo Books & Music Inc., known as "Indigo" and stylized "!ndigo", is Canada's only major English-language bookstore chain. It is Canada's largest book, gift, and specialty toy retailer, operating stores in all ten Provinces and territori ...

* H&M *

Apple Store The Apple Store is a chain of Retail, retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc. The stores sell, service and repair various Apple products, including Macintosh, Mac desktop and MacBook laptop personal computers, iPhone smartphones, iPad ta ...

Aritzia Aritzia LP is a Canadian clothing retail company founded in Vancouver, British Columbia, by businessman Brian Hill in 1984. Aritzia sells a variety of lifestyle apparel through various upscale retail stores across Canada, the United States, ...

Browns Shoes Browns Shoes Inc. is a Canadian fashion footwear retailer that owns and operates 72 stores across Canada under a variety of footwear brands. The company's headquarters is based in the Montreal borough of Saint-Laurent, Quebec. History Browns ...

* The Pickle Barrel *

* MINISO

Former anchors

Target Canada Target Canada Co. was a short-lived Canadian subsidiary of the Target Corporation, the eighth-largest retailer in the United States. Formerly headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, the subsidiary formed with the acquisition of Zellers store lea ...

(redeveloped into multiple stores which includes Indigo Books and Music, Sport Chek and Miniso) *

Zellers Zellers was a Canadian discount store chain founded by Walter P. Zeller in 1931. It was acquired by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in 1978, and after a series of acquisitions and expansions, peaked with 350 locations in 1999. However, fierce ...

(converted to Target)

Transit terminal

References

External links

* {{Shopping Malls in the Golden Horseshoe Shopping malls in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo Buildings and structures in Waterloo, Ontario Shopping malls established in 1978 Ivanhoé Cambridge 1978 establishments in Ontario