East York Town Centre is a neighbourhood

shopping centre A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known collec ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. It is located on Overlea Boulevard in the

Thorncliffe Park Thorncliffe Park is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in the former Borough of East York. The City of Toronto recognizes Thorncliffe Park's boundaries as the Don River on the south side; Leaside Bridge, Millwood Road, and Laird Driv ...

neighbourhood.

History

The shopping centre was opened to the public in 1960 as the Thorncliffe Market Place in the town of

Leaside Leaside (/'liːˌsaɪd/) is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located northeast of Downtown Toronto, in the vicinity of Eglinton Avenue East and Bayview Avenue. The area takes its name from William Lea and the Lea family, who se ...

. Before 1954 the area was the northeast corner of racetrack and grassy area south of where the stables of the old

Thorncliffe Park Raceway Thorncliffe Park Raceway was a Toronto-area racetrack that operated from 1917 until 1952. It was located east of Millwood Road, south of Eglinton Avenue East and the CPR's railroad tracks. It was the first home of the Prince of Wales Stakes. The n ...

were. It began with two anchors,

Sayvette Sayvette was a discount department store in Canada from 1961 to 1977. The chain was announced in February 1961, and launched its first store at Thorncliffe Market Place in a Toronto suburb (now East York Town Centre) that September. Over 70,000 cu ...

and Steinberg's. The Sayvette department store dissolved in 1977.

Woolco Woolco was an American-based discount retail chain. It was founded in 1962 in Columbus, Ohio, by the F. W. Woolworth Company. It was a full-line discount department store unlike the five-and-dime Woolworth stores which operated at the time. At its ...

opened in the space where Sayvette previously occupied. Woolco was bought by

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

in 1994. This location was unionized and eventually was sold to

Zellers Zellers was a Canadian discount department retail chain and is currently a brand name owned by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). Founded in 1931 in London, Ontario, in later decades it was based in Brampton, Ontario. Zellers was acquired by HBC i ...

. Zellers went in liquidation and closed in June 2012, making way for

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...

's entry into the Canadian market. Construction began in December 2012 to convert the Zellers store into a Target store, which opened March 25, 2013. Target Canada announced its closure of all its 133 stores in Canada (including the East York Town Centre location). In mid-2016, Thorncliffe Bowlerama closed down and was replaced with Fit4Less. In 2021, the former Target location was used as a pop-up vaccine clinic during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto The COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto is an ongoing viral pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a novel infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Toronto is the most populous city in Canad ...

References

External link

* {{Shopping Malls in the Golden Horseshoe Shopping malls in Toronto Shopping malls established in 1960 1960 establishments in Ontario