Galeries de la Capitale is a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

located in the Lebourgneuf neighbourhood of the Les Rivières borough in

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada. Les Galeries de la Capitale has 280 stores and 35

restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

s.Galeries de la Capitale
Retrieved 30 April 2018. The anchors are La Baie d'Hudson,

Simons Simons is a surname of Scandinavian origins and a variant of Sigmundsson, a patronymic surname with roots in proto-Germanic ''*segaz'' and ''*mundō'', giving a rough translation of "protection through victory". Notable people A * Alan ...

, Atmosphère/

Sports Experts Sports Experts Inc. is a major Canadian sports-retailer franchise primarily located in Quebec. It is part of FGL Sports (formerly The Forzani Group), itself part of the Canadian Tire group. History Sports Experts was founded in 1967. It was purch ...

Toys "R" Us Toys "R" Us is an American toy, clothing, and baby product retailer owned by Tru Kids (doing business as Tru Kids Brands) and various others. The company was founded in 1957; its first store was built in April 1948, with its headquarters loc ...

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating. Graeme F ...

Best Buy Best Buy Co. Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebra ...

. There is also a Rona l'Entrepôt in the parking lot. The mall is famous for its indoor

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

, ''le Mega-Parc'', with 18 attractions and

amusement rides Amusement rides, sometimes called carnival rides, are mechanical devices or structures that move people especially kids to create fun and enjoyment. Rides are often perceived by many as being scary or more dangerous than they actually are. This ...

including the first spokeless

Ferris wheel A Ferris wheel (also called a Giant Wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondolas, capsules ...

in America. The IMAX theatre has the largest screen in Canada. Les Galeries de la Capitale is the largest mall in the city with . It is also the infrastructure in Quebec City with the highest tax value at $320 million in 2007. With 11 million visitors annually, Galeries de la Capitale ranked in 2012 as the second most visited shopping mall in Quebec City after

Laurier Québec Laurier Québec (formerly called and still commonly referred to as Place Laurier) is one of List of largest shopping malls in Canada, Canada's largest shopping malls. It is located in Quebec City, Quebec (in what was formerly the city of Sainte-Foy ...

and the fourth in the province as a whole.

History

Les Galeries de la Capitale was the idea of businessman

Marcel Adams Marcel Adams (2 August 1920 – 11 August 2020) was a Canadian real estate investor, billionaire, and Holocaust survivor.

. The mall was inaugurated in 1981 in a deserted part of the city on a field of . At the time the mall was owned at 50% by Les Développements Iberville (the real estate company of Marcel Adams), at 25% by Eaton Properties (the real estate company of

Eaton's The T. Eaton Company Limited, later known as Eaton's, was a Canadian department store chain that was once the largest in the country. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an immigrant from what is now Northern Ireland. Eaton's grew ...

), and at 25% by Markborough Properties (the real estate company of the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...

). Upon its opening of 190 stores, the anchors were Eaton,

La Baie La Baie (French pronunciation: / la bɛ/, Quebec French pronunciation: / la be/) is one of three boroughs in the city of Saguenay, Quebec, Canada. It was created during Quebec's municipal reorganization in 2002. From 1976 to 2001, it was know ...

Provigo Provigo is a grocery retailer based in Quebec, Canada, consisting of over 300 stores and franchises throughout the province. It operates a retailing chain of stores and distribution warehouses. It is owned by Loblaw Companies Limited. The chain ...

, Cooprix,

which were joined in the fall of the same year by

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 ...

. This also marked the opening of the first La Baie store in Quebec City. Not even a year after its inauguration, Cooprix at Galeries de la Capitale permanently closed on May 26, 1982. 1988 saw the opening of the indoor amusement park ''Mega-Parc'', the second largest of its kind in Canada after

West Edmonton Mall West Edmonton Mall (WEM) is a shopping mall in Edmonton, Alberta, that is owned, managed, and operated by Triple Five Group. It is the second most visited mall in Canada, after the Toronto Eaton Centre in Toronto, followed by Metrotown Mall in B ...

. The park, composed of 20

, included a

, some

roller coaster A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are o ...

s and a skating rink for

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

games. That same year, the first annual Opération Enfant Soleil

telethon A telethon (a portmanteau of "television" and "marathon") is a televised fundraising event that lasts many hours or even days, the purpose of which is to raise money for a charitable, political or other purportedly worthy cause. Most telethons f ...

was broadcast from les Galeries de la Capitale and raised $1.8 million for the Centre Hospitalier de l'Université Laval (CHUL). Due to a lack of profitability from this particular store since its inception, Provigo decided to reduced its space and subleased the vacant part to toy retailer Toyville which opened on October 1, 1987. Toyville closed on December 29, 1990 and Provigo in May 1992. Woolco was converted to

Wal-Mart 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 as part of the American parent company's entrance to Canada. In early 2002, Wal-Mart left Galeries de la Capitale to relocate on the nearby parking, allowing its former space in the mall to be replaced on July 13 of the same year by rival

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 ...

, itself relocating from a previous address in the Neufchâtel neighborhood. Eaton went bankrupt in 1999 and its location at Galeries de la Capitale was the sole store in the province that

Sears Canada Sears Canada Inc. was a publicly-traded Canadian company affiliated with the American-based Sears department store chain. In operation from 1952 until January 14, 2018, and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, the company began as Simpsons-Sears� ...

had acquired. The store was converted into the Sears banner without ever closing down. The mall was sold on December 1, 2005 for $358 million to a consortium consisting of

Canada Pension Plan The Canada Pension Plan (CPP; french: Régime de pensions du Canada) is a contributory, earnings-related social insurance program. It forms one of the two major components of Canada's public retirement income system, the other component being Old ...

(80%); Osmington, an investment firm in Toronto (10%); and Westerkirk, a Toronto real estate firm (10%). Redcliff Realty Management was hired to manage the mall. Since June 4, 2013, Galeries de la Capitale is owned and operated by

Oxford Properties Oxford Properties is a Canadian multinational corporation, with operations in real estate investment, development and property management. Its portfolio includes office, retail, industrial, multi-residential, life sciences and hotel assets. Esta ...

. In Spring 2011, Galeries de la Capitale opened a new section of the mall. The new section was added between the upper level McDonald's and the IMAX theatre. The new section included

's first Quebec City location, a

store, and a new

(the latter opening before the others in November 2010). Zellers (formerly Woolco/Wal-Mart) closed in February 2013 and was replaced by

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 ...

from 2013 until early 2015 when it ceased all retail operations across Canada. Simons doubled its size to 80,000 square feet by relocating to the vacant Target in 2017. In 2017,

announced they would be closing all their remaining stores. This includes the store at Galeries de la Capitale. After almost 30 years in operation, the ''Mega-Parc'' closed on September 4, 2017 to undergo major renovations. It reopened on January 18, 2019 with 18 amusement rides; 14 of which are new. The 4 returning rides from the original ''Mega-Parc'' have all been renovated and renamed. Particular to the new ''Mega-Parc'' is Zénith, the first Ferris wheel in the continent without

spoke A spoke is one of some number of rods radiating from the center of a wheel (the hub where the axle connects), connecting the hub with the round traction surface. The term originally referred to portions of a log that had been riven (split l ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website
1981 establishments in Quebec Buildings and structures completed in 1981 Eaton's Shopping malls established in 1981 Shopping malls in Quebec City

History

See also

References

External links