The Station Mall, is a shopping mall located in Sault Ste. Marie,

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. With 97 stores and of retail space, it is the second largest shopping mall in

Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Provi ...

, trailing just behind the

New Sudbury Centre The New Sudbury Centre is a shopping mall located in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. It has 110 stores and of retail space. History Built and opened in the 1950s, the entrances to the stores in the New Sudbury Shopping Centre, was originally in ...

Greater Sudbury Sudbury, officially the City of Greater Sudbury is the largest city in Northern Ontario by population, with a population of 166,004 at the 2021 Canadian Census. By land area, it is the largest in Ontario and the List of the largest cities and to ...

in area. Built in 1973, the mall has since undergone two major expansions. Its major tenants include

Galaxy Cinemas Cineplex Inc. (formerly Cineplex Galaxy) is a Canadian Movie theater, movie theatre and family entertainment centre chain headquartered in Toronto. The company was formed in 2003 via the acquisition of Loews Cineplex Entertainment, Loews Cine ...

movie theatre complex. The mall is located on the waterfront in downtown Sault Ste. Marie, and is roughly five minutes away from the

Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge The Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge spans the St. Marys River between the United States and Canada connecting the twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. The bridge is operated by the International Bridg ...

to the United States. The Sault Ste. Marie railway station is located in the mall's parking lot.

History

Station Mall opened on October 31, 1973 with 284,000 square feet of retail space and 45 tenants, including a two-story

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

department store and Dominion Food Stores as its anchors. Other retailers when the mall opened in 1973 included Lakeshore Drug Mart, People's Jewelers, Lighting Unlimited, Davis II men's wear, Big Steel, Dalmys, Fairweather, Penningtons, Laura Secord Candies, Coles - The Book People, Melody Lane Record Shop, The Leather Touch,

Kinney Shoes The G.R. Kinney Company was an American manufacturer and retailer of shoes from until . Its listing on the New York Stock Exchange, symbol KNN, began in March 1923. The shoe concern was started by George Romanta Kinney whose father ran a general ...

, Dolomity Shoes, Tip Top Stores, Happy Hour Card 'n Party Shop, and the Loon's Nest. The 400-seat Station Cinema opened with the mall, as did J.B.'s Big Boy Family Restaurant. The original "Pufferbelly" food court included space for a delicatessen and 10 snack bars. A departure from downtown retailers at the time, the mall advertised free parking for 1,800 cars and a climate-controlled shopping experience. The original construction was part of a $30 million development of the

Algoma Central Railway The Algoma Central Railway is a railway in Northern Ontario that operates between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst. It used to have a branch line to Wawa, Ontario. The area served by the railway is sparsely populated, with few roads. The ra ...

's Bay Street property, which also included the construction of a 200-room hotel near the mall, originally occupied by

Holiday Inn Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia. and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee that year. The chain was a division ...

. The original building was designed by James A. Murray, Architects and built by Eastern Construction Co. Ltd. Before it had even opened, plans were already underway for a 150,000 square feet expansion to add another department store, 20 additional retail stores, a second cinema, a third large restaurant as well as parking for 200 additional cars. The mall underwent two expansions in 16 years, in 1981 and 1989, adding more than 200,000 square feet of additional retail space. In 2000, the 52,000-square-foot Galaxy Entertainment Complex was opened on the waterfront side of the mall. The Complex includes a 12-screen, 2,400 seat movie theatre. The mall underwent a major renovation project, adding large format stores and revamping the interior. 2011 saw a number of smaller stores combined for a new

Sport Chek 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 in Canada, although it is absent in the Northwest Territ ...

location. The small former

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 ...

location reopened in 2012 as a smaller Walmart Supercentre. On November 25, 2013, Galaxy Cinemas downsized from 12 screens to 7 screens in order to make room for H&M. In October 2017,

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� ...

permanently closed their Station Mall store, leaving Coles, Lakeshore Drug Mart, Laura Secord and the Vacation Station as the only remaining original tenants of the mall. In May 2019, Walmart announced that its store in the mall would close in June of that year. This left the mall without any major anchor stores.

Anchor tenants

Galaxy Cinema A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System ...

(32,000 sq ft) *

(22,000 sq ft) * H&M (18,000 sq ft) *

Dollarama Dollarama is a Canadian dollar store retail chain headquartered in Montreal. Since 2009 it is Canada's largest retailer of items for five dollars or less. Dollarama has over 1400 stores and has a presence in every province of Canada; Ontario has ...

(11,000 sq ft)

Former tenants

* A&A Records *

Bentley Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded as Bentley Motors Limited by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Cricklewood, North ...

Bulk Barn Bulk Barn is a Canadian bulk foods store founded in September 1982 by Carl O'Field. The store sells common to somewhat specialty foods, such as those that are vegan and non genetically modified. Though the store cannot be considered zero waste ...

* Dalmys Canada Ltd. *

DavidsTea DavidsTea (often stylized as DAVIDsTEA) (in French ''Les Thés DavidsTea'') is a Canadian specialty tea and tea accessory retailer based in Montreal, Quebec. It is the largest Canadian-based specialty tea boutique in the country. Following the ...

(Tea store) *

Dominion (supermarket) Dominion was a national chain of supermarkets in Canada, which was known as the Dominion of Canada when the chain was founded. The chain was founded in 1919 in Ontario and was later acquired by the Argus Corporation. It was later sold to The Gr ...

Foot Locker Foot Locker Retail, Inc. is an Americans, American sportswear and footwear retailer, with its headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and operating in 28 countries. Although established in 1974, and founded as a separate company in ...

* Freshly Squeezed *

Garage (clothing retailer) Garage is a clothing store, primarily targeting young women. Founded in 1975 as a subsidiary of Groupe Dynamite Groupe Dynamite is a Canada-based clothing company, originally founded in 1975 as The Garage Clothing Company. The company create ...

HMV Canada HMV Canada Ltd. was a Canadian entertainment retailer, owned by Hilco. The company was originally a subsidiary of HMV in the United Kingdom until it was sold to Hilco Capital in 2011. HMV itself would later be bought by Hilco in 2013. HMV Canada ...

* Joey's Twisted Italian Grill & Pub * Kelly's Grocery * Leisure World * Melody Lane Records & Tape * Music World *

Regis Salon Regis Corporation is an American operator of hair salons. As of August 2021, it has 5,563 franchised and 276 company-owned salons. Its headquarters are in Saint Louis Park, Minnesota. The primary trade names Regis salons operates under are SmartS ...

* San Francisco (gifts) *

Swiss Chalet Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland *Swiss people Places *Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia *Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss International ...

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

(planned but fell through, eventually opening as Walmart) *

Teavana Teavana Corporation is an American tea company, which previously had locations throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Middle East. Starbucks acquired Teavana in 2012, and in 2017, Starbucks announced it would close all Teavana loca ...

(Tea Store) *

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 ...

* Work World *

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References

Buildings and structures in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Shopping malls in Ontario Shopping malls established in 1973 Tourist attractions in Algoma District