Westmount Shopping Centre, also referred to as Westmount Mall, is a shopping centre located in

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...

. It is located at 785 Wonderland Road South at the northwest corner of Wonderland Road and Viscount Road.

History

Westmount Mall's first phase opened initially in 1971 with 15 stores, including a

Dominion The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire. "Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 1926 ...

grocery store as the anchor. In 1973, the mall expanded, adding about 50 additional retailers, with

Horizon The horizon is the apparent line that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This line divides all viewing directions based on whether i ...

as the main anchor. It was at that time the largest mall in

Southwestern Ontario Southwestern Ontario is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula bounded by Lake Huron, including Georgian Bay, to the north and northwest; the St. Clair River, Lake St. ...

. In 1978, Horizon was closed and converted into an

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 ...

department store.

Expansion

The mall was completely rebuilt as a two-storey mall, with underground parking and over 160 retailers. Construction began in 1987 and was finished in 1989. By 1999, Eaton's was closed due to bankruptcy and converted into a

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. In the early 2000s, a bus stop was added by the

London Transit Commission The London Transit Commission (LTC) is responsible for the operation of the public transit system on behalf of the City of London, Ontario, Canada. It operates transit bus service and para-transit service. In 2014, annual ridership totaled 24.1 ...

, which serviced the following routes: 7, 10, 15A, 15B and 24.

Downturn

By the early 2000s, Westmount's fortunes experienced a slump. The vacancy rate in the mall took a sharp increase as 40 stores slowly left the mall.

Future

In 2018, following the closure of Westmount's department store anchor,

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� ...

, the mall was bought for $31.5 million by a Toronto real estate investment firm. KingSett Capital, with partner McCOR Management, purchased the property from Penretail Management in February. The firm has planned to re-brand the mall and announce new anchor tenants and mixed-use developments. In September 2018, an announcement regarding the former

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 ...

store was made, indicating it would be converted to both a "Fit 4 Less" (

GoodLife Fitness GoodLife Fitness Centres Inc. is the largest health club company in Canada with over 450 locations across the country, under the banner of four brands.

) gym and office spaces.

References

{{coord, 42.948, N, 81.292, W, type:landmark, display=title 1971 establishments in Ontario Buildings and structures in London, Ontario Shopping malls in Ontario Shopping malls established in 1971 Tourist attractions in London, Ontario