Lambton Mall 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

Sarnia Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes where Lake Huron fl ...

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, owned by

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

company

Cushman and Wakefield Cushman & Wakefield plc is a global commercial real estate services firm. The company's corporate headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois. Cushman & Wakefield is among the world's largest commercial real estate services firms, with revenues ...

. It opened in 1971 and, through several expansions, has grown to encompass over 580,000 square feet of retail space.

History

Upon the store's opening, the main anchor locations were a

Canadian Tire Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited is a Canadian retail company which operates in the automotive, hardware, sports, leisure and housewares sectors. Its Canadian operations include: Canadian Tire (including Canadian Tire Petroleum gas stations a ...

, a Dominion Supermarket, which was soon after replaced by an Ashbrook's, and

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 ...

. The mall notably lacked a department store. The mall was at risk of closing in the early 1990s due to competition from

Birchwood Mall Birchwood Mall is an enclosed shopping mall located in Fort Gratiot Township, outside the city of Port Huron, Michigan, United States. The Mall features more than 100 stores and a food court. The mall's anchor stores are CubeSmart, Dunham's Spor ...

Port Huron Port Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 30,184 at the 2010 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administered separately. Located along the St. Clair ...

, though a combination of the Canadian government's decision to allow shopping on Sundays and the weakening of the Canadian dollar, which led to more Americans crossing the border, saved the mall from closure. During the 1990s, Lambton Mall underwent several expansions, including an acquisition of Woolco 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 ...

, the opening of a

Toys R Us A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include Toy block, toy blocks, Board game, board games, and Doll, dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed sp ...

in the east wing, and an expansion of the Canadian Tire into nearby stores. The mall was owned by Orlando Corp between 2002 and 2005, when it was transferred to Lambton Mall Limited Partnership, a subsidiary of Primaris Retail. In 2006, Walmart closed down their mall location and built a new store in a

strip mall A strip mall, strip center or strip plaza is a type of shopping center common in North America where the stores are arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking lots in front. ...

just northeast. While the lease on the location does not end until 2021, it has been occupied by Canadian Tire, and a

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 ...

location was built in place of the old Canadian Tire Building in 2013. In 2013, the mall was purchased by KS Lambton Mall Inc., a subsidiary of Cushman and Wakefield. In March 2019, it was announced that the old

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 ...

location had been approved for renovation, paving the way for new tenants to move in by April 2020. A Chuck's Roadhouse location replaced the Montana's Bar and Grill in June 2019, and in July of the same year it was announced that six stores, including a Northern Reflections and a Pet Valu, as well as two store locations occupied by the

Ontario Provincial Police The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is the provincial police service of Ontario, Canada. Under its provincial mandate, the OPP patrols provincial highways and waterways, protects provincial government buildings and officials, patrols unincorpo ...

, would be vacated for a new clothing store which would occupy over 16,000 square feet.

December 14, 2000 roof collapse

In the early morning of December 14, 2000, at around 8:30 AM, part of the mall's roof collapsed under the weight of snow, which had been collecting for several days due to neglect to clear the roof of the building, near the

Hallmark A hallmark is an official mark or series of marks struck on items made of metal, mostly to certify the content of noble metals—such as platinum, gold, silver and in some nations, palladium. In a more general sense, the term ''hallmark'' can al ...

store. The collapse killed 47-year-old Susan Foster, a worker who had been preparing for opening, and injured one other worker. Coverage for the first few days was minimal, mainly on American news sites such as

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

and

AP News The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

released an article on the 17th.

Tenants

Major tenants of the mall include H&M, SportChek, Galaxy Cinemas, Canadian Tire,

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 ...

, Toys R Us,

Mark's Mark's (known as L'Équipeur in Quebec) is a Canadian clothing and footwear retailer specializing in casual and industrial wear. Beginning in 1977 as Mark's Work Wearhouse in Calgary, Alberta, it evolved from an industrial accessories dealer ...

, Hallmark, A&W, and

New York Fries New York Fries is a Canadian quick service restaurant that mainly serves french fries, hot dogs and poutine. There are 120 locations in Canada, as well as locations in Bahrain, China, Egypt, Macao, Oman, Panama, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey ...

The Beer Store Brewers Retail Inc., doing business as The Beer Store, is a privately-owned chain of retail outlets selling beer and other malt beverages in the province of Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1927, it was owned at its inception by a consortium of Ont ...

, Chuck's Roadhouse, and

Royal Bank of Canada Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; french: Banque royale du Canada) is a Canadian multinational financial services company and the largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 17 million clients and has more than 89,000& ...

also occupy major buildings on the lot which are disconnected from the mall. In 2020, A

Marshall's Marshalls is an American chain of off-price department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 1,000 American stores, including larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store, covering 42 states and Puerto Rico, and 61 stores in Canada. Mar ...

HomeSense HomeSense (stylized as Homesense in Europe and the United States) is a Canadian chain of discount home furnishing stores owned by TJX Companies. It originated in Canada in 2001, and was expanded to Europe in 2008 and the United States in 2017. O ...

store took over the former

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� ...

space.

References

{{Reflist Shopping malls in Ontario Shopping malls established in 1971 Buildings and structures in Sarnia 1971 establishments in Ontario