Metropolis at Metrotown (commonly referred to as Metrotown) is a three-storey

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

complex in the Metrotown area of

Burnaby Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrar ...

, British Columbia, Canada. Opened in 1986, it is the largest mall in British Columbia and the third-largest in Canada, behind Alberta's

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 ...

and Ontario's

Square One Shopping Centre Square One Shopping Centre, or simply Square One, is a shopping mall located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest shopping centre in Ontario and the second largest shopping centre in Canada, after the West Edmonton Mall. It ...

, with 27million customer visits annually. The mall is located adjacent to Metrotown station on the SkyTrain rapid transit system. Three office buildings are part of the complex along Central Boulevard.

History

Metrotown Centre opened in 1986 – attached to a new Woodward's department store, and a

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 ...

department store that had been operating there since the early 1950s – on land that had held a Ford Canada motor factory, warehouses, other light industry, and a supermarket, and which was adjacent to the former Vancouver Interurban Rail line (now the route for the SkyTrain). The mall has been expanded and renovated several times, and has contributed to the rapid growth of the area's population. A new Hudson's Bay store and an expansion wing was added in 1992. Two additional shopping centres were constructed adjacent to the original Metrotown – Eaton Centre and Station Square. These three different malls were connected by pedestrian overpasses, as were the two office towers known as the Metrotowers. In 1998, Eaton Centre added Metropolis, a collection of stores aimed towards younger shoppers, including the

SilverCity This is a list of Canadian movie theatres operated by Cineplex Entertainment under its under numerous brands, including Galaxy, Cineplex Odeon, SilverCity, Cinema City, Famous Players, Coliseum, Colossus, Scotiabank Theatre, Cineplex Cinemas, a ...

movie theatre which opened in 1998, and

Rainforest Cafe Rainforest Cafe is a jungle-themed restaurant chain owned by Landry's, Inc., of Houston. It was founded by Steven Schussler. The first location opened in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, on February 3, 1994. By 1997, the chain con ...

which opened in June 1998 (but was permanently closed in October 2001). The name Metropolis came to apply to Eaton Centre once its main tenant,

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, shut down in 1999. In 2005, a major expansion project combined Metrotown and Metropolis into a megamall, and added many new stores and Western Canada's largest

food court A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dinner. ...

. Following this expansion, the two malls became one entity under the name "Metropolis at Metrotown". Station Square, however, was not included in this merge, and as of 2013, it is planned to be demolished to make way for a new high-rise complex to be named after Station Square. Construction on Metrotower III, located immediately south of the other two office towers, began in mid-2008, was subsequently put on hold, and was completed in April 2014. This completed the original plan for the Metrotower complex. In January 2018, Sears Canada closed as the company went out of business.

Surrounding neighbourhood

The Metrotown neighbourhood is home to a number of smaller shopping centres. The pedestrian overpass originally connecting Station Square to the SkyTrain station was closed in November 2016, and is awaiting demolition. Pedestrians needing to get to and from the SkyTrain station and the shopping center are now required to use the street access. The Asian-themed Crystal Mall opened near Metropolis in 2000, but has no direct connection.

Old Orchard Centre Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England * Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, M ...

is another shopping centre located nearby that is considered part of the Metrotown district. It is a strip plaza that predates the other shopping centres in the neighbourhood.

Stores

The complex consists of over 450 shops and services; the anchors are Hudson's Bay,

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 ...

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 loca ...

T & T Supermarket T&T Supermarket () is a Canadian supermarket chain that sells primarily Asian foods. The company is headquartered in Richmond, British Columbia. In 1993, the first T&T was opened in Burnaby's Metropolis at Metrotown, a shopping centre in the ...

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 Terri ...

Indigo Books and Music Indigo Books & Music Inc., known as "Indigo" and stylized "!ndigo", is Canada's only major English-language bookstore chain. It is Canada's largest book, gift, and specialty toy retailer, operating stores in all ten provinces and one terr ...

, H&M,

Old Navy Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of the Old Navy stores are its ...

Real Canadian Superstore Real Canadian Superstore is a chain of supermarkets owned by Canadian food retailing giant Loblaw Companies. Its name is often shortened to Superstore, or, less commonly, RCSS. Originating in Western Canada in the late 1970s/early 1980s, the b ...

Urban Behavior Urban Behavior also spelled Behaviour is a unisex apparel retailer in Canada with a focus on club wear. The chain was founded in 1989 by Arif Noor.Winners Winners Merchants International L.P is a chain of off-price Canadian department stores owned by TJX Companies. It offers brand name clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, fine jewelry, beauty products, and housewares. Products are at a 20-60 ...

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. ...

, Zara, Cineplex Cinemas, Uniqlo and

Muji (), or is a Japanese retail company which sells a wide variety of household and consumer goods. Muji's design philosophy is minimalist, and it places an emphasis on recycling, reducing production and packaging waste, and a no-logo or "no-bran ...

. Food chains found at the food court include

Chipotle A chipotle (, ; ), or ''chilpotle'', is a smoke-dried ripe jalapeño chili pepper used for seasoning. It is a chili used primarily in Mexican and Mexican-inspired cuisines, such as Tex-Mex and Southwestern United States dishes. It comes in dif ...

, Menchie's, and Uncle Tetsu's.

Transportation

Immediately below the Central Boulevard entrance and covered walkway is a bus loop and exchange, which is a major hub for services coming in from other parts of Burnaby as well as Vancouver, Richmond, and New Westminster. The mall is also served by Metrotown station on the Expo Line of the SkyTrain network.

Future

In October 2019, Burnaby city council approved a long-term master plan that will eventually replace the mall with a downtown neighborhood with new high rises, retail space, streets, and pedestrian plazas.

References

External links

*
Ivanhoe Cambridge Official Website
{{Shopping Malls in Metro Vancouver Shopping malls in Metro Vancouver Shopping malls established in 1986 Buildings and structures in Burnaby Tourist attractions in Burnaby Ivanhoé Cambridge 1986 establishments in British Columbia