The Elm Place Mall is a mall 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 t ...
,
Ontario
Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
, Canada. It was built as part of the plan to
demolish the Borgia Neighborhood in Sudbury in the early 1970s. It was bought in the early 2000s by Vista Hospitality, and is as of 2017 being managed under Robert Green.
It was originally called the City Centre, or the Rainbow Centre, at the time of restoration project, but it was renamed in 2020 after a community renaming contest to Elm Place.
The architecture is designed as a
car-centric
Car dependency is a pattern in urban planning that occurs when infrastructure favors automobiles over other modes of transport, such as public transport, bicycles, and walking. Car dependency is associated with higher transport pollution than tr ...
building, and the building often takes part in local mural projects by holding murals on its north facade.
History
The Elm Place Mall is located on the site of the former Borgia Neighborhood. The Borgia Neighborhood was considered as
slum housing
A slum is a highly populated urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are primarily in ...
consisting of very crowded simple wood-framed buildings, which was a result of the housing shortage at the time. To combat these issues and revitalize the area, there were plans for a major project intended for
urban renewal
Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...
in Sudbury. This plan started with
the complete demolition of the Borgia Neighborhood in the 1970s. The first phase of this project was to move the shopping and entertainment centers away from the train tracks; this resulted in the development of the mall on Elm Street. The second phase of this development project added an extension to the mall. This urban renewal project produced a mall, office tower, and hotel which was called Rainbow Center at the time.
The implementation of this mall permanently changed the atmosphere of the downtown core as the mall gained in popularity as being a one-stop shop for all household needs but caused a "steady decline of the independent businesses in the central city".
Names
To select the new name, the Vista Group, which owns Elm Place, engaged the local community through a renaming contest. The "Rebrand the Rainbow" website invited residents to submit their suggestions, resulting in an overwhelming response with over "12,000 creative ideas"
Elm Place emerged as the obvious choice in the public voting, receiving more than one-third of the online votes.
Features
The Elm Place Mall opening facade along Elm Street is where the retail, residences, and office spaces are located.
This development resulted in the construction of "900 residential units, a department store, a supermarket, a hotel, an office tower, and 750 parking spots".
Elm Place was designed as a
car-centric building; they completely altered the street along Elm to favor vehicle transportation in addition to adding interior parking so that visitors did not have to walk on the city street.
The exterior is not only used for parking, the Elm Place Mall has also taken part in the art mural projects in Sudbury holding murals on its north facade. This creativity is carried through the interior on the upper floors displaying numerous historic photos of the early years in Sudbury. The mall contains a total of of office space and of retail space.
[Core Consultants Realty Inc Staff]
New Marketing Brochure - 458 Central Ave, London - Retail For Lease.
Multiscreensite, accessed March 13, 2024.
Property management
The developers of
Oshawa Group Limited bought out all the real estate buildings from Marchland Holding Ltd. In this process, they obtained the Elm Place Mall in November 1971.
“The Oshawa Group is one of Canada’s largest suppliers of food, operating both the wholesale and retail sectors."
Later in the early 2000’s Vista Hospitality obtained Elm Place which is currently being managed under Robert Green as of 2017.
[Green, Robert. “Green Property Management LLC.” LinkedIn. Accessed February 28, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/company/green-property-management-llc.]
References
External links
* {{Official website
Shopping malls in Ontario
Buildings and structures in Greater Sudbury