Page 14 - CambridgeLookingBackNeat

CAMBRIDGE: LOOKING BACK

Cambridge

Centre a business

anchor on

Hespeler Road

Hespeler Road has become a major commercial area
in Cambridge.
Lined with restaurants and a wide variety of retail and services, it
has become a key destination for consumers. At the heart stands the
Cambridge Centre, which has undergone an extensive transformation
since it first opened as the John Galt Centre in 1973. Back then, as the
city’s first fully enclosed mall, it encompassed 180,000-square-feet
of retail space and its original ‘anchor’ stores were Miracle Mart and THE CITY OF CAMBRIDGE ARCHIVES PHOTO
Miracle Food Mart.
For more than a decade, the mall continued to draw shoppers to Now expanding to cover 500,000 square feet, additional space
Hespeler Road before its co-owners Glenairn Acres Ltd. and J.D.S. was proposed to be used for a new skating rink with retractable
Investments announced plans in 1986 for a 300,000-square-foot $60 seating for up to 1,500 people.
million expansion. The timing for this major undertaking may have been fortuitous
However, that same year Cadillac Fairview Corporation and Fidra since that same year First Professional Management Inc.
Realities Inc. unveiled a proposal to create a regional shopping centre announced plans for the construction of a new Wal-Mart,
and commercial development at the northeast corner of the Hespeler part of its first phase of the development Cadillac/Fidra was
Road and Highway 401 intersection. This new venture – estimated undertaking on its property at Hespeler Road between Pinebush
to cost between $70-80 million - to be called the Cambridge Centre Road and Highway 401. This first phase, a short drive away from
would consist of 484,000 square feet of shopping, a trade centre, the Cambridge Centre, was reported to occupy 285,000 square
and a 200-room hotel and Olympic-sized skating rink. The ambitious feet of retail space and opened on Oct. 30 of that year.
proposal won approval from the Ontario Municipal Board in 1988. The last major expansion at the Cambridge Centre opened in
Two short years later, as plans for the new Cambridge Centre remained August 2002 after it was sold to its current owner Morguard REIT
idle, the John Galt Centre unveiled a major expansion that included a which created an additional 300,000 square-feet of retail space
Sears clearance store and a new food court. featuring a two-storey Sport-Chek, 50 smaller outlets and an
The next major expansion occured in the early part of July in 1995 NHL-sized ice rink to seat 250 people known as the Cambridge
when the mall was sold to Devan Properties and Hudson Bay Company Ice Centre.
Real Estate Ltd. At that time, it was announced the mall would be Since it opened as the Cambridge Centre in 1996,
upgraded and renamed the Cambridge Centre, and by September of the mall has grown to 700,000 square feet thanks
1996 it became home to a Zellers and a Bay store, which had housed
Miracle Mart and The Right House department store (which had to more than $100 million worth of expansions.
moved from downtown in 1989 but closed in 1993). At that time, the However, it continues to change and evolve welcoming new
main shopping corridor in the mall was doubled with a fountain and retailers such as Mark’s Work Warehouse, Indigo and Marshalls,
new food court. in 2019 while saying goodbye to others, including Target which
The Cambridge Centre was officially designated as a regional mall opened in the mall in March 2013 following a $10-million
in 1997 which cleared the way for a free standing Zehrs store, 35 renovation and closed two years later when the company
additional retail outlets and a 12,000 square-foot department store. shuttered its Canadian stores. The local closure left 150 people
This designation helped contribute to the addition of a 10-screen out of work.
movie theatre with stadium seating in 1998.

14 Summer 2023 www.cambridgechamber.com