Carrefour Laval

Planning for a new mall (1969-1973)

Construction of the mall was announced on February 27, 1969, by Steinberg's and Eaton's. The consortium announced that a 150-store mall would be built on a 20,000,000-square-foot (1,900,000 m²) property next to the Laurentian Expressway, subject to the construction of the necessary infrastructure by the newly formed city of Laval.^[5]

The project had been delayed after a zoning bylaw proposed by mayor Jacques Tétreault that would effectively have given the Carrefour Laval consortium a monopoly over the development of the proposed downtown core of Laval was challenged by the opposition and by members of his own party, who supported the construction of a second mall in the immediate vicinity by the Oshawa Group.^[6] A zoning amendment proposed by opposition councillor Lucien Paiement (later mayor), which allowed the Oshawa Group to build its own mall was adopted. By then, Morgan's and Simpson's had joined the Carrefour Laval consortium.^[6] However, Morgan's dropped out, preferring instead to anchor an expansion of the existing Centre Laval,^[7] just 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) away on the other side of Expressway 15.

Timeline

• 1974: Carrefour Laval opens with major tenants Simpsons, Eaton's, Dupuis Frères, Pascal's and Beaucoup.^{[lower-alpha 1]}The L-shaped Carrefour Laval has 125 stores. Eaton's and Beaucoup anchor the ends of the mall and Simpsons is at the junction. Carrefour Laval has three owners: Fairview Corporation (its manager), Ivanhoe Corporation and Eaton's.^[1]
• 1978: Dupuis Frères closes. Wise arrives in the mall.
• 1983: The mall expands to the west with 100 new stores, a food court and a Sears department store.
• 1984: The Beaucoup concept is abandoned. Steinberg's and Miracle Mart now have their separate anchor spaces, although they remain side by side.
• 1986: Miracle Mart's name is shortened to "M". A standalone Cineplex Odeon arrives in the mall's parking lot.
• 1989: Simpsons store is converted to The Bay.
• 1991: Pascal's closes.
• 1992: Steinberg's and M close.
• 1993: Work begins to convert the space that had been occupied by Steinberg's and M to accommodate what would have been the first Costco store in Canada, but this is halted when Costco and Price Club merge the same year, since there was already a Price Club store right across the expressway.
• 1994: Rona L'Entrepôt opens up its first store ever on what used to be the anchor spaces of Steinberg's and M.
• 1995: Wise closes.
• 1996: Les Ailes de la Mode and Bureau en Gros become new tenants of Carrefour Laval; they occupy the space of the old Pascal's store.
• 1999: Eaton's closes.
• 2000: Cadillac Fairview acquires full ownership of the mall. Until now it had been co-owned by Ivanhoe.
• 2001: Cineplex Odeon closes.
• 2002: Carrefour Laval expands with 78 new stores and anchor Simons. Part of this expansion took place on the former spots of the Eaton's store and the Cineplex Odeon movie theater which had both been demolished. The new section is characterized on a map as the southern eastern portion of the mall with the shape of an arc.
• 2008: A newer, expanded food court and redesign of the flooring and ceilings is underway and scheduled to be completed in two phases by 2009.^[8] The food court offers now 1,200 seats.^[2]

A shish taouk platter from Zouki's at the Carrefour Laval food court, served in the mall's custom-made dinnerware.

• 2009: The new food court opens with 22 fast food restaurants, 1,200 seats and an upscale restaurant, Table 51. Conversion of the old 1983 food court into retail space begins.
• 2010: End of the work for the conversion of the old food court
• 2011: Les Ailes de la Mode closes.
• 2012: Crate & Barrel opens, in part of Les Ailes de la Mode's past location. The rest is split between The Keg and P.F. Chang's. Also, Forever 21 opens, using the second floor of the former Dupuis store, which had remained vacant since the latter's closing.
• 2014: Bureau en Gros closes.
• 2018: Sears closes. Miniso Opens.