Carlingwood Mall

Carlingwood Mall
Location Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Coordinates 45°22′19″N 75°46′12″W / 45.372°N 75.77°W / 45.372; -75.77Coordinates: 45°22′19″N 75°46′12″W / 45.372°N 75.77°W / 45.372; -75.77
Address 2121 Carling Avenue
Opening date 1956[1]
Owner 20 Vic Management Inc.
No. of stores and services 120
No. of anchor tenants 1 (Loblaws)
Total retail floor area 525,934 sq ft or 48,860.9 m2
No. of floors 1 (with some low-level space, and a small 2nd floor)
Parking Over 2,500 parking spaces[2]
Website www.carlingwood.com

Carlingwood Mall (or also called Carlingwood Shopping Centre) is a mall located in the west end of the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is operated by 20 Vic Management Incorporated. The mall opened in 1956[1] and was one of the city's first major shopping centres.

Description

The shopping centre contains 120 stores and services on a single enclosed level. The interior hallways are laid out in a rectangle, with secondary branching halls from the six entrances. Offices and services including the management office are located on a small second level in the northwest corner of the building. There are also two small underground sections for some discount stores and the Carlingwood YWCA/YMCA.[3] The stores are a mix of chain stores, small independents, fast food outlets and a restaurant. The largest store is the Loblaws grocery store with an area of 36,451 sq ft (3,386 m2) at the east end of the mall. At the west end of the mall was a long-time Sears Canada location that is now vacant.

The mall is situated at the corner of Carling and Woodroffe avenues, about 1 kilometre north of the Queensway (Highway 417). A 1996 survey found that 21% of shoppers used mass transit to get to the mall, and that Carlingwood was an exception in being accepted as primarily an automobile destination.[4] The weekly traffic averages about 155 000 visitors per week.[5]

Carlingwood Mall with former Sears at left, Loblaws at right, and main entrance in the middle.

History

Simpsons-Sears department store opened in 1955. It was then a two-floor department store with 160,400 square feet (14,900 m2) of retail space.[6][7] The mall was constructed over the next two years. Carlingwood opened in 1956 and offered 40 stores and was at the time the largest shopping centres in Ottawa. One of the selling points of the mall was its extensive 24 acres (97,000 m2) of free parking. Besides, Sears, one of the early stores to move into the mall was the established shoe store Armstrong & Richardson. Armstrong & Richardson ceased operations in 2018.[8][9][10]

In 1957, the Carlingwood Branch of the Ottawa Public Library opened in the mall, the first mall library in Canada. The branch later moved to a nearby custom-built facility in 1966.[11]

In 2002, the management of the mall was criticised by CUPE, a labour union, for locking out cleaning staff who were part of the union in favour of non-union staff who received minimum wage and no benefits.[12] The CUPE boycott of the mall ended with a victory for the union.[13] Bill Murnighan, a writer for Our Times, used the dispute as an example of the "crossroads" that union organising faced in Canada at the beginning of the millennium.[14] Although the strike was directed at the shopping centre in the interest of gaining more publicity and having more impact, the cleaning staff were actually not employees of the shopping centre. The cleaning of the shopping centre is contracted out, and the cleaning staff were actually striking against the shopping centre to put pressure on their employer, Allans Maintenance.

Until July 2005, the Alex Dayton Seniors Activity Centre, co-founded by Ottawa Mayor Bob Chiarelli,[15] was located near entrance three in the east side of the mall. For the 2007 Ontario election, the space was used as the office for provincial politician Jim Watson's re-election campaign.[16]

The mall was renovated in the mid 2000s to add seating and other "comfort" improvements. In an interview with Ottawa Business Journal, former General Manager Denis Pelletier named the renovation as one of the reasons for the mall's successful 2005 Christmas shopping season, along with the mall's new bargain store, the Sears anchor, and easy customer access. This renovation has resulted in a very customer-friendly centre. In the four main passages, there are upholstered benches, capable of seating over 180 people. In addition, there are over 150 tables, in the three refreshment areas, each with two or more seats. Both sitting and refreshment areas are decorated with planters containing trees or shrubs.[17]

On January 8, 2018, Sears closed due to the retailer closing all stores.[18] The mall has applied to demolish the vacant store.[19] The mall was formerly the home of one of the oldest and smallest Zellers stores in Ottawa until the store closed in 1999 and was replaced with a drug store. It also formerly contained a Marks & Spencer.[20]

Transit services

Carlingwood Mall is served by the following routes: 11, 16, 85, 87, 153, 301, 303 and 305.

  • Route 11 only has selected trips that operate Carlingwood Mall and Westboro Station.
  • Route 16 provides connections to Britannia Park, Dovercourt Recreation Centre, Lincoln Fields Shopping Centre, Tunney's Pasture, downtown Ottawa, University of Ottawa, and St. Paul's University. It also provides connections to the communities of McKellar Park, Wellington West, Fisher Park, and Sandy Hill.
  • Route 85 provides connections to Lincoln Fields Shopping Centre, Bayshore Shopping Centre, Carling Avenue, Little Italy, and downtown Ottawa.
  • Route 87 provides connections to Algonquin College, Tunney's Pasture, downtown Ottawa, Hurdman Station, Billings Bridge, Mooney's Bay, and South Keys Shopping Centre.
  • Route 153 is a local route that operates during selected time periods between Lincoln Fields and Carlingwood via the Lincoln Heights area.
  • Route 301 is a free shoppers route operates on Mondays only. It travels between Carlingwood and Richmond via Lincoln Fields, Bayshore, Kanata Centrum, and Stittsville.
  • Route 303 is a free shoppers route operates on Wednesdays only. It travels between Carlingwood and Dunrobin via Lincoln Fields, Bayshore, Kanata Centrum, Stittsville, and Carp.
  • Route 305 is a free shoppers route operates on Fridays only. It travels between Carlingwood and North Gower via Lincoln Fields, Algonquin College, Barrhaven, and Manotick.

Notes and references

  1. 1 2 Winter, John. "Memorable Moments in Ontario Retailing". Retrieved 2006-08-27.
  2. ↑ "Driving directions". Carlingwood.com. Archived from the original on 2006-07-16. Retrieved 2006-08-27.
  3. ↑ "Y is coming back to Carlingwood". OttawaLife.com. 2013-10-02. Retrieved 2014-06-28.
  4. ↑ Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, Inc., Dr. Robert Cervero, Howard/Stein-Hudson Associates, Inc. and Jeffrey Zupan (March 1996). "Public Policy and Transit Oriented Development: Six International Case Studies" (PDF). Report 16, Volume 2. Retrieved 2006-08-27.
  5. ↑ "Corporate lease". Carlingwood.com. Retrieved 2006-08-27.
  6. ↑ Montreal Gazette Nov. 10 1955
  7. ↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=roAtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MZkFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5940,1939147&dq=carlingwood&hl=en
  8. ↑ Ottawa Citizen October 11th 1957
  9. ↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=neowAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rN8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=6902,2499963&dq=carlingwood&hl=en
  10. ↑ "Ottawa shoe seller Armstrong & Richardson closing after 84 years | CBC News". CBC. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
  11. ↑ Jenkins, Phil. The Library Book: An Overdue History of the Ottawa Public Library 1906-2001, p.54. 2002:Ottawa Public Library.
  12. ↑ National Trade Publications Inc. (2002-10-25). "Canadian union: Mall cleaning staff locked out". CM Cleaning and Maintenance Management online. National Trade Publications Inc. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2006-08-27.
  13. ↑ "Victory for Carlingwood Mall Cleaners - Boycott lifted". CUPE Ontario. November 13, 2002. Archived from the original on January 1, 2013. Retrieved 2006-08-27.
  14. ↑ Murnighan, Bill (July 2003). "Organizing at a Crossroads: A Good News, Bad News Story". Our Times. Archived from the original (– Scholar search) on August 16, 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-27.
  15. ↑ "About the Mayor". Ottawa City Hall. Archived from the original on May 26, 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-27.
  16. ↑ Tam, Pauline (28 September 2007). "Up for the challenge". Ottawa Citizen. Archived from the original on 7 November 2012. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  17. ↑ Pelletier, Denis, quoted in Harold, Kristin (January 18, 2006). "Holiday Retail Recap: Area malls ring up solid end to 2005". Ottawa Business Journal. Archived from the original on July 12, 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-27.
  18. ↑ "'Too little, too late': Sears a cautionary tale for other retailers". CBC News. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  19. ↑ "Carlingwood mall looks to demolish vacant Sears store | CBC News". CBC. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
  20. ↑ CBC News (2000-11-10). "Marks & Spencer announces shutdown schedule". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2006-08-27.
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