Lawrence Square Shopping Centre

Lawrence Square Shopping Centre
Location 700 Lawrence Avenue West
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M6A 3B4
Opening date 1989[1]
Developer RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust
Management Julie M. Rinaldi
Owner RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust
No. of stores and services 120
No. of anchor tenants 6
Total retail floor area 679,575 square feet (63,134.6 m2)
No. of floors 2 (Canadian Tire on 2 floors)
Website Lawrence Square Shopping Centre

The Lawrence Square Shopping Centre, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is one of the city's twenty largest malls. It is located on Lawrence Avenue West, west of Allen Road, in the neighbourhood of Lawrence Heights, which is in the former city of North York, and is accessible from the Toronto Transit Commission's Lawrence West station. It is a terminating vista of Marlee Avenue.

North of Lawrence Square is Yorkdale Shopping Centre.

Tenants

The anchor stores are Canadian Tire on the west side and Fortinos (Loblaw Companies Limited) on the northwest side. There was a Zellers on the east side, which became vacant on early 2013. There were plans to have Target Canada where Zellers was, albeit in a smaller format, but it was scrapped upon Target's exit from Canada[2] and space remained vacant until April 14, 2016 when Marshalls and HomeSense (both owned by TJX Companies) and PetSmart moved in.

Other major tenants include Dollarama.

Renovations

When Zellers became defunct, there were renovations in its former space from 2015 to 2016 to accommodate Marshalls, HomeSense, and PetSmart.

Lawrence Square's redevelopment scheduled for September 2017 is expected to be completed in phases by the end of 2018. The transformation consists of the two levels of retail, the expansion of the food court, and new public washrooms.[3][4]

Site redevelopment

Old plan

As part of the 20-year plan to redevelop Lawrence Heights that began in 2007 by local city councillor Howard Moscoe, Lawrence Square was planned to be demolished to make way for a northward extension of Marlee Avenue and for public housing.

Two nearby public schools were planned to be demolished to make way for retail uses.[5][6][7]

New plan

Later on, councillor Moscoe retired. The new councillor, Josh Colle, conducted more rounds of community consultation. The city no longer aims to demolish Lawrence Square; instead, the new plan is to leave the mall in place permanently.[8]

Transit connections

Besides Lawrence West subway station, the mall is served by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) bus routes 52 Lawrence West, 59 Maple Leaf, 109 Ranee and 400 Lawrence Manor Community Bus. All of these buses have connections with Lawrence West subway station. Before 2014, 58 Malton buses stopped in front of the mall, which has since been absorbed into route 52 Lawrence West. All of the aforementioned bus routes pass by the mall on Lawrence Avenue West with stops at the intersection of Lawrence Avenue West and Marlee Avenue.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Josh Colle's Summer 2014 Newsletter (click "Read More")
  2. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-06-06. Retrieved 2015-06-06.
  3. ↑ Shopping Centre, Lawrence Square. "Lawrence Square Redevelopment". Lawrence Square. RioCan REIT. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  4. ↑ RioCan. "Lawrence Square Shopping Centre". RioCan. RioCan. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  5. ↑ Vincent, Donovan (May 11, 2007). "Massive Lawrence Heights overhaul planned". Toronto Star. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
  6. ↑ 'Massive' plan to revamp troubled Lawrence Heights
  7. ↑ Plan to re-create Lawrence Heights unveiled
  8. ↑ See:
    • Colle, Josh. "Lawrence Heights revitalization: phase 1 update". I secured important changes to the plan including: ... Exclusion of the Lawrence Square lands from the focus area .
    • Solaris. "Lawrence Heights Revitalization". UrbanToronto Forums » Buildings. Chart Communications, Inc. Demolition will not happen unless someone buys out Lawrence Square from Riocan or ... Riocan chooses to participate in the redevelopment .
    • sixrings. "Yorkdale Condominiums". UrbanToronto Forums » Buildings. Chart Communications, Inc. The new plan is omitting Lawrence Square redevelopment .

Coordinates: 43°43′0″N 79°26′50″W / 43.71667°N 79.44722°W / 43.71667; -79.44722

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