North Hill Centre

North Hill Centre
Location 1632 14th Avenue NW
Calgary, Alberta
T2N 1M7
Coordinates 51°03′57″N 114°05′58″W / 51.06583°N 114.09944°W / 51.06583; -114.09944Coordinates: 51°03′57″N 114°05′58″W / 51.06583°N 114.09944°W / 51.06583; -114.09944
Opening date June 1958
Management Bentall Kennedy
No. of stores and services 76
No. of anchor tenants 1 (major)
Total retail floor area 20,000 m2 (220,000 sq ft)
No. of floors 1
Website northhillcentre.com

North Hill Centre is a shopping mall in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It opened in 1958, and was Calgary's first shopping mall.[1] The original anchor tenant was Simpsons-Sears (later Sears Canada), but it closed on January 8, 2018.

History

Location of North Hill Centre in Calgary

Opening

Stores in the mall began opening in June 1958, and the mall's official grand opening was in October 1958.[2] It was billed as the largest shopping centre in Western Canada, with about 30 stores and services. As described by mall spokeswoman Paula Newhold: "It was revolutionary to have a mall and to have late-night shopping and all of that kind of stuff that is just quite normal for us now. The real experience was that it was all in one place - that was the interesting thing."[3]

1973 expansion

North Hill Centre was originally built as a strip mall accompanied by a freestanding Simpson-Sears department store. In 1973 the mall underwent a major renovation, which added 20 more stores and enclosed the shopping area. The design featured a central corridor with irregularly sized columns and ceiling heights, presenting an inconsistent look to the storefronts in the mall.[4]

By the 1990s, anchor tenants for the mall were Sears and Canada Safeway (on the east end), along with Super Valu (on the west end), giving the mall two major grocery stores.

The North Hill Theatre and Fairview Bowling Alley, erected in the parking lot in 1967, remained in operation until 1999.[5]

2000 renovations

One of the entrances to North Hill Centre (2007)

In 2000, the mall was renovated. The interior columns were removed, the mall ceiling was raised to a consistent height, and additional shops and services were added.

Sears Plume

In the early 90s, a gas station located in the parking lot and operated by Sears Canada was found to have been leaking into the soil, poisoning the groundwater. [6] The leak occurred for at least two decades, leading to a large underground collection of gasoline. Because of this, it was necessary to create several monitoring sites in the nearby neighbourhood of Hounsfield Heights/Briar Hill. The monitoring sites consist of multiple wells and three meters installed in residential homes. [7][8]

References

  1. ↑ North Hill Centre website
  2. ↑ "The Shopping Mall Museum". Retrieved 16 July 2018. Stores in the 3 million dollar retail hub began opening in June 1958, with the official grand opening held October 23rd of the same year.
  3. ↑ North Hill Centre turns 50 (article by Tarina White, Calgary Sun, 19 September 2008)
  4. ↑ North Hill Centre website
  5. ↑ Cinema Treasures page
  6. ↑ https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/decades-later-north-hill-centre-gas-leak-continues-to-raise-groundwater-concerns-1.1842769
  7. ↑ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/sears-north-hill-gas-leak-1.4557257
  8. ↑ http://www.hh-bh.ca/sears-plume/
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