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87-599: Pacific Mall is an Asian shopping mall in Markham , Ontario , Canada . It is the largest indoor Asian shopping mall in North America and has been reported as the largest Asian shopping mall in the Western world . The mall is located on the northeast corner of Steeles Avenue and Kennedy Road , along the city limits with Toronto . Opened in the mid-1990s amid a period of significant Chinese immigration to Canada ,
174-416: A building that complimented Markham's suburban architecture. The mall's market-style interior with exposed roof trusses, pipes, and roof decks is described as "good representation of shed typology that is characterized by mass production, cost efficiency, and fast construction." The mall has two floors and a basement level that leads to an underground parking lot. The hallways of the main floor are arranged in
261-406: A cathedral dome ceiling and stage that hosts cultural programs and trade fairs. The second floor contains a food court, entertainment centre, medical offices, additional shops, and Heritage Town. On June 15, 2005, Pacific Mall and Market Village announced a 400,000-square-foot (37,000-square-metre) expansion that would see the construction of additional retail space, a luxury hotel, condominiums, and
348-458: A commercial destination while maintaining its cultural character. Historically, Toronto's Downtown Chinatown has been represented by immigrants and families from southern China and Hong Kong . Since the transfer of Hong Kong's sovereignty to the People's Republic of China in 1997, immigrants from mainland China have greatly exceeded those from Hong Kong. However, at present Cantonese remains
435-492: A few jurisdictions, notably California , have expanded the right of freedom of speech to ensure that speakers will be able to reach consumers who prefer to shop, eat, and socialize within the boundaries of privately owned malls. The Supreme Court decision Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins was issued on 9 June 1980 which affirmed the decision of the California Supreme Court in a case that arose out of
522-601: A flourishing of ethnic malls in Markham, Richmond Hill , and Scarborough . The mall was planned and constructed amid the so-called "Hong Kong Tide" of the 1980s and 1990s, which saw an increase in immigration to Canada by highly educated, skilled migrants from Hong Kong who were frequently wealthy entrepreneurs and investors. This immigration was influenced by a range of factors, notably the handover of Hong Kong , and new Canadian open-door immigration policies that recruited based on merit rather than national origin. The passage of
609-780: A free speech dispute between the Pruneyard Shopping Center in Campbell, California, and several local high school students. This is a list of the world's largest shopping malls based on their gross leasable area (GLA), with a GLA of at least 250,000 m (2,700,000 sq ft). Some wholesale market complexes also function as shopping malls in that they contain retail space which operate as stores in normal malls do but also act as producer vendor outlets that can take large orders for export. Chinatown, Toronto#West Chinatown Chinatown, Toronto (also known as Downtown Chinatown or West Chinatown )
696-538: A grid, with each hallway given a street name: hallways running north–south are named after streets in Hong Kong , such as Hennessy Avenue , Hollywood Avenue , Pacific Avenue, Queen's Avenue , and Nathan Avenue , while hallways running east–west are numerical with numbers associated with affluence and luck in Cantonese , such as 218th Street and 188th Street. The centre of the mall contains an indoor courtyard with
783-603: A handful of Chinese businesses still thrive there, much of the Chinese community have largely migrated west from there to the present Chinatown neighbourhood, thus its name, "West Chinatown". Chinatown continued to expand with the influx of Chinese immigrants during the 1960s, many of the wives and descendants of the Chinese men already in Canada due to the lifting of Canada's racial exclusion act . With much of Toronto's downtown Jewish population moving north along Bathurst Street ,
870-570: A hotel, luxury condominiums, and office space and sits atop a block-long base containing an eight-level atrium-style retail mall that fronts on the Magnificent Mile . Vertical malls are common in densely populated conurbations in East and Southeast Asia. Hong Kong in particular has numerous examples such as Times Square , Dragon Centre , Apm , Langham Place , ISQUARE , Hysan Place and The One . A vertical mall may also be built where
957-500: A large bas-relief of a dragon, 300 lanterns, an emperor's chair, a wood-work bridge, and terracotta soldiers . Heritage Town was successful in attracting additional business, prompting the mall to seek and be awarded designation as a Canadian Tourist Attraction. As such, Pacific Mall is exempt from the Retail Business Holiday Act and is open year-round, including statutory holidays. Today, Pacific Mall remains
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#17327876077501044-493: A large number of new malls had been built near major cities, notably the MEGA malls such as Mega Belaya Dacha mall near Moscow . In large part they were financed by international investors and were popular with shoppers from the emerging middle class. A shopping property management firm is a company that specializes in owning and managing shopping malls. Most shopping property management firms own at least 20 malls. Some firms use
1131-534: A major competitor to shopping malls. In the United States , online shopping has accounted for an increasing share of total retail sales. In 2013, roughly 200 out of 1,300 malls across the United States were going out of business. To combat this trend, developers have converted malls into other uses including attractions such as parks, movie theaters, gyms, and even fishing lakes. In the United States,
1218-492: A major destination for tourism in Canada , and promotes itself through pamphlets at airports and tourist information centers in major North American cities. As demographics of Chinese migrants to Canada shifted in 2010s, and immigrants from mainland China form a greater proportion of Chinese immigrants, many businesses at Pacific Mall have opted to hire salespeople fluent in Cantonese , Mandarin , and English. Though stores in
1305-955: A mall the center reverts to its own name and branding, such as the Ashley Centre in Epsom . Similarly, following its rebranding from Capital Shopping Centres, intu Properties renamed many of its centres to "intu (name/location)" (such as intu Lakeside ); again, malls removed from the network revert to their own brand (see for instance The Glades in Bromley ). One controversial aspect of malls has been their effective displacement of traditional main streets or high streets . Some consumers prefer malls, with their parking garages, controlled environments, and private security guards , over central business districts (CBD) or downtowns , which frequently have limited parking, poor maintenance, outdoor weather, and limited police coverage. In response,
1392-472: A multi-level parking structure that would bring the combined size of the malls to 1,000,000 square feet (90,000 m). In 2009, the developers announced they would instead demolish Market Village and construct a new adjoining mall, the Remington Centre . The project has faced numerous delays; while the expansion plan was endorsed by Markham City Council in 2011, it requires additional approvals from
1479-484: A nine-month review, with a building permit granted in May 1995. Historian Erica Allen-Kim argues that Pacific Mall was "a weathervane for Markham's ongoing transformation from a rural township to an ethnoburb ." Then-deputy mayor of Markham Carole Bell received criticism for her statement that "everything's going Chinese" in response to the proliferation of ethnic malls. She attempted to implement by-laws that would have forbid
1566-806: A popular way to build retail across the world. Gruen himself came to abhor this effect of his new design; he decried the creation of enormous "land wasting seas of parking" and the spread of suburban sprawl. Even though malls mostly appeared in suburban areas in the U.S., some U.S. cities facilitated the construction of enclosed malls downtown as an effort to revive city centers and allow them to compete effectively with suburban malls. Examples included Main Place Mall in Buffalo (1969) and The Gallery (1977, now Fashion District Philadelphia ) in Philadelphia. Other cities created open-air pedestrian malls . In
1653-549: A similar naming scheme for most of their malls; for example, Mills Corporation puts "Mills" in most of its mall names and SM Prime Holdings of the Philippines puts "SM" in all of its malls, as well as anchor stores such as The SM Store, SM Appliance Center, SM Hypermarket, SM Cinema, and SM Supermarket. In the UK, The Mall Fund changes the name of any center it buys to "The Mall (location)" , using its pink-M logo; when it sells
1740-474: A total of 58 Asian shopping malls in Markham, Richmond Hill, and Scarborough. A large-scale, indoor Asian mall to be built on the former site of Cullen Country Barns was formally proposed in 1993 by Torgan Group, an Israeli-Canadian development company, with the Fairchild Group as a partner. The mall would operate as a condominium corporation , where shop units are owned by individuals who determine
1827-401: A wide variety of goods, including traditional Chinese clothing , contemporary fashion, jewelry, herbal medicine , tea, electronics, mobile phones, ornaments, food, and printed material such as Chinese books, magazines and newspapers. A "diminishing number" of stores sell both legitimate and pirated CDs and DVDs; the decline in the sale of these goods can be attributed to regular police raids and
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#17327876077501914-676: A year before the Great Recession , no new malls were built in America, for the first time in 50 years. City Creek Center Mall in Salt Lake City , which opened in March 2012, was the first to be built since the recession. Malls began to lose consumers to open-air power centers and lifestyle centers during the 1990s, as consumers preferred to park right in front of and walk directly into big-box stores with lower prices and without
2001-438: Is a Chinese ethnic enclave located in the city's downtown core of Toronto , Ontario , Canada. It is centred at the intersections of Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street West . The present neighbourhood was the result of the government expropriating Toronto's first Chinatown in the late 1950s to make way for a new city hall and public square . As a result of the expropriations, a number of businesses and residents based in
2088-1161: Is a large indoor shopping center , usually anchored by department stores . The term mall originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, it began to be used as a generic term for the large enclosed shopping centers that were becoming increasingly commonplace. In the United Kingdom and other countries, shopping malls may be called shopping centres . In recent decades, malls have declined considerably in North America , particularly in subprime locations, and some have closed and become so-called " dead malls ". Successful exceptions have added entertainment and experiential features, added big-box stores as anchors, or converted to other specialized shopping center formats such as power centers , lifestyle centers , factory outlet centers, and festival marketplaces . In Canada, shopping centres have frequently been replaced with mixed-use high-rise communities. In many European countries and Asian countries , shopping malls continue to grow and thrive. In
2175-643: Is derived from Pacific Place in Hong Kong . At the time of its opening, Pacific Mall was the only mall of any kind of its scale in Scarborough and Markham. The mall's 715 retail condos were presold by 1993 for an average of $ 200 per square foot, and were priced from $ 59,800 to $ 249,800. A majority of condo buyers originated from Hong Kong, where Pacific Mall units were advertised extensively; many investors purchased units in Pacific Mall in order to fulfill
2262-412: Is featured prominently in the 2008 collection of short stories The Chinese Knot and Other Stories by Lien Chao. Toronto band Do Make Say Think have a song titled "Chinatown" on their 2002 album & Yet & Yet . The film Suite Suite Chinatown , directed by Aram Siu Wai Collier, was screened at the 14th Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival . The Pixar animated short, Bao ,
2349-629: Is served by both the Toronto Transit Commission (routes 43 Kennedy and 53 Steeles East) and York Region Transit (Route 8 Kennedy) buses, and is located within walking distance of the Milliken GO Station , which connects to the Stouffville line . The two street entrances to the mall are located at Redlea Avenue and Clayton Drive. Bibliography Shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall )
2436-565: Is the Toronto Chinatown Business Improvement Area (多倫多華埠商業改進區), also known as the Chinatown BIA. A non-for-profit organization funded by the commercial property owners of the downtown Chinatown area, it was founded in 2007 and works closely with representatives of the federal, provincial, and city government, the police, as well as community stakeholders to promote and enhance the community as
2523-471: The Copyright Act . On December 3, 2012, over $ 3 million worth of counterfeit goods were seized from Pacific Mall as a part of "Project Consumer Safety." On June 27, 2018, seven search warrants were executed for stores in Pacific Mall, resulting in the seizure of clothing, handbags, and cell phone accessories; eight individuals were charged with knowingly or recklessly making false representation to
2610-791: The Investment Canada Act , which sought to direct business migrants and foreign capital into Canada, is also noted as a factor. Of additional note is the implementation of the Canadian Immigrant Investor Program (CANIIP), which granted landed immigrant status to individuals with least CAD$ 500,000 in wealth who agreed to invest $ 250,000 in Canadian business ventures. As a result of this immigration, Markham's ethnic Chinese population rose 15 percent in 1995, resulting in nearly 30 percent of Markham's population being of Chinese origin; by 1999, there would be
2697-651: The Office of the United States Trade Representative . Pacific Mall is built on the site formerly occupied by Cullen Country Barns, a farm-themed complex opened in 1983 that housed shops, a theatre, and restaurants. The complex was established by Len Cullen, the founder of Cullen Gardens and Miniature Village in Whitby, Ontario , and consisted of two barn wings with gambrel roofs and a concrete silo. None were historic structures dating back to
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2784-626: The municipal government of Toronto and a majority of the ownership of Pacific Mall, 40 percent of which is composed of individual retailers. Pacific Mall is noted for its sale of counterfeit and pirated goods, including video games, movies, music, electronic devices, cosmetics, apparel, and fragrances. In January 2018, the mall was listed as a notorious market by the Office of the United States Trade Representative , which noted that vendors in Pacific Mall “operate largely with impunity” despite requests for assistance from law enforcement. Pacific Mall management responded that they were "deeply disturbed" by
2871-524: The overhead of traditional malls (i.e., long enclosed corridors). Another issue was that the growth-crazed American commercial real estate industry had simply built too many nice places to shop—far more than could be reasonably justified by the actual growth of the American population, retail sales, or any other economic indicator. The number of American shopping centers exploded from 4,500 in 1960 to 70,000 by 1986 to just under 108,000 by 2010. Thus,
2958-530: The $ 250,000 investment requirement of CANIIP. After business at the mall was initially slow, half of the unused second floor (which is owned and operated by Torgan Group, rather than condo leasees) was renovated in 1999 into Heritage Town, a food court and market that contains approximately 100 vendors. Aimed at attracting tourists and non-Chinese customers, Torgan Group commissioned artists and sculptors in China to make custom decorations for Heritage Town, including
3045-610: The 600,000 square foot Highland Mall will be a campus for Austin Community College . In France , the So Ouest mall outside of Paris was designed to resemble elegant, Louis XV -style apartments and includes 17,000 square metres (180,000 sq ft) of green space. The Australian mall company Westfield launched an online mall (and later a mobile app) with 150 stores, 3,000 brands and over 1 million products. The COVID-19 pandemic also significantly impacted
3132-647: The American market in 2022, the United States had an average of 24.5 square feet of retail space per capita (in contrast to 4.5 square feet per capita in Europe). In 2019, The Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards opened as an upscale mall in New York City with "a ' Fifth Avenue ' mix of shops", such as H&M , Zara , and Sephora below them. This is one of the first two malls built recently, along with American Dream in which both opened in 2019 since City Creek Center . Online shopping has also emerged as
3219-641: The Chinatowns of New York and Toronto. The television series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues was filmed in Chinatown at Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street West for many episodes of its 1993–97 run. Filmed in Toronto, it portrays the Chinatown of an unidentified major U.S. city. On an episode of the 1990s series Due South entitled "Chinatown" (Season 1, episode 6), Toronto's Dundas and Spadina Chinatown stood in for Chicago's Chinatown. Toronto's Chinatown
3306-677: The Gruen-designed Southdale Center , which opened in the Twin Cities suburb of Edina, Minnesota , United States in October 1956. For pioneering the soon-to-be enormously popular mall concept in this form, Gruen has been called the "most influential architect of the twentieth century" by Malcolm Gladwell . The first retail complex to be promoted as a "mall" was Paramus, New Jersey 's Bergen Mall , which opened with an open-air format on November 14, 1957, and
3393-670: The International Council of Shopping Centers, is a shopping mall with over 800,000 sq ft (74,000 m ) of gross leasable area, three or more anchors, mass merchant, more variety, fashion apparel , and serves as the dominant shopping venue for the region (25 miles or 40 km) in which it is located. Not classified as malls are smaller formats such as strip malls and neighborhood shopping centers , and specialized formats such as power centers , festival marketplaces , and outlet centers . Shopping centers in general may have their origins in public markets and, in
3480-779: The Middle East, covered bazaars . In 1798, the first covered shopping passage was built in Paris, the Passage du Caire . The Burlington Arcade in London was opened in 1819. The Arcade in Providence, Rhode Island , built in 1828, claims to be the first shopping arcade in the United States. Western European cities in particular built many arcade-style shopping centers. The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, which opened in 1877,
3567-464: The United States after World War II , with larger open-air shopping centers anchored by major department stores, such as the 550,000-square-foot (51,000 m ) Broadway-Crenshaw Center in Los Angeles , built in 1947 and anchored by a five-story Broadway and a May Company California . In the late 1950s and into the 1960s, the term "shopping mall" was first used, but in the original sense of
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3654-406: The United States were considered to be "dying" (40% or higher vacancy rates) and nearly one-fifth of all malls had vacancy rates considered "troubling" (10% or higher). Some real estate experts say the "fundamental problem" is a glut of malls in many parts of the country creating a market that is "extremely over-retailed". By the time shopping mall operator Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield decided to exit
3741-432: The United States, Persian Gulf countries , and India, the term shopping mall is usually applied to enclosed retail structures (and is generally abbreviated to simply mall ), while shopping center usually refers to open-air retail complexes; both types of facilities usually have large parking lots , face major traffic arterials , and have few pedestrian connections to surrounding neighborhoods. Outside of North America,
3828-508: The United States, developers such as A. Alfred Taubman of Taubman Centers extended the concept further in 1980, with terrazzo tiles at the Mall at Short Hills in New Jersey , indoor fountains, and two levels allowing a shopper to make a circuit of all the stores. Taubman believed carpeting increased friction, slowing down customers, so it was removed. Fading daylight through glass panels
3915-409: The area are Dragon City and Chinatown Centre. Since the 1990s, downtown Chinatown has been redefining itself in the face of changing demographics and gentrification of the neighbourhood. As the aging population shrank, revenues of businesses in the neighbourhood also decreased. While the majority of the grocery stores and shops remain, most of the once-famed restaurants on Dundas Street West, especially
4002-405: The barbecue shops located below grade, have closed since 2000. Competition from commercial developments in suburban Chinese communities also drew wealth and professional immigrants away from downtown. Unlike those newer developments in the suburbs, Chinatown's economy relies heavily on tourism and Chinese seniors. As many younger, higher-income immigrants settled elsewhere in the city, those left in
4089-424: The basement dining rooms. A common feature of shopping malls is a food court: this typically consists of a number of fast food vendors of various types, surrounding a shared seating area. When the shopping mall format was developed by Victor Gruen in the mid-1950s, signing larger department stores was necessary for the financial stability of the projects, and to draw retail traffic that would result in visits to
4176-647: The businesses in this area became largely Chinese. In the following decades, students and skilled workers arrived from Hong Kong , Guangdong province and Chinese communities in Southeast Asia and the Caribbean further increased the Chinese population, which led to the creation of additional Chinese communities east of Toronto. The neighbourhood has been noted as being a "near complete community" with housing, employment, and commerce, along with schools and social services all located within walking distance in
4263-455: The case was identified as Bryan Valentine Gardner from security camera footage; Gardner was arrested in London, Ontario , on September 2, 2010, 18 months after the incident. On August 28, 2013, Gardner was sentenced to life in prison, with no chance of parole until 2026. Pacific Mall is located at the corner of Steeles Avenue and Kennedy Road in Markham, along the city limits with Toronto. It
4350-428: The city's first Chinatown moved west towards Spadina Avenue during the 1950s and 1960s, later joined by other Chinese immigrants during the 1960s. The neighbourhood is one of several Chinatowns in Toronto that developed during the latter half of the 20th century. This Chinatown is sometimes referred to as West Chinatown to differentiate from both the first Chinatown located more centrally and East Chinatown developed at
4437-488: The construction of a structure that would bring the combined size of the malls to 1,000,000 square feet (90,000 m), though the project has faced numerous delays. Pacific Mall is further noted as a location for the sale of counterfeit goods ; stores in Pacific Mall have been raided multiple times by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police , and in 2018 the mall was listed as a notorious market by
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#17327876077504524-474: The construction of any more. Out-of-town shopping developments in the UK are now focused on retail parks , which consist of groups of warehouse style shops with individual entrances from outdoors. Planning policy prioritizes the development of existing town centres, although with patchy success. Westfield London ( White City ) is the largest shopping centre in Europe. In Russia , on the other hand, as of 2013
4611-580: The designation, and stated that they would give warnings to vendors who sold illicit goods. The mall has been raided multiple times by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). On May 5, 2005, the RCMP seized over $ 800,000 worth of counterfeit goods, including 30,000 DVDs and 3,000 video games. On July 13, 2006, over 1,000 copies of pirated video game software were seized. On May 6, 2009, over 49,000 DVDs, 217 DVD burners, and over 100,000 blank DVDs were seized; four individuals were charged with multiple counts under
4698-450: The district are typically from older generations who depend on downtown's dense concentration of services and accessibility to public transportation. With developers changing or resulting in the closure of well-regarded businesses, the Chinatown neighbourhood is facing the pressures of gentrification along with many other Toronto ethnic neighbourhoods and communities such as Greektown , Koreatown , Little Portugal , and Little Italy . In
4785-526: The early 21st century, downtown neighbourhoods became more attractive to urban professionals and young people who work in the Financial District , as well as its proximity to the University of Toronto and to OCAD University , leading to the gentrification of surrounding areas and potentially changing the face of West Chinatown. A key representative of the neighbourhood and its interests
4872-652: The equivalent of a U.S. mall, are located in city centres, usually found in old and historic shopping districts and surrounded by subsidiary open air shopping streets. Large examples include Westquay in Southampton ; Manchester Arndale ; Bullring Birmingham ; Liverpool One ; Trinity Leeds ; Buchanan Galleries in Glasgow ; St James Quarter in Edinburgh ; and Eldon Square in Newcastle upon Tyne . In addition to
4959-815: The geography prevents building outward or there are other restrictions on construction, such as historic buildings or significant archeology . The Darwin Shopping Centre and associated malls in Shrewsbury , UK, are built on the side of a steep hill, around the former town walls; consequently the shopping center is split over seven floors vertically – two locations horizontally – connected by elevators, escalators and bridge walkways. Some establishments incorporate such designs into their layout, such as Shrewsbury's former McDonald's , split into four stories with multiple mezzanines which featured medieval castle vaults – complete with arrowslits – in
5046-499: The growing ubiquity of this material online. As a condominium corporation, store owners elect representatives to form a management board, which oversees the operation of the mall. Pacific Mall was designed by Wallman Clewes Bergman Architects, who built the structure in a combination of red brick, steel beams, and glass. The firm sought to create a "fabulous transparent building as different as possible from its surrounding," but rather than emulate Chinese architecture , sought to create
5133-421: The impact the mall would have on parking and traffic volume, the style of the building that would replace Cullen Country Barns, and challenges in dealing with multiple owners in a condo-style mall. The Council commissioned an independent study on retail condominiums by John Winter and Associates, which concluded that retail condos are a positive means of diversifying developments. Pacific Mall's application underwent
5220-399: The influx of new residents, businesses from immigrants and second generation Canadians. The neighbourhood has continued to serve as a vital market hub and services, to people from inside the neighbourhood and outside. The central location of the neighbourhood has also been a draw for property developers, changing the face of the neighbourhood. Meanwhile, since the 2010s, the first Chinatown
5307-851: The inner city shopping centres, large UK conurbations will also have large out-of-town "regional malls" such as the Metrocentre in Gateshead ; Meadowhall Centre , Sheffield serving South Yorkshire ; the Trafford Centre in Greater Manchester ; White Rose Centre in Leeds ; the Merry Hill Centre near Dudley ; and Bluewater in Kent . These centres were built in the 1980s and 1990s, but planning regulations prohibit
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#17327876077505394-415: The intersection of Broadview Avenue and Gerrard Street East. Toronto's present-day downtown Chinatown was formerly a Jewish district, although a small Chinese community was already present in this location prior to the 1950s. The creation of this Chinatown was driven by the demolition of First Chinatown at Bay Street and Dundas Street West, from the 1950s to 1960s to make way for Toronto City Hall. While
5481-594: The late 1960s. The enclosed shopping center, which would eventually be known as the shopping mall, did not appear in mainstream until the mid-1950s. One of the earliest examples was the Valley Fair Shopping Center in Appleton, Wisconsin , which opened on March 10, 1955. Valley Fair featured a number of modern features including central heating and cooling, a large outdoor parking area, semi-detached anchor stores, and restaurants. Later that year
5568-594: The latter line have dedicated right-of-way. The El Mocambo live music venue is in the northern end of Chinatown, although this 1940s establishment was there before the neighbourhood became Chinatown. A number of streets in Downtown Chinatown are bilingual, a feature first introduced in the 1970s. The majority of these name are phonetic transliterations through Cantonese or Taishanese pronunciations into Chinese characters, while streets such as College and Queen streets are literally translated: Although
5655-562: The mall are noted for having relatively high turnover, many stores continue to be operated by their initial Hong Kong-originating owners. Pacific Mall is the largest indoor Asian shopping mall in North America and has been reported as the largest Asian shopping mall in the Western world . The mall is surrounded by an existing shopping plaza, including remnants of the former Market Village, which collectively encompass over 500 stores and 1,500 indoor and outdoor parking spaces. Stores range in size from 300 to 800 square feet (28 to 74 m) and sell
5742-493: The mall operates as a condominium corporation with 450 individual units. The mall also includes Heritage Town, a food court and market that functions as a notable tourist destination in the Greater Toronto Area . The Remington Centre , a proposed shopping mall first announced in 2005, would occupy the site formerly held by Market Village , a now-defunct mall adjacent to Pacific Mall. The expansion would see
5829-571: The mall. The challenge of this type of mall is to overcome the natural tendency of shoppers to move horizontally and encourage shoppers to move upwards and downwards. The concept of a vertical mall was originally conceived in the late 1960s by the Mafco Company, former shopping center development division of Marshall Field & Co. The Water Tower Place skyscraper in Chicago , Illinois was built in 1975 by Urban Retail Properties. It contains
5916-556: The name of the complex (such as Toronto Eaton Centre ). The term mall is less-commonly a part of the name of the complex. The International Council of Shopping Centers , based in New York City , classifies two types of shopping centers as malls: regional malls and superregional malls. A regional mall, per the International Council of Shopping Centers, is a shopping mall with 400,000 sq ft (37,000 m ) to 800,000 sq ft (74,000 m ) gross leasable area with at least two anchor stores . A super-regional mall, per
6003-420: The neighbourhood. Today, the economic and social centre of Toronto's downtown Chinatown primarily runs north–south along Spadina Avenue to College Street to Sullivan Street and east–west along Dundas Street West from Augusta Avenue to Beverley Street. A mansion that is converted to the Italian Consulate is at the northwest corner of Dundas and Beverley. Since the 2000s, the West Chinatown has been changing from
6090-499: The number of dead malls increased significantly in the early 21st century. The economic health of malls across the United States has been in decline, as revealed by high vacancy rates. From 2006 to 2010, the percentage of malls that are considered to be "dying" by real estate experts (have a vacancy rate of at least 40%), unhealthy (20–40%), or in trouble (10–20%) all increased greatly, and these high vacancy rates only partially decreased from 2010 to 2014. In 2014, nearly 3% of all malls in
6177-405: The present downtown Chinatown is one of the more well known Chinese ethnic enclaves in Toronto, the city has a number of other neighbourhoods that have a high concentration of Chinese businesses, and people. Other Chinese ethnic enclaves in Toronto, and the Greater Toronto Area include: The 1999 Chow Yun-fat film The Corruptor was set in the New York City Chinatown , with scenes filmed in
6264-490: The primary language used by businesses and restaurants in Chinatown. To the east of Spadina Avenue, numerous university students attending the University of Toronto , OCAD University (formerly the Ontario College of Art and Design), and Toronto Metropolitan University live in many of the small houses built as workers' housing. Both the 505 Dundas and 510 Spadina streetcar routes run through Chinatown, with
6351-432: The prior year. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, both open-air and enclosed centers are commonly referred to as shopping centres . Mall primarily refers to either a shopping mall – a place where a collection of shops all adjoin a pedestrian area – or an exclusively pedestrianized street that allows shoppers to walk without interference from vehicle traffic. The majority of British enclosed shopping centres,
6438-574: The public and selling or distributing goods in association with a trademark on May 28, 2019 as a result of the seizures and subsequent police investigation. In March 2009, the RCMP teamed with the York Regional Police and commenced uniformed foot patrols in shopping malls located in south Markham, including Pacific Mall, in an effort to curb the sale of counterfeit items. Pacific Mall is a major contributor to traffic congestion in southern Markham. The surrounding road infrastructure, which
6525-403: The retail industry. Government regulations temporarily closed malls, increased entrance controls, and imposed strict public sanitation requirements. High land prices in populous cities have led to the concept of the "vertical mall", in which space allocated to retail is configured over a number of stories accessible by elevators and/or escalators (usually both) linking the different levels of
6612-427: The rezoning of industrial areas for retail condominiums and made English-language signs mandatory on all structures. Then-mayor of Markham Don Cousens formed an advisory council of eleven Markham residents and three members of council to "address associated multicultural issues affecting planning decisions." Sources report Pacific Mall as opening either in 1996 or 1997. Its Cantonese name, "太古廣場" (Tai Gu Gwong Cheung),
6699-417: The smaller stores in the mall as well. These larger stores are termed anchor stores or draw tenants. In physical configuration, anchor stores are normally located as far from each other as possible to maximize the amount of traffic from one anchor to another. There are a reported 222 malls in Europe. In 2014, these malls had combined sales of US$ 12.47 billion. This represented a 10% bump in revenues from
6786-550: The store's inventory and business hours, and can sell the unit at will. The developers of Pacific Mall claimed they were the first mall in North America to use this business model, though Pacific Mall was preceded by the condominium mall Chinatown Centre in West Chinatown, Toronto , which opened in 1989. The mall's construction was opposed by some long-term residents of Markham, and was delayed numerous times from 1993 to 1996. Concerns were raised by Markham City Council over
6873-544: The terms shopping precinct and shopping arcade are also used. In the UK, such complexes are considered shopping centres though shopping centre covers many more sizes and types of centers than the North American mall . Other countries follow UK usage. In Canadian English , and often in Australia and New Zealand, the term mall may be used informally but shopping center or merely center will feature in
6960-515: The time when the site was a working farm, but they were acquired by Cullen and moved from Pickering, Ontario , to Markham in the 1970s. A fire damaged part of the complex in 1988, and it was demolished in 1994; some portions of the former Market Village , a shopping complex adjacent to Pacific Mall, mimicked the Cullen complex. Planning for Pacific Mall began in the late 1980s amid the formation of Chinese immigrant communities in suburban Toronto and
7047-681: The word "mall", meaning a pedestrian promenade in the U.S., or in U.K. usage, a "shopping precinct". Early downtown pedestrianized malls included the Kalamazoo Mall (the first, in 1959), "Shoppers' See-Way" in Toledo , Lincoln Road Mall in Miami Beach , Santa Monica Mall (1965). Although Bergen Mall opened in 1957 using the name "mall" and inspired other suburban shopping centers to rebrand themselves as malls, these types of properties were still referred to as "shopping centers" until
7134-554: The world's first fully enclosed shopping mall was opened in Luleå , in northern Sweden (architect: Ralph Erskine ) and was named Shopping ; the region now claims the highest shopping center density in Europe. The idea of a regionally-sized, fully enclosed shopping complex was pioneered in 1956 by the Austrian-born architect and American immigrant Victor Gruen . This new generation of regional-size shopping centers began with
7221-522: Was built only to accommodate Market Village, is insufficient in accommodating the large volume of vehicle traffic that the mall receives. Pacific Mall also suffers from a parking shortage; though the mall contains an underground garage facility, no additional parking has been added since the mall's opening. On February 20, 2009, Kit Chen "Daniel" Cheong, 26, was shot and killed at the XSITE Cell Phones store in Pacific Mall. The primary suspect in
7308-518: Was larger than its predecessors, and inspired the use of the term "galleria" for many other shopping arcades and malls. In the mid-20th century, with the rise of the suburb and automobile culture in the United States, a new style of shopping center was created away from downtowns . Early shopping centers designed for the automobile include Market Square , Lake Forest, Illinois (1916), and Country Club Plaza , Kansas City, Missouri (1924). The suburban shopping center concept evolved further in
7395-768: Was later enclosed in 1973. Aside from Southdale Center , significant early enclosed shopping malls were Harundale Mall (1958) in Glen Burnie, Maryland, Big Town Mall (1959) in Mesquite, Texas, Chris-Town Mall (1961) in Phoenix, Arizona, and Randhurst Center (1962) in Mount Prospect, Illinois. Other early malls moved retailing away from the dense, commercial downtowns into the largely residential suburbs. This formula (enclosed space with stores attached, away from downtown, and accessible only by automobile) became
7482-426: Was supplemented by gradually increased electric lighting, making it seem like the afternoon was lasting longer, which encouraged shoppers to linger. In the United States, in the mid-1990s, malls were still being constructed at a rate of 140 a year. But in 2001, a PricewaterhouseCoopers study found that underperforming and vacant malls, known as "greyfield" and "dead mall" estates, were an emerging problem. In 2007,
7569-449: Was transformed into a Little Japan. Toronto's downtown Chinatown is one of the largest in North America. It is centred on the intersection of Dundas Street West and Spadina Avenue and extends outward from this point along both streets. With the population changes of recent decades, it has come to reflect a diverse set of East Asian cultures through its shops and restaurants, including Chinese and Vietnamese . The major Chinese malls in
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