Talk:Rideau Centre

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[edit] What constitutes the Rideau Centre?

The Bay and Chapters are across the street - are they still considered part of the Rideau Centre? --LeeHunter 20:40, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC)

The Bay and Chapters are not in the Rideau centre. The Bay is accessible via a walkway on the 2nd floor. Chapters is completely disconnected. Dunro 09:03, Mar 20, 2005 (UTC)

I've always considered the Bay to be part of the Rideau centre, due to that fact that you can get to it from inside the rideau cetre, and there are signs to it inside the rideau centre.... i think it's also on the directories... wich would make it part of the mall. chapters however is not. --Someones life 15:59, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

• I believe (someone may correct me on this) that The Bay store (the building, not the chain) and the Rideau Centre are in different ownerships. Therefore, despite the skywalk and a lot of cross-promotion, The Bay and the Rideau Centre should be appropriately treated as separate entities. Skeezix1000 17:41, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

There are also numerous street level businesses on the south side Rideau Street in the same structure but only accessible from outside. CrazyC83 04:27, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Rideau Centre is the Largest Mall - sort of

Although slightly smaller in interior area St. Laurent mall actually has more stores & services (195 to Rideaus 179) and claims 971,000 sq. feet of space. It does not specify wether this is total leasable space or total floor space. (RC claims 736,759 of gross leaseable area and 1,023,429 sq feet total floor space) St. Laurent mall also has nearly triple the parking spces (4600 vs 1600)

Living in Ottawa my whole life, and having been to both hundreds of times, I have to say that St. Laurent certainly "feels" a lot bigger, but this is probably due to it being 2 stories instead of 3, and having a more open concept design.

• In measuring the size of a mall, usually the debate is between overall gross floor area vs. gross leasable area (I suspect that the 971,000 sq. feet figure for St. L. is not GLA as suburban malls tend to have an inflated GFA, but relatively lower GLA, compared to city centre malls). The number of stores and services is usually a poor indicator of overall size, because it favours malls with lots of kiosks, dentist offices, etc. It also sidesteps the fact that most successful, regional malls in North America have experienced a drop in the number of stores in the last two decades, as larger specialty stores have been replacing smaller boutiques. For that reason, a stagnant mall with lots of small, local retailers and services might have "more stores" than a larger mall that contains all the major successful retail banners. Number of parking spaces has more to do with context (suburban vs. urban, availability and ridership of transit, number of other uses within walking distance, other parking in the vicinity, availability and price of land, surface parking vs. underground parking, etc.) than mall size.
  • Having said all that, Promenade de l'Outaouais has historically been the largest mall in the area (and I believe remains such, unless planned expansions of RC or St. L change that). I appreciate that it is not located in the City of Ottawa, but retailers and marketers pay attention to census metropolitan areas, not political boundaries. The Toronto Eaton Centre does not bill itself as the largest mall in Toronto (that honour goes to Square One), even though Square One is not located within the City of Toronto and the Eaton Centre is technically the largest mall within City boundaries. Skeezix1000 17:19, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

There is a lot of outparcel development or adjacent stores across Rideau Street or at street level - I wonder if that is included? I remember reading the Ottawa Citizen once and it mentioned the size was actually well over 1,000,000 square feet. CrazyC83 04:25, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

• Someone recently edited the article to suggest that St. Laurent and Place d'Orleans were the two biggest malls in the National Capital Region. So as to lay this issue to rest, the GLA (not GFA) figures are as follows:
  • Rideau Centre - 736,759 sq. ft. (from mall website)
  • Les Promenades - 805,900 sq. ft. (from mall website)
  • St. Laurent - 860,000 sq. ft. (from Morguard REIT website)
  • Bayshore - 752,344 sq. ft. (from Ivanhoe Cambridge website)
  • Place d'Orleans - 735,193 sq. ft. (that's GFA, GLA would be lower) (from Oxford Properties website)

    Therefore, the Rideau Centre is the fourth largest mall in the region, after St. Laurent, Les Promenades and Bayshore. I will edit the article accordingly. If anyone has different/newer/better information, please add it here. Obviously, the planned expansion of the Rideau Centre, once complete, will likely change these rankings. Skeezix1000 12:17, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] General Edits

• I removed the reference to 230 stores (where did that come from?), and Freiman's being an original tenant (I believe Freiman's was long gone from Rideau Street by the time the Rideau Centre was built, and Freiman mall was named in commemoration of the defunct retailer. -- does someone have more details on this?) Skeezix1000 17:41, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

• For "prominent retailers", I tried to keep the list short, while trying to include those that are notable due to size (Sears), their status as destination stores that are unique in the Ottawa area (Harry Rosen, Birks, American Apparel), the fact they are newly constructed (Old Navy), their status as the Ottawa "flagship" store (Club Monaco), or their significance for some other reason (e.g. Shoppers Drug Mart -- everyone knows it's there because it's one of the few stores visible from the outside). Others may want to revise this list. Skeezix1000 17:41, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

• Missing fields on the infobox filled in with information from the official website. I'm saying that Sears is the only anchor store. The Bay anchors the other end, but it's not in the mall, so it doesn't count as an anchor. Is Old Navy an anchor? I'm not sure. Maybe yes, but I didn't count it. Canadiana 03:44, 7 August 2006 (UTC)