St. Laurent Shopping Centre

infobox shopping mall
shopping_mall_name = St. Laurent Shopping Centre


caption = An entrance to the mall
location = Ottawa, Ontario
opening_date = 1967 [http://www3.sympatico.ca/john.winter/1960s.htm]
developer =
manager =
owner = Morguard Investments Limited
number_of_stores = 195
number_of_anchors = 3 (The Bay, Toys "R" Us, Sears)
floor_area = convert|971000|sqft|m2|-2
floors = 2
parking = over 4600 spaces
website = http://www.stlaurent-centre.com/home.php

St. Laurent Shopping Centre (also known as St. Laurent) is a major shopping centre located in Ottawa, Ontario, owned and operated by Morguard REIT. The shopping mall is located just north of Highway 417 at the corner of St. Laurent Boulevard and Coventry Road. It opened its doors in 1967.

St. Laurent is the largest mall in terms of total space in the Ottawa-Gatineau region with convert|971000|sqft|m2|-2. of gross leasable area.

OC Transpo's St. Laurent Station is connected to the mall. It has three levels, one in a tunnel which is the main transitway, the mezzanine which connects the shopping centre, and a local platform on the upper level where OC Transpo routes 5, 7, 14 and 18 all end or start their trips. The tunnel-level is accessible via escalators from the mall. OC Transpo also have a client service kiosk. The station opened in 1987 and the mall had an expansion of about 80 stores at the same time. [http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/tcrp/tcrp_rpt_16-4.pdf]

The shopping centre has a total of 195 stores and services on two levels. The arrangement of the hallways is somewhat perplexing, making the mall difficult to navigate for someone who is not familiar with it. There are three large anchors: Toys "R" Us, Sears and The Bay. It also includes stores such as Shoppers Drug Mart, Sportchek, LCBO, GAP and the Sony Store. The centre also includes a small movie theatre run by Rainbow Cinemas, which plays second run movies. A large East Side Mario's restaurant is on the premises. A small Marketfresh grocery store was closed in 2005. Other previous tenants have also included Dominion Stores and Bretton's.

In the late 1990s, Morguard was having trouble filling some unappealing space in the basement of the centre, which lacks natural lighting. Their solution was to diversify and the basement now contains a large Fitness centre (Florida Fitness), an entertainment complex, a rebranded cinema a Herzing College, along with an Alterna Savings/Bank branch, and a few small stores near the transit station.

ee also

* St. Laurent Transit Station

External links

* [http://www.stlaurent-centre.com/ St. Laurent Centre's website]
* [http://www.morguard.com/portal.cfm Morguard REIT]