The East Saint John Mall District

The East Saint John Mall District is the largest shopping/power centre district in Atlantic Canada, and is located in the East Side of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. The District's major thoroughfares are Westmorland Road, McAllister Drive, Consumers Drive, Majors Brook Drive, Retail Drive, Fashion Drive, Depot Court, and East Point Way, and it consists of the shopping centres McAllister Place, Exhibition-SCA-McAllister Drive Plaza, MBD Plaza, Parkway Mall, Smart!Centres, East Point Shopping and Westmorland Place.

The area was, until 1989, largely marshland, with only Parkway Mall (opened 1974) and McAllister Place (opened 1978) as the major shopping outlets, chiefly to serve the residents of only that part of Saint John. But since 1989 (with the exception of a 5 year gap), the district has been substantially growing to meet the needs of the entire Greater Saint John area, with Sears being the first major store chain to re-locate its operations to McAllister Place in August of that year, which included McAllister Place basically doubling its size with a major expansion, of which Sears was the anchor.

Then, beginning in 1994, a trend was established where 1 major named retailer began operations in the district per year, with Wendy's Restaurants being the first store to open in what is now Exhibition Plaza. Then, one year later, Empire Theatres, Mark's Work Wearhouse, and Subway Restaurants opened next door to Wendy's, and Empire Theatres, looking to consolidate their operations within one building in Saint John, opened a 7-screen cinema, dubbed Exhibition 7 Cinemas, which later expanded to 10 screens in 2004, and renamed to Empire Studio 10 Cinemas after the size increase.

A refit to McAllister Place would follow in 1996, with a small building located off the mall's main structure demolished, the Sobeys store moved out of its former location and into a larger space, and Toys R' Us opening its doors in September 1996. 1997 would bring the arrival of a much larger (and badly needed) Canadian Tire, which re-located from Thorne Ave., and 1998 saw the re-location of Blockbuster Video to Exhibition Plaza from its former Rothesay Ave. location.

And then, in 1999, came the biggest store re-location in Saint John retail history. Wal-Mart, which had opened in Saint John in 1994, had become the city's most popular retailer in a short amount of time. However, with its rise in popularity, came much higher rental costs at their previous location, Loch Lomond Mall (now Loch Lomond Place). In 1998, Wal-Mart had chosen to go ahead with a plan to build a new Wal-Mart store in the District. Its construction took eight months, and on November 10, 1999, Wal-Mart closed its doors for the final time at Loch Lomond Mall, and opened its new store two days later, in what is now the Smart!Centres Plaza.

Then, in 2000, a trend began where more than 1 new high-brand store opened per year, every year. Many of those stores have also moved out of cramped, aging locations into much larger structures, like Kent Building Supplies and Parkway Mercury, which became Parkway (later Downey) Ford-Lincoln, as new stores like Future Shop, Winners-HomeSense, and SportChek opened their doors as well. The restaurant industry has also expanded beyond typical fast-food fare, as Swiss Chalet, East Side Mario's, Boston Pizza, and Montana's Cookhouse have all opened there. Exhibition/SCA/McAllister Drive Plaza has also benefited from the expansion, seeing a new McDonald's, Quiznos, and M&M Meat Shops begin operations between 2001-2005.

However, in recent years, the district has started to look beyond just simply being a retail area. In 2007, a new shopping centre opened alongside Westmorland Road entitled East Point Shopping, which is home to the Saint John location of The Home Depot. A new Hampton Inn hotel opened in 2007 and a new Best Western hotel opened in 2008 on Major's Brook Drive.

East Point Shopping is also the site of the newest location of Indigo, which opened on July 29, 2008, and home to the first New Brunswick stand-alone location of Starbucks as well. It also houses a 2nd location of the Costco store chain in New Brunswick, the largest in Atlantic Canada, and will house, by 2012, one of 3 Best Buy stores in the province.

See also

Saint John, New Brunswick

External links

• East Point Shopping
• McAllister Place