Chinook Centre (formally branded as "CF Chinook Centre") is the largest

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

in Calgary,

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada. It is located near the geographic centre of the city on

Macleod Trail Macleod Trail is a major road in Calgary, Alberta. It is a six- to eight-lane principal arterial road extending from downtown Calgary to the south of the city, where it merges into Highway 2. South of Anderson Road, Macleod Trail is an express ...

, north of

Glenmore Trail Glenmore Trail is a expressway in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, named after the reservoir which it crosses. It is a freeway between Sarcee Trail in southwest Calgary to Ogden Road in the southeast, carrying nearly 160,000 vehicles per weekday at ...

about south of downtown, and three blocks west of the Chinook

C-Train CTrain (previously branded C-Train) is a light rail rapid transit system in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Most of the network functions as a light metro, though in the free-fare zone that runs through the downtown core the Red and Blue lines opera ...

station. The mall is operated by

Cadillac Fairview The Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited is a Canadian company that invests in, owns, and manages commercial real estate, mainly in Canada and the United States. As of March 2017, the company had 73 properties, encompassing 38 million square feet ...

. CF Chinook Centre covers () of space, and includes three major anchor stores ( Hudson's Bay,

Nordstrom Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, a ...

, and

Saks Fifth Avenue Saks Fifth Avenue (originally Saks & Company; colloquially Saks) is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in New York City and founded by Andrew Saks. The original store opened in the F Street shopping district of Washington ...

) and 250 stores and restaurants. As the largest shopping destination in Calgary, it offers a range of mid-priced retailers as well as higher-end offerings in a luxury wing anchored by

. Junior anchors include

Sport Chek Sport Chek is the largest Canadian retailer of sporting clothing and sports equipment, with 191 stores throughout Canada as of 2020. It is the only national big box sporting goods retailer in Canada, although it is absent in the Northwest Terri ...

, H&M,

Old Navy Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of the Old Navy stores are its ...

, and

Chapters Chapter or Chapters may refer to: Books * Chapter (books), a main division of a piece of writing or document * Chapter book, a story book intended for intermediate readers, generally age 7–10 * Chapters (bookstore), Canadian big box bookstore ...

. The centre also includes a professional tower,

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), thou ...

alley, 900-seat

Dining Hall A cafeteria, sometimes called a canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or schoo ...

, and the 16-screen Scotiabank Theatre Chinook. The focal point of the mall is a four-storey-high rotunda, including a

time capsule A time capsule is a historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a deliberate method of communication with future people, and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists, or historians. The preservation of holy relics dates ...

at the centre's axis, set to be opened on December 31, 2999.

History

In 1960, with Calgary's population and city limits rapidly expanding, the first section of Chinook Centre was opened August 16 on the site of the Chinook Drive-In Theatre and the adjacent Skyline drive-in and driving range. Designed as an open-air complex, the mall was anchored by

Woodward's Woodward's Stores Ltd. was a department store chain that operated in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada, for 101 years, before its sale to the Hudson's Bay Company. History Charles Woodward established the first Woodward store at the corner o ...

Holt Renfrew Holt, Renfrew & Co., Limited (doing business as Holt Renfrew and known colloquially as Holt's) is a Canadian luxury department store chain founded in 1837 by William S. Henderson. It has been owned by the Weston family since 1986, and was previo ...

, a

bowling alley A bowling alley (also known as a bowling center, bowling lounge, bowling arena, or historically bowling club) is a facility where the sport of bowling is played. It can be a dedicated facility or part of another, such as a clubhouse or dwelling ...

, and a branch of the

Calgary Public Library The Calgary Public Library (CPL) is a distributed library system featuring 21 branch locations including the Central Library. It is the second most used system in Canada (after the Toronto Public Library) and the sixth most used library system in ...

. In the mid-1960s, a separate mall, Southridge, was opened across the street from Chinook. Built to be a competing centre with

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

and approximately 30 other stores, Southridge operated separately until 1974, when the malls came under common ownership and an expansion was built to bridge the centres together. The new, larger mall was renamed Chinook Ridge Shopping Centre, and included a major enclosed parking structure, a movie theatre, an office tower, and a food court. In the 1980s, a two-storey wing of specialty retailers was added leading to a new anchor store (fashion retailer Bretton's, since closed) and a new food court. This expansion brought the mall's store count to approximately 300. A popular feature of the mall was an indoor merry-go-round, which was initially located outside the entrance to The Bay; following the 2000s renovation (see below), the attraction was relocated to the expanded food court. The construction of a pedestrian bridge from the food court required the removal of the carousel in the late 2010s.

2000 overhaul

In the late 1990s, Chinook Centre underwent a $300 million, three-year renovation. The complex was completely rebuilt in three phases, and added new stores for Sears, The Bay and Zellers, as well as the south parkade and theatre complex. The former Chinook Movie Theatre location, which had closed in the early 1990s and converted into a large gaming arcade, became a much-expanded food hall. The move to larger format retailers reduced the number of stores to approximately 200. This re-merchandising program was unkind to smaller, locally owned businesses who were squeezed out by the 'upscaling' of the property. Some relocated to strip malls located near Chinook for a time.

2010 expansion

On September 29, 2010, a major 2-level expansion was opened. The new wing added approximately 60 new retailers, many of which were new to the Calgary market or considered high-end luxury brand stores. The expansion increased the number of retailers to 250, and added two levels of underground parking.

Pedestrian and transit access

Until the late 2010s, pedestrian access to the mall from east of Macleod Trail was facilitated by way of a thin pedestrian bridge, an underground tunnel, and an at-grade crosswalk. Use of these three options grew after the City's

CTrain CTrain (previously branded C-Train) is a light rail rapid transit system in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Most of the network functions as a light metro, though in the free-fare zone that runs through the downtown core the Red and Blue lines oper ...

station was built approximately five blocks east of the mall (a location dictated by the placement of existing rail lines). Concerns over pedestrian safety resulted in a large pedestrian bridge being constructed in the late 2010s; running more than a block, it connects the Dining Hall on the second level to 61st Avenue, which in turn takes pedestrians to the CTrain station. In late 2018, the pedestrian tunnel was closed due to safety concerns, and the new bridge allowed the removal of the at-grade crosswalk at Macleod and 61st.

Anchors

* Hudson's Bay *

(opened September 19, 2014, formerly Sears) *

(opened February 22, 2018, formerly Zellers/Target) * Scotiabank Theatre Chinook (opened March 23, 2001, formerly called Paramount Theatre) *

* H&M *

Former anchors

(closed 1993) *

(closed Friday October 13, 2012, replaced with Canada's first

on September 19, 2014) *

Zellers Zellers was a Canadian discount department retail chain and is currently a brand name owned by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). Founded in 1931 in London, Ontario, in later decades it was based in Brampton, Ontario. Zellers was acquired by HBC ...

(closed 2012, became

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, f ...

on May 6, 2013 which closed in 2015) *

(closed Saturday, April 11, 2015, replaced with Saks 5th Avenue on February 22, 2018)

Expansion plans

CF Chinook Centre is currently working on designs to add 2.3 million square feet of retail and mixed-use space.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chinook Centre Shopping malls in Calgary Shopping malls established in 1960 Cadillac Fairview