
Shoppers World Danforth is a hybrid shopping plaza and
shopping mall
A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...
in
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
,
Ontario
Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
, Canada. It has 40 stores serving parts of
East York
East York is a district and former municipality within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From 1967 to 1998, it was officially the Borough of East York, a borough within the upper-tier municipality of Metropolitan Toronto. The borough was dissolved ...
,
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to:
People
* Scarborough (surname)
* Earl of Scarbrough
Places Australia
* Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth
* Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong
* Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...
and
The Beaches, near the
Victoria Park subway station. Today a moderately sized suburban plaza, it has a notable place in history as one of the first suburban and one of the first enclosed malls in Canada. It is approximately in area.
History
Site use as a car plant
In 1921, the site was still a largely rural area on the fringe of the city of Toronto when the Danforth streetcar was extended to a new loop at Luttrell Avenue, just west of Victoria Park Avenue. This led to rapid development of the area. Most notably a
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...
assembly plant was built covering the large site at the southwest corner of Danforth and Victoria Park. The old factory building is now the main building of the mall.
The plant was the Canadian site of Ford production of the
Model T and
Model A. It remained Ford's primary Canadian facility until 1953 when Ford decided to construct the new
Oakville Assembly Plant. It then became the first Canadian plant of
Nash Motors making cars such as the
Nash Rambler and the Nash Canadian Statesman. In 1954, Nash merged with
Hudson Motor Car Company to create
American Motors and soon after the Danforth assembly plant was closed. AMC moved its assembly operations to
a new plant in
Peel Village Development's Peel Village in Brampton, and the Danforth factory was sold to Peel Village parent company
Elder Mines & Developments Ltd, who planned to redevelop it into a shopping centre.
Redevelopment as mall
In 1962, it was redeveloped into a mall. The mall was built to serve the rapidly growing population of East York and Scarborough. Developer Elder Mines (later Peel-Elder) would go on to build a similarly named
Shoppers World Brampton mall a few years later. It was an early Canadian example of what would soon become ubiquitous: the fully enclosed and air conditioned, suburban shopping mall. When it opened it advertised itself as "the world's largest all electrically heated and air conditioned mall." The mall was 98% leased shortly after opening.
The anchor tenant was
Eaton's, marking only the second time Eaton's had opened a store outside of a downtown area. Another original tenant was a branch of
Murray Koffler's drug store. Previously the stores had all been called Koffler's Drugs, but the new store adopted the name of the mall as
Shoppers Drug Mart. Finding the name a great success, Koffler soon applied it to the entire chain.
The facility covered and was the primary shopping mall for the entire eastern
Greater Toronto Area
The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the Toronto, City of Toronto and the regional municipality, regional municipalities of Regional Municipality of Durham, Durham, Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton, Regional ...
until supplanted a decade later by
Scarborough Town Centre, which opened in May 1973.
The Eaton's store was converted to a
Zellers in the early 1990s.
Target purchased most Zellers leaseholds in 2012, and reopened it as a Target store in 2013. Target left in early 2015, and the store was purchased by
Lowe's
Lowe's Companies, Inc. ( ) is an American retail company specializing in home improvement. Headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company operates a chain of retail stores in the United States. As of October 28, 2022, Lowe's and i ...
Canada during Target's bankruptcy liquidation. The new Lowe's location opened to the public in June 2016 and closed in 2023.
Anchors
*
Metro
*
Staples
References
{{coord, 43.689629, N, 79.290605, W, region:CA-ON_type:landmark, display=title
Shopping malls in Toronto
Shopping malls established in 1962
Nash Motors
Ford factories