Lawrence Allen Centre
Coordinates43°43′0″N 79°26′50″W / 43.71667°N 79.44722°W / 43.71667; -79.44722
Address700 Lawrence Avenue West
Toronto, Ontario
M6A 3B4
Opening date1989[1]
DeveloperRioCan Real Estate Investment Trust
ManagementJulie M. Rinaldi
OwnerRioCan Real Estate Investment Trust
No. of stores and services120
No. of anchor tenants6
Total retail floor area679,575 square feet (63,134.6 m2)
No. of floors2 (Canadian Tire on 2 floors)
Websitelawrenceallencentre.com
Interior of the mall in 2021; International Fairweather has been replaced with Toys "R" Us Express in late 2022, though Toys "R" Us itself later moved to a much larger space on the mall's second floor across from the food court in October 2023

The Lawrence Allen Centre, formerly Lawrence Square Shopping Centre, is a shopping centre located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Owned by RioCan, it is one of the city's twenty largest malls. It is located on Lawrence Avenue West, west of Allen Road, in the neighbourhood of Lawrence Heights, the district of North York. It is accessible from the Toronto Transit Commission's Lawrence West station, as well as via various bus routes. It is a terminating vista of Marlee Avenue. North of Lawrence Allen Centre is the Yorkdale Shopping Centre.

Tenants

The first two floors of the shopping centre are used for retail and the third and fourth floors are used for offices.

The anchor stores are Canadian Tire on the west side and Fortinos (Loblaw Companies Limited) on the northwest side. There was a Zellers on the east side, which became vacant in early 2013. There were plans to have Target Canada where Zellers was, albeit in a smaller format, but it was scrapped upon Target's exit from Canada[2] and space remained vacant until April 14, 2016 when Marshalls and HomeSense (both owned by TJX Companies) and PetSmart moved in.

Payless ShoeSource was located in the lower floor next to the main entrance before it went out of business as a victim of the retail apocalypse. Its location has since been replaced with a BMO branch and a Pizzaville location.

Other major tenants include Dollarama, The Source, Showcase, Structube, and Toys "R" Us and Babies "R" Us (the lattermost of which is the successor to the former Toys "R" Us location at Yonge Eglinton Centre, also owned and operated by RioCan).

Food court

Lawrence Allen Centre has a food court on the second floor, containing KFC and many small independent eateries and formerly had a McDonald's location.

Renovations

When Zellers became defunct, there were renovations in its former space from 2015 to 2016 to accommodate Marshalls, HomeSense, and PetSmart.

Lawrence Square's redevelopment began in September 2017 and was completed in phases by the end of 2018. The transformation consisted of the two levels of retail, the expansion of the food court, and new public washrooms.[3][4]

Lawrence Square Shopping Centre was renamed as Lawrence Allen Centre on October 3, 2019, as part of the mall's 30th anniversary.[5]

The first floor has a converted retail unit across from Fortinos, Rio Play, which consists of two small indoor artificial turf soccer fields serving the local community and is named after and owned by the mall's operators.

Site redevelopment

Old plan

As part of the 20-year plan to redevelop Lawrence Heights that began in 2007 by local city councillor Howard Moscoe, Lawrence Square was planned to be demolished to make way for a northward extension of Marlee Avenue and for public housing.

Two nearby public schools were planned to be demolished to make way for retail uses.[6][7][8]

New plan

Later on, councillor Moscoe retired. The new councillor, Josh Colle, conducted more rounds of community consultation. The city no longer aims to demolish Lawrence Square; instead, the new plan is to leave the mall in place for good.[9][10][11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Josh Colle's Summer 2014 Newsletter (click "Read More")
  2. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-06-06. Retrieved 2015-06-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ↑ "Lawrence Square Redevelopment". Lawrence Square. RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
  4. ↑ "Lawrence Square Shopping Centre". RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust. Retrieved February 2, 2018.
  5. ↑ Landau, Jack (October 4, 2019). "Lawrence Square Rebranded "Lawrence Allen Centre" as Renovations Proceed". UrbanToronto. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  6. ↑ Vincent, Donovan (May 11, 2007). "Massive Lawrence Heights overhaul planned". Toronto Star. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
  7. ↑ 'Massive' plan to revamp troubled Lawrence Heights
  8. ↑ Plan to re-create Lawrence Heights unveiled
  9. ↑ Colle, Josh. "Lawrence Heights revitalization: phase 1 update". I secured important changes to the plan including: ... Exclusion of the Lawrence Square lands from the focus area
  10. ↑ Solaris. "Lawrence Heights Revitalization". UrbanToronto Forums » Buildings. Chart Communications, Inc. Demolition will not happen unless someone buys out Lawrence Square from Riocan or ... Riocan chooses to participate in the redevelopment
  11. ↑ Sixrings (July 30, 2014). "Yorkdale Condominiums". UrbanToronto Forums » Buildings. Chart Communications, Inc. The new plan is omitting Lawrence Square redevelopment
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