Centre Mall (Hamilton)

The Centre on Barton is an outdoor shopping centre in the Lower City of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, on Barton Street East bounded by Ottawa Street North in the western-end and Kenilworth Avenue North on the eastern-end. It was formerly known as the Centre Mall. It was a "plaza" for many years before being closed in as a "mall" and access to the stores was available through a front and back door of the plaza. They closed it all in sometime in the 1970s. In 2008, the mall had been turned into an outdoor shopping centre.HistoryThe Centre Mall was built in 1955 and was one of the first shopping malls in North America. The mall had 1 floor (two of the anchor tenants had 2 floors).The Centre Mall used to be the site of the Jockey Club racetrack but in the years after the Second World War the push for Hamilton's eastward expansion had completely engulfed the Jockey Club property. On 26 September 1952 the racetrack was sold. The site then became the Greater Hamilton Shopping Centre.Reconstruction projectThe Centre Mall owners announced the plans for a 23-building power centre, named The Centre on Barton, on the property of Barton Street East. The cost had originally been estimated to be around the $100-million mark and the project eventually took up 700000sqft of retail space. This was the largest redevelopment project in the history of Hamilton's east-end. The buildings on the property are grouped around the edge of the property and create a pedestrian-oriented design rather than a commercial island in a sea of parking. The overhaul roughly took about two-and-a-half years to complete but the bulk of the work had been done by the end of the summer of 2008. Some new buildings were completed before the enclosed mall was torn down.