By Mario Toneguzzi

The CF Fairview Pointe-Claire shopping centre on the West Island directly west of downtown Montreal is under renovation with an investment of about $30 million including the addition of retailer Simons in the old Sears space.

Jeroen Henrich, Vice President of Development for the eastern portfolio of Cadillac Fairview which operates the shopping centre, said the renovation includes new flooring throughout, new railings, and LED lighting.

“That’s exciting news for the centre. The other very important milestone for us here is that the old Sears box is being repurposed which includes bringing Simons into that end of the mall. Simons has been a great partner for CF and we have them in all three of the other Quebec assets so we’re very excited to bring Simons to the West Island which will be a great addition to the centre,” said Henrich.

“That Sears box was actually one of the biggest we had in the portfolio with 180,000 square feet - three floors with what used to be Eaton’s. Simons will be taking the second and third floors and we’re relocating the food court into the ground floor which will become our new dining hall as well as a number of signature restaurants.

*rendering of redeveloped food court. rendering: GH+A Design Studio*

“Overall, in terms of the centre being elevated now with Simons and of course new food offerings, the West Island does not have a huge selection of dining opportunities so we’re very excited to bring some new restaurants and of course the dining hall into the ground floor. We’ll be backfilling the existing food court with two new retailers. I can’t divulge who they are.”

He said the dining hall is slated to open in September and Simons will open in August 2021. Construction is underway. Renovations to the mall are being phased and will also be completed by the time Simons opens.

“Retail is obviously constantly changing. It’s a question of staying relevant for our shoppers. Fairview Pointe-Claire is the last one of the four (in the Montreal area) to not have had a renovation in some time. With the arrival of Simons and the new dining opportunities we felt it was an appropriate time to reinvest into the centre adding some new retailers, some new blood if you will, and also by staying relevant,” explained Henrich.

“The centre will have a new contemporary look. It will be a very clean look, lots of glass and light colours, LED lighting, to really put focus on the retail shop windows and draw the eye to our various retailers to make sure that we’re relevant and we continue to offer that shopping experience that people are looking for.”

The current food court is on the north side of the shopping centre on the second floor. That space will be demised into two new retail units. Those tenants will be announced by the time the new food court area opens. The existing food court is about 30,000 square feet and the new dining hall is similar in size. But three to four signature restaurants will be added to the new food area.

Cadillac Fairview’s portfolio consists of four centres basically at the four extremes of Montreal - CF Fairview Pointe-Claire in the west, CF Galeries d’Anjou in the east end of the island, CF Promenades St-Bruno in the south, and CF Carrefour Laval in the north.

“Our portfolio basically covers the four main suburban areas of Montreal,” said Henrich.

“Pointe-Claire does quite well. Our Carrefour Laval is sort of higher than the other three. Fairview Pointe-Claire has about eight million visitors.”

The square footage of the centre is 842,000 square feet without the Sears space. After the redevelopment project it will have more than one million square feet of leasable area.

Another very exciting part of the Fairview Pointe-Claire story is that Cadillac Fairview purchased a few years ago the land adjacent to the shopping centre, just west of the centre. That’s a 50-acre piece of land.

SLIDESHOW (swipe)

MALL MAP LEVEL 1. IMAGE: CF FAIRVIEW POINTE-CLAIRE

MALL MAP LEVEL 2. IMAGE: CF FAIRVIEW POINTE-CLAIRE

“We’ll be announcing in the next 12 months or so some exciting new developments there. We’re planning basically the new downtown for the West Island which will include residential buildings, high density residential, hotel, some office, some public realm. So the transformation of Fairview Pointe-Claire will become a major anchor for that new development,” said Henrich.

“Montreal is building a new light rail system and we will have a station. The station’s name will be Station Fairview Pointe-Claire. That’s exciting. We’re very excited to have a light rail station on our property which will greatly improve public transportation access to both our shoppers and residents around.”

Mario Toneguzzi, based in Calgary has 37 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist and editor. He worked for 35 years at the Calgary Herald covering sports, crime, politics, health, city and breaking news, and business. For 12 years as a business writer, his main beats were commercial and residential real estate, retail, small business and general economic news. He nows works on his own as a freelance writer and consultant in communications and media relations/training. Email: mdtoneguzzi@gmail.com

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