Photo: Park Royal Shopping Centre

Vancouver's

is set to expand in a manner unique among Canadian malls. Its first phase expansion opens later this month. It will integrate elements of both enclosed mall retailing as well as outdoor 'urban streets' on the property for externalized retail. We interviewed Rick Amantea, VP of Park Royal. We'll provide a summary of the interview's key details.

"The World's Largest Community Centre":

Mr. Amantea referred to Park Royal as being the world's largest community centre. Interestingly, those who visit the mall tend to do so very frequently. In metro Vancouver, shoppers visit malls at an average of 1.47 times/month. At Park Royal, it's an average of 6.7 times/month for a total of about 15 million annual visits.

Park Royal 'Village' Expansion: Short-Term:

This fall Park Royal will open its new 'Village' retail in Park Royal South (the mall is separated by West Vancouver's Marine Drive) and will feature stores such as LOFT by Ann Taylor, Michael Kors, Anthropologie, J. Crew, Aritzia (the largest in BC at over 7,100 square feet), Sephora, and others. The new Zara store location will be one of Canada's largest, at almost 21,000 square feet. Watch for these to open in the next few weeks.

Floor Plan: Park Royal Shopping Centre

Expansion details: Long-Term:

The mall's landlord,

Larco Investments

, will spend over $150 million into expanding and renovating the interior and exterior of Park Royal. About 300,000 square feet of new and reconfigured retail space will be created. Additions will include a further expanded outdoor retail village, and in the fall of 2015,

BC's first La Maison Simons will open

in an area of the mall

currently occupied by Extra Foods

.

New food court:

A new food court will created upstairs in Park Royal South, replacing a current food court space that will be reconfigured into upscale retail adjacent to the

new 105,000 square foot Simons store

.

Photo: Park Royal Shopping Centre

Parking:

About 1,000 new parking spaces will be built over four levels, including a state-of-the-art management system to make finding parking easier. Parking opens later this month.

Overall increased accessibility:

Each day, about 9,000 transit riders pass through Park Royal along Marine Drive. Interestingly, the mall will install two traffic lights at two new intersections as part of an extended streetscape, all on its own property. The mall will even name its new streets.

Residential Addition:

New residential will be part of this project. We'll leave out details as it doesn't pertain directly to retail, beyond adding shoppers to the site.

We've kept this article brief. To read more on Park Royal's expansion, we direct you to

this press release

.

[

Park Royal Shopping Centre website]

and its [

Expansion Details

]

Photo: Park Royal Shopping Centre