History
Eastgate Square opened in 1973 with Woolco, Eaton's, and Robinson's as its anchors. In 1989, Fortinos joined the anchors by opening a grocery store there. In 1992, Hudson's Bay Company turned its Robinson's location into The Bay. Wal-Mart entered the Canadian market in March 1994 by acquiring Woolco, and renaming all stores under the Wal-Mart banner. Eaton's had gone under in 1999, and its space was demolished for a new large Fortinos, relocating from its old store, and opening in 2001.
The 2000s marked a big turning point for the mall. While it always had been successful, many new stores had opened in the mall, and many existing tenants had renovated their stores. HomeSense had opened a store in the old Fortinos space. In 2006/2007, nearby Queenston Mall had begun to revitalize its site, and the LCBO and Shoppers Drug Mart had relocated to Eastgate. In 2007, Jack Astor's had opened a restaurant at Eastgate.
Eastgate Square celebrated 35 years in 2008. The mall had undergone a major facelift to its main entrance. The Hamilton Street Railway had renovated and upgraded its bus terminal on-site. The mall was thriving in success. However, two major blows hit the mall in the coming months. The Bay announced it was closing its Eastgate location, putting many of its employees out of a job. However, very shortly after, Sears had announced it was moving into The Bay's former location from the nearby Centre Mall, which is being torn down and completely redone. The new Sears store opened in September 2008.
Wal-Mart had also announced it was considering leaving as the mall's most busiest tenant, and relocating barely a kilometre from the mall to the corner of Centennial Parkway and the QEW/South Service Road. Wal-Mart Canada had recently opened one of its first Supercentres in Hamilton, proving to be a very successful store. This new Wal-Mart will be a Supercentre as well.
As of January 2012, the new Walmart store is nearing opening day with the store's interior being close to completion and the parking lot and entrance ways all ready to welcome the migration of shoppers from Eastgate Square. By 2014 there will also be the new GO Train station locating directly across the Centennial Parkway. Once this is completed there may be demand to move the Hamilton Transit hub from Eastgate to dovetail into this new GO station. As of February 2012 the Eastgate Square website does not list the Walmart any where and in its place it says Under Construction saying that it will be a new wing with Winners and Sport Chek.
Read more about this topic: Eastgate Square
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of reform is always identical; it is the comparison of the idea with the fact. Our modes of living are not agreeable to our imagination. We suspect they are unworthy. We arraign our daily employments.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“Postmodernism is, almost by definition, a transitional cusp of social, cultural, economic and ideological history when modernism’s high-minded principles and preoccupations have ceased to function, but before they have been replaced with a totally new system of values. It represents a moment of suspension before the batteries are recharged for the new millennium, an acknowledgment that preceding the future is a strange and hybrid interregnum that might be called the last gasp of the past.”
—Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. Sunday Times: Books (London, April 21, 1991)