North Bay Mall: North Bay, Ontario, Canada on DeadMalls.com

NORTH BAY MALL: NORTH BAY, ON, CA

Garrett Campbell's Commentary:

(User submitted March 3, 2016)

Every Friday night my family had a ritual. We would go to the food court at then shop at the North Bay Mall, in the Ferris neighborhood in the south end of the city. For any kid growing up in my neighborhood in the late 1970s, 1980s and up until the early 1990s, the North Bay Mall was THE hip, in and happening spot to see and be seen. Our family was no exception. My friends and I used to walk to the arcade at lunch (from school) and hit the theater on Tuesdays for ‘cheap night’. Cinema Champlain.

The North Bay mall opened in 1976 as the first enclosed, climate controlled mall in the city; with a K-Mart and an A & P stores as anchors. Upon opening, it boasted those anchors plus 50 to 60 other stores. Over the years, it would house numerous retailers including (but not limited to): Saan, Bargain Harolds, Jack Fraser, BiWay, Coles….The Book People!, Tidas II Convenience, Ardene, a shoe shining and key making place, Shopper’s Drug Mart, a donut shop and a Radio Shack. The food court once boasted A & W, Asian Wok, Rosco’s Deli and an El Taco Grande. A Canada Trust bank also once called the mall home. I started my first bank account there on my 9th birthday with $35 and change and I still bank with them….well, with the company they merged with.

There was once even a Mother’s Pizza as an out-parcel to the mall.

Across town, Northgate Plaza would expand and enclose in 1980. The 80s saw competition for the mall after Northgate enclosed but the mall remained healthy through the decade. Granted, the mall once boasted having ‘over 65 stores and services’. It’s the 90s that things started to go downhill for the North Bay Mall.

The out-parcel Mother’s Pizza closed when Mother’s was bought by Little Caesar’s. The restaurant was a Little Caesar’s for a while but then shut down and became a country music line-dancing bar before lastly becoming a bingo hall. The bingo hall closed about 10 to 15 years ago and the building has remained vacant and ‘For Lease’ ever since. Even if a restaurant did decide to locate there, the building would need extensive renovations and upgrading, save for demolishing and staring from scratch. The Mother’s chain has ‘revived’ again, but only in Hamilton, Brantford and Kitchener so far. I only dream they would come back to North Bay and pick up this location again, even if they have to demolish and put up a new building. That would be good for the present day mall.

In 1998, another milestone in retail happened. K-Mart Canada was taken over by the Hudson’s Bay Company, folding a lot of the K-Mart Stores into it’s Zellers chain. The Zellers lasted for a little while, but was eventually shuttered after plans were announced they would put money into expanding the Zellers across town on Algonquin Avenue. Ferris had already lost a first, original Zellers store a few years prior, one in the Nipissing Plaza. North Bay just couldn’t support two Zellers stores, so one was closed. A& P also closed during this period and Winners moved in.

In 2000 and 2001, Northgate Square was going ahead with a mall expansion which included a new wing of 20 to 30 stores plus a big Sears store and a 500-seat food court.

The North Bay Mall continued to decline at the start of the new millennium. Big box development was alive and well across town but Ferris was showing decline. Saan became a BiWay then a Dollarama. Shopper’s Drug Mart left the mall proper to build a new store as an out-parcel. There was a liquidation place where K-Mart and Zellers once were but after a couple years, it closed too. Galaxy Cinemas moved in to the old K-Mart space along with Dollarama relocating to part of it. Winners and Sport Check eventually left, again across town for a newer retail development on McKeown Avenue.

Today, out of the original 50 to 65 stores and services the mall once boasted, only about 15 to 20 remain. The only restaurant left is A & W….and there is talk of a franchise opening up the street, which if so, will shut down the A & W in the mall. In recent years, the mall has tried to drum up business. Not too long ago, they held a ‘Christmas Walk’ where draws were held and refreshments were served. This mall is not completely dead, at least not yet. But it has seen better days. Much of the retail activity that’s left takes place where K-Mart once was. Galaxy Cinemas, No Frills, Dollarama and Hart Stores all take up the space. A lot of the rest of the remaining mall is vacant. Winners is vacant. The bank space is vacant.

A couple abstract reasons I think contributed to the malls decline. First, changing shopping habits. We went from downtown to enclosed malls now to big box, power centers and ‘lifestyle centers’. Second, the other end of town and the ‘retail renaissance’ it has experienced since the late 1990s. With Northgate expanding, Wal-Mart coming in and numerous big box retailers setting up shop across town, the mall simply could not compete. Changing times. Also, this is just my personal belief, but the Ferris bypass was fully completed (pass Pinewood Park Drive) around 1988. The other part of town has better access to and from the North Bay Bypass and has been built up more and more ever since. Also, the college and new hospital are on that side of town too. I’m sure that has helped things with the demographics.

I can only hope the North Bay Mall picks up, but only time will tell. Right now it’s a shadow of it’s former self. In my opinion, it should become (or should have became, given the types of stores left there) an outdoor box store set up. All the pics were taken on a Saturday afternoon, when it SHOULD have been bustling.

Links:

https://www.yelp.ca/biz/north-bay-mall-north-bay-2 Yelp review of the mall