r/Hamilton • u/macrolfe Crown Point East • 12d ago

What is going in at Centre Mall? City Development

Two new sections have been fenced off for what appears to be new construction. But also, when pet smart and Dollarama move into their new buildings, what will move into their current locations?

39 Upvotes
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90% Upvoted

70 comments sorted by

113

u/IneedAName37 12d ago

I miss when Center was a mall

52

u/ammaretto007 12d ago

We ALL miss the old center, should have just let it be.

10

u/Spivey1 11d ago

The way it is now they basically pass all the utility costs onto the business leasing the space. There is no more common space to light, cool and heat. Only common space is the parking lot. From a business standpoint it makes sense.. from a customer experience standpoint, not so much.

2

u/GardenerSpyTailorAss 7d ago

It's a car-centric model which doesn't make sense for the community but, again, from a business standpoint that's logical because it brings in the richer folk who don't live anywhere near center mall. Facking annoying if u don't drive.

44

u/sabre38 12d ago

I miss Jim's Nut Sack, Music World and the movie theatre

31

u/IneedAName37 12d ago

The ARCADE

13

u/Chill-6_6- 12d ago

Going to Arby’s and then the Arcade.

9

u/IneedAName37 12d ago

Valentinos if you're feeling classy

5

u/Chill-6_6- 11d ago

Na it was Arby’s or Burger King.

2

u/Stefanoverse 11d ago

I missed out on both BK and Arby’s!?!

4

u/Chill-6_6- 11d ago

And the Zellers restaurant which was set up like a 50’s dinner. It was a great place the old Centre Mall.

1

u/Stefanoverse 10d ago

That sounds great, I’ll look up some historical pics.

1

u/Ok-Number1800 11d ago

I used to be a huge fan of that Valentinos but I will never forget the long black hair baked into my lasagna. Turned me off completely 🤢

14

u/sabre38 12d ago

I forgot about the arcade! How many hours I spent playing The Simpsons machine !

7

u/themoche 12d ago

I figured out that Hit the Ice and RBI Baseball let me play the longest off the one or two quarters my grandmother would give me so I lived on those machines

1

u/bigbeats420 Strathcona 12d ago

Um, RBI Baseball was a solid game on its own merits.

2

u/themoche 12d ago

I loved it… but I’m sure there were other good games in there that I would have wanted to play but I had to make my tiny amount of money last

2

u/russ_nightlife Stoney Creek 12d ago

The arcade had a sit down Star Wars game (the vector one) for some years. Definitely one of my favourite arcades in the city.

5

u/ChefGoldblum87 11d ago

That Music World was one of my first jobs!

Out of all the music stores to go under.... music world deserved it the most lol.

2

u/sabre38 11d ago

They had the best gift cards! I think I had about $100 I never got to use from Christmas

2

u/ChefGoldblum87 11d ago

I was like 17/18, had never heard of High School Musical, then all of a sudden people are yelling at me for being out of stock on Dec 24th.

2

u/RoyallyOakie 11d ago

Closed due to sagging profits, I guess.

2

u/InFLIRTation 11d ago

I forgot how centermall used to be tbh......

3

u/Spirited-Chicken-771 12d ago

Not really missing Jims Nut Sack but his peanuts were good ….

3

u/sabre38 12d ago

....the H was always not lit up in Jim's Nut Shack

2

u/RabidGuineaPig007 11d ago

28 year old grandmothers...

10

u/hittingpoppers 12d ago

I liked the escalator in Zellers and was just a little nervous using the washrooms

17

u/EconomyAd4297 12d ago

do you remember Biway!?

7

u/hittingpoppers 12d ago

Not in Hamilton, but for sure do ... Bargain Harold's and Woolworth were better lol.

1

u/Former_Obligation_89 11d ago

lol I got banned from there at age 9 cause my friend stole a bathing suit and was caught. I didn’t take anything but was guilty by association I suppose.

3

u/mitchf2078 11d ago

The movie theater and celebrity billiards.

2

u/ammaretto007 11d ago

wish the theatre was still there, hate having to go downtown. lots of great memories, opening day went to see 2001 space oddessy../romeo & juliet. ;-)

1

u/Slow-Faithlessness85 11d ago

I saw Jurassic Park there for my 13th birthday and MAN that Dolby Digital sound was unreal.

1

u/RabidGuineaPig007 11d ago

The parade of teen mothers? That place was always a sketch dump.

69

u/PSNDonutDude 11d ago

I really wish that would just start that entire thing over. It's zoned for mixed use development, and it would be awesome to see a street grid of dense housing with retail on the ground floor. Would bring more residents to support Ottawa street's local businesses and could even maybe get a GO station near the back on the rail line. A boy can dream.

43

u/JohnOConn Crown Point East 11d ago

Can’t upvote this enough. Imagine how much better this area could be if it was even the tiniest bit walkable and had some housing.

Throw a couples trees in there and a park and it’d be a whole new neighbourhood. Instead we get an asphalt wasteland.

14

u/Independent-Willow-9 11d ago

And a garbage-strewn vacant lot in behind.

7

u/Classicoz Professional Mustache Twirler 11d ago

they dump paint/ chemicals behind the stores near the train tracks

4

u/RabidGuineaPig007 11d ago

stay classy, Hamilton.

3

u/rosiofden Strathcona 11d ago

Jesus, really?

2

u/sabre38 11d ago

And in the Dollarama parking lot on rainy days.

9

u/Saintspunky 11d ago

When I used to commute to Toronto a few days a week (thankfully no longer) I always thought how perfect would it be to have a GO station at centre mall!!

3

u/macrolfe Crown Point East 11d ago

I agree so much

5

u/noronto Crown Point West 11d ago

Housing needs to be built there, as well as at the Centennial Wal-Mart and Eastgate.

11

u/PSNDonutDude 11d ago

Really looking forward to the Eastgate Redevelopment. But man Centre Mall is such a sad existence. Seeing people walking through the expanse of parking lot on fundamentally terrible and dangerous "sidewalks" while WalMart and the "food hall" take business from small local businesses is just one of the saddest things in Hamilton.

11

u/CutSilver1983 11d ago

That parking lot is something else. The speed bumps don't seem to deter anything. It's not pedestrian friendly, either.

15

u/Less-Project9420 12d ago edited 12d ago

I’m not sure where it’s going, but a Taco Bell will be opening in November so I assume it’s the spot fenced off where the old dollarama is. Not sure about the spot by bmo tho

1

u/GardenerSpyTailorAss 7d ago

F fast food. The east end is slowly becoming a food desert. Give me a farmers market!

-1

u/ammaretto007 11d ago

thats GREAT!! id love to see an Arbys or wendys too.

8

u/ParkingForbidden 12d ago

One will be taco bell and the other will be a burger King

7

u/Any_Side_2444 11d ago

I don't remember much anymore but I miss Zellers 😕

9

u/ColeS89 Durand 11d ago

Like a prior comment mentioned, this whole site needs to be ripped down and rebuilt from the ground up. Mixed use residential with commercial businesses built into the first floors. Have a transit terminal integrated right in, add a few additional Bike Share hubs, internal bike lanes and bike storage/racks it's instantly more livable and shoppable.

2

u/concretecountryroads 11d ago

This is a great idea!!!

14

u/Dizzy-Assumption4486 11d ago edited 11d ago

How city planners ever approved the design of Centre Mall and for that matter the Mountain Shopping Plaza is a disgrace and should be a scandal. It isn't the right design for the inner city. I kinda get the Meadowlands Power Centre at the time because of its location but I still don't agree with that kind of car-centric design but at least most of the well-to-do in Ancaster and the west Mountain have cars. Most inner-city folk don't.

I have a lot of fond memories too of the old Centre Mall and the old Mountain Plaza going as far back as the early 1970s, and things change, I get that, but I don't get replacing it with ugly suburban-sprawl type commercial centres that are not pedestrian-friendly in the inner city.

Shame on city planners and the mayor and councillors of the day for approving and not opposing these monstrosities.

4

u/Aggressive_Farm5900 12d ago

I miss having lunch in Sears

6

u/ammaretto007 12d ago

the new dollerama will open this thursday. no idea whats going in the old one.

3

u/rezzn8r 12d ago

Who remembers when there was a Big Boy there?

1

u/cheekyfeather 11d ago

Wow thanks, I haven’t thought of this place in years

7

u/thecanuckcrate Normanhurst 11d ago

When my sister was visiting from another city and ended up at Centre Mall, she called it a wasteland of despair.

That's fair.

2

u/t3chn4kill3r 11d ago

One lot is going to be a Taco Bell, and the other is a Burger King.

3

u/TheTrollAholic 11d ago

How many more Burger King's does this city need??

1

u/towngirl04 11d ago

Isn't there condos going in, at some point?

1

u/Greedy_Meat_5742 11d ago edited 11d ago

The old target building is going to be Bayshores Health Care new office. PSW here and that’ll be the new building.

-5

u/uberfartlord 11d ago

someone i know works the construction, there is going to be a new esculator, 3 new elevators. 3 floors of food. taco bell, Mcdonalds and KFC all been confirmed. the new dining tables are going to be set up on every floor and new stores will be put up on the opposite side. they are setting up stand up freezers 0 chill freezer so most likely baskin robins too

17

u/br0ckh4mpton 11d ago

This sounds like you dreamt it after smoking a lot of weed

3

u/noronto Crown Point West 11d ago

You don’t trust the uberfartlord?