Square One Shopping Centre
Square One Shopping Centre is Ontario's largest shopping mall in number of shops and the third-largest in square footage in Canada, after West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta, and Metrotown in Burnaby, British Columbia.
Its address is 100 City Centre Drive in downtown Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Square One is located at Highway 403 and Hurontario Street formerly Highway 10, about 12 km from downtown Toronto and 9 km from Toronto's Pearson International Airport. The mall is in close proximity to the Mississauga Civic Centre (City Hall), the Living Arts Centre, and Playdium. Located within the mall grounds is the main terminal of the Mississauga Transit bus network, which was opened in 1997.
Square One Shopping Centre currently contains over 360 stores and services, 8,700 parking spaces and 1.6 million square feet (150,000 m²) of retail space. The mall serves an average of over 21 million customers each year.
History
Excavation of the Square One site began in 1969. The mayor of the nearby Village of Streetsville (now part of Mississauga), Hazel McCallion, attended the ground-breaking ceremony, which was held in the middle of a hayfield. The mall outdates the City of Mississauga itself, the city having been built around the mall.
In 1973, Square One opened, having 169 shops and services, including four major retailers: Dominion, Sears, The Bay and Woolco (a subsidiary of Woolworth's). In 1978, the mall won the Energy Conservation Recognition Award for its computerized temperature control system, the first ever in a Canadian mall.
During the 1980s, Square One underwent numerous expansions, adding 80 more stores and over a million square feet to the property. In the mid 1990s, Woolco closed. The Woolco location was transformed into the world's largest Wal-Mart store (220,000 sq ft).
Between 2000 and 2003, a new expansion termed Cityside was completed. This latest expansion added 320,000 square feet to the mall, with an additional 370,000 sq ft for parking. New stores opened include Old Navy, Home Outfitters, and Tommy Hilfiger. A new Cineplex Odeon movie theatre was also opened.
During the massive 2003 North American blackout, which cut power to parts of the Northeastern United States and Canada, Square One had to be evacuated. The evacuation was safely completed within less than one hour, and the mall remained closed for a day and a half until power was restored to the city.