Place Versailles

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Place Versailles
Pano Place Versailles.jpg
Coordinates45°35′30″N 73°32′27″W / 45.5918°N 73.5407°W / 45.5918; -73.5407Coordinates: 45°35′30″N 73°32′27″W / 45.5918°N 73.5407°W / 45.5918; -73.5407
Address7275, rue Sherbrooke Est
Montreal, Quebec
H1N 1E9
Opening dateNovember 7, 1963
DeveloperLanabar Realty Inc.[2]
ManagementPlace Versailles Inc.[1]
OwnerPlace Versailles Inc.
No. of stores and services225 [3]
No. of anchor tenants4
ParkingOutdoor
Public transit accessMontreal Metro.svg MtlMetro1.svg at Radisson station
Bus interchange Terminus Radisson
Autobusmontréal.svg STM Buses
Websitewww.placeversailles.com/en

Place Versailles is a shopping mall located at the corner of Sherbrooke Street East and Highway 25 in the Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. At more than 1,100,000 square feet (100,000 m2) [4] with 225 stores, it is one of the largest shopping centres on the island of Montreal. Its anchors are Canadian Tire, Maxi, Winners/HomeSense and Bureau en Gros.[5]

Most of the mall is one storey high, but a section of the mall, which was added in the 1980s, has two floors. Place Versailles is situated next to the Radisson metro station and is less than 2 km south of the Galeries d'Anjou mall.

History[]

The mall opened in November 1963 and included Steinberg, Miracle Mart, Greenberg and some other 30 stores and services.[6] Place Versailles was the first indoor shopping mall to be built in the Montreal area.[3] Although there were already shopping centres in Montreal that had been covered on their sidewalks, Place Versailles was the first mall to be fully enclosed.[6] Today, the original section of Place Versailles can be recognized as the corridor of Canadian Tire and Maxi.

Place Versailles went through several expansions throughout its history. Just in the 1960s decade, the mall had expanded twice. By August 21, 1969, Place Versailles had a Pascal hardware store.[7]

On September 15, 1971, by opening its first stores in Quebec, Consumers Distributing opened in the shopping mall a Distribution aux Consommateurs store.[8] The chain declared bankruptcy in October 1996,[9] and the local was replaced by Le Monde des Athlètes, now occupied by Ardene, which has also taken the local of the Rivoli restaurant on the right.

On March 15, 1973, the Hudson's Bay Company opened a The Bay department store of 134,500 square feet.[10]

From 1973 to 1987, Place Versailles was anchored by The Bay, Miracle Mart, Steinberg and Pascal.[11][12]

Miracle Mart at Place Versailles was rebranded under the M brand name on August 19, 1987; one of the last stores in Montreal to transition to the new nameplate.[13] In the late 1980s, Place Versailles expanded again and a new section was built with two floors, instead of one floor as in the rest of the mall.

On May 16, 1991, the Pascal hardware chain went bankrupt.[14] Rona - Le Quincailler and Fabricville both took the space during the first half of 1992, the latter opening specifically on May 13.[15][16] A SAQ store and other small tenants also took the former space of Pascal. Also in 1992, Steinberg was converted to Maxi, and the M store closed down.[17][18] In 1996, Consumers Distributing went bankrupt and the Distribution aux Consommateurs' store was replaced by Le Monde des Athlètes, now occupied by Ardene who also took the space of the Rivoli restaurant at the right.

From 1993 to 2003, it was anchored by The Bay, Zellers, Maxi, and Rona- Le Quincailler.[19][20]

Hudson's Bay Company closed its The Bay store at Place Versailles during the last quarter of 2003.[21] The Bay's anchor space has since been dismantled by Winners/Homesense, Globo, Style Exchange (today Econosports), Safari, Sports Experts, Dollarama and McDonald's.

Rona closed in 2005 and Bureau en Gros took its space a year later.

Popular Quebec sports-themed restaurant chain La Cage aux Sports (later renamed La Cage – Brasserie sportive) opened its 50th restaurant in history at the mall in 2010, on the mall’s second floor.[22] The restaurant can also be accessed from the outside of the mall via an elevator connecting the parking lot to the restaurant. The first sporting events shown at the restaurant were an NHL hockey game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Ottawa Senators, followed by the martial arts event UFC 121, whose main card was highlighted with a clash between Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez. During the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament in which Canada was the host nation, the La Cage of the mall was featured on Fox Sports’ Garbage Time with Katie Nolan as a popular sports bar for U.S. soccer fans.[23]

Zellers closed its doors in 2012 and was replaced by Target on September 17, 2013.[24] Target did not want the former Zellers entrance that connected directly to Place Versailles' food court and, as a result, it was replaced by a graphic water fountain that the mall claims on its website to be the first in North America.[25] Target closed in 2015 and lease sold to Canadian Tire in May 2015.[26]

2017 Santa Claus incident[]

In 2017, the mall faced criticism for promoting their Santa Claus' arrival to be on November 11, which is when Remembrance Day is observed in Canada. Furthermore, their Santa would be arriving at 10 a.m., one hour before the 11 a.m. Remembrance Day ceremonies would take place in Ottawa.[27][28] Local veterans were quick to shun the mall for their decision, claiming that it showed a "lack of respect" towards Canadian veterans, especially given that 2017 marked the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele, a key battle that took place during World War I.[29] Requests were made for the mall to reschedule Santa's arrival, with some also asking to delay his arrival until once the ceremonies have concluded,[30] but the mall kept his arrival date and time unchanged. Their Santa Claus was scheduled to make his entrance via helicopter and due to logistical concerns beyond the mall's control, his arrival could not be rescheduled to a different day. The mall did however try to make amends to the veterans over this issue in a Facebook post that has since been deleted and apologized for their decision.

See also[]

  • Galeries d'Anjou
  • List of largest shopping malls in Canada
  • List of shopping malls in Montreal

References[]

  1. ^ Place Versailles Inc. http://www.whois.net/whois/placeversailles.com
  2. ^ "Supreme Court of Canada - SCC Case Information - Search". January 2001.
  3. ^ a b "Place Versailles". www.placeversailles.com.
  4. ^ http://cmm.qc.ca/vision2025/vision2025_docdeclencheur_4.pdfand
  5. ^ "Stores - Place Versailles". www.placeversailles.com.
  6. ^ a b "New shopping complex". Montreal Gazette. Montreal. November 23, 1963. p. 34.
  7. ^ "Pascal advertisement page". La Presse. Montreal. 20 August 1969. p. 72. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
  8. ^ "Un nouveau style de magasinage: Distribution aux Consommateurs" (PDF). BAnQ. La Presse. September 7, 1971. p. A17.
  9. ^ "Vente de faillite de Distribution aux consommateurs" (PDF). BAnQ. La Presse. October 15, 1996. p. D8.
  10. ^ "Bay opens new store this morning". Montreal Gazette. Montreal. March 15, 1973. p. 15.
  11. ^ "Place Versailles store listing (1973-1974)" (PDF). Lovell. p. 489.
  12. ^ "Place Versailles store listing (1987-1988)" (PDF). Lovell. p. 1399.
  13. ^ "M Store advertisement page". Montreal Gazette. Montreal. August 5, 1987. p. 42.
  14. ^ "History through our eyes; June 7, 1991: Pascal bankruptcy sale". Montreal Gazette. Montreal. June 7, 1991. p. A2.
  15. ^ "Fabricville advertisement page". Montreal Gazette. Montreal. 13 May 1992. p. 31.
  16. ^ "Place Versailles advertisement". La Presse. Montreal. 30 June 1992. p. D3. Retrieved 2019-02-24.
  17. ^ "Maxi's advertisement page". La Presse. Montreal. 7 October 1992. p. A6.
  18. ^ "Magasins M: la liquidation est lancée". La Presse. Montreal. 5 July 1992. p. B4. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  19. ^ "Place Versaille's advertisement page". La Presse. Montreal. 6 July 1993. p. A7.
  20. ^ "Place Versailles store listing (2005-2006)" (PDF). Lovell. p. 1448.
  21. ^ "Hudson's Bay Company Posts Improved Fourth Quarter". Canada NewsWire. Ottawa. 11 March 2004. p. 1.
  22. ^ "Place Versailles célèbre son ouverture en grand!". La Cage - Brasserie sportive (in French). Retrieved 2022-01-01.
  23. ^ Garbage Time with Katie Nolan: July 5, 2015 Full Episode, retrieved 2022-01-01
  24. ^ https://corporate.target.com/press/releases/2013/09/target-to-open-first-stores-in-quebec-and-nova-sco
  25. ^ "About". www.placeversailles.com.
  26. ^ "Canadian Tire to acquire 12 former Target locations". CBC News. May 6, 2015.
  27. ^ "Montreal Mall Slammed For Santa Visit On Remembrance Day". HuffPost Canada. 2017-11-09. Retrieved 2020-01-05.
  28. ^ Keenan, Edward. "Disgraceful timing as Santa set to fly into Montreal mall on Remembrance Day". thestar.com. Retrieved 2020-01-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  29. ^ "Veterans will have to share Remembrance Day with Santa Claus at east end mall". CTV Montreal. CTV News. 2017-11-08. Retrieved 2020-01-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  30. ^ "Bad idea to trot out Santa Claus before Remembrance Day". Revelstoke Review. 2017-11-10. Retrieved 2020-01-05.

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