Multicultural mega-mall on track for May opening
Finishing touches going on exterior of Canada’s second-largest shopping centre
Calgary’s newest megamall, which with 500 shops will make it the second largest in Canada, is on track to open the doors of the $200-million multicultural shopping centre this summer.
New Horizon Mall, located across the road from CrossIron Mills in Balzac, has sold 98 per cent of its 500 retail units and will cater to the area’s diverse clientele with a decidedly international flavour.
Eli Swirsky, president of the Torgan Group, which is developing the 320,000-square-foot mall alongside MPI Property Group, said the shopping centre is modelled after Toronto’s multicultural Pacific Mall — another Torgan Group project — and should nicely fit in with Calgary’s rich cultural mosaic, about a third of whose population are immigrants.
“People are going to get a totally different shopping experience,” Swirsky said of the two-floor shopping centre that will be more akin to a marketplace than a traditional mall.
“The difference between this and, say, CrossIron Mills, is every time you go you’re going to see something different.”
While Toronto’s Pacific Mall is targeted at a largely Chinese clientele, Swirsky said New Horizon will cater to a variety of ethnicities, including the city’s Indo-Canadian and Middle Eastern communities.
First launched in 2014, the project broke ground in 2016 and is now putting the finishing touches on the exterior before preparing for its new tenants, who will almost entirely be owner-operators through a condominium-style ownership model.
Swirsky said developers are aiming to release the retail units to their owners in May, at which point the mall will be ready to welcome the public, though he notes it may take some time for all the boutiques to open.
With merchants able to acquire units for between $190,000 and $750,000 (ranging in size from 285 square feet to 855 square feet), Swirsky said they create an attractive opportunity for business owners who won’t have to worry about fluctuating lease prices and other factors.
“For the most part, this isn’t an option that’s available for most small businesses,” he said.
“People like to be the master of their own fate.”
In addition to the shops, the mall will include a modern food court with 26 restaurants and room for 300 diners, a main stage that will feature multicultural entertainment, and underground parking.
Its 500 stores easily eclipse Chinook Centre’s 250 and CrossIron Mills’ 192. The developers estimate the mall will create some 1,400 jobs at full occupancy, and will boast about twice as many shops as a normal city mall.