Mall experts from around globe meet in Whistler

The art and science behind how you buy your latte, pick up a box of cereal at the supermarket or splurge on a luxury item is up for discussion Monday and Tuesday at Whistler.

The International Council of Shopping Centers’ annual conference gets into full swing with thousands of developers, marketers and retail operators — plus architects, designers and purveyors of all kinds of software — coming together.

They’ll attend keynote presentations, meet in smaller sessions and many will be hawking their latest wares.

Mall development is always on the agenda and this year, on the sidelines of the conference, Westbank Corp. and QuadREAL will be talking about their big-picture plans for Oakridge Centre.

The development at 41st Avenue and Cambie Street in Vancouver is still in the process of getting permits, with plans to break ground on construction in late 2018, but executives will be sketching out a vision for what retail experiences and city living will look like there in 2025. The site is of interest because Oakridge is the mostprofitable mall in B.C., according to the Retail Council of Canada, which examined productivity, size and traffic at 30 malls across the country.

In 2017, Oakridge generated $1,579 in sales per square foot, a figure that makes it the second most-profitable mall in Canada after Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre, which sold $1,653 per sq. ft. The mixed-use retail, office and residential development at Oakridge has also been of note because it was redesigned and shrunk in size after an aquifer was discovered under the site in 2015.