A shopping mall with nine lives
Rare is the business that has operated continuously for 56 years. So behold Cloverdale Mall, that smallish, unremarkable but seemingly ever-lasting retail hub squished between the East Mall, Hwy. 427, and an ugly stretch of Dundas W., where Etobicoke buys cars, fights traffic tickets, and bowls 24/7.
Cloverdale began life in 1957 as an open-air mall. That is to say: a mall with no roof, just rows of side-by-side shops simulating a pedestrian block on a city street, but actually adrift in the middle of suburbia.
Today, Cloverdale is a glorious hodgepodge of marquee retailers like Winners, Metro, Kitchen Stuff Plus and, most recently, Target, quaint regional indies like Hampton Row ladies wear, throwbacks like Coles books, and sundry service providers.
True, it lacks the sparkling, fashionforward splendour of nearby Sherway Gardens, oft-cited as its main competitor. But for its estimated 90,000 weekly shoppers trying to squeeze 10 errands into one outing between soccer practice and Big Bang Theory, Cloverdale’s damn convenient.
“Cloverdale has always been a part of the local community. It established itself as a community shopping centre and that keeps drawing people back to their roots,” offers general manager Justin Deknatel from the mall’s management offices.
Cloverdale remains in touch with its demographic. “We were, I think, one of the first centres to have a play structure for kids to play on,” notes marketing director Jennifer Bolton.
Such scenes are depicted in vintage black-and-white photos lining the hallway leading to the washrooms, and grouped under titles like “Easter 1958,” “Spring and Fall Fashion Shows 1964-1965,” and “Auto Show 1962.”
“You can count on one hand the number of malls like this one that are left,” Deknatel says. “I think that’s a testament to the community and to the mall itself. It has stood a long time.”