Guildford Mall Facelift, Is an Apple Store on the Horizon for Surrey
12 Comments
The Mall is going to get a 414,100 sq. ft. retail expansion – 212,000 sq. ft. of which will be a new Wal-Mart Supercentre. There will be rooftop parking above the Wal-Mart, along with two new parkades featuring 5,870 parking stalls.
The other 212,000 sq. ft. of expansion will be in the south end of the mall, home to a new food court and high-end retail tenants (just like the Metrotown refurb!!). [CivicSurrey]
The Metrotown comparison seems pretty spot on, but toss in the outdoor eliments of Alderwood and you get the overall idea.
The mall has had the same hideous brown tiles and dark glass pyramid ceilings since before I was born. There really hasn’t been much change since the cascading waterfall that was removed to make room for a children’s play zone, and an Old Navy was introduced on the East wing. Wolco is now Wal-Mart (and it still has that flat, incline escalator) and Santa’s Castle is always right outside The Bay (which used to be Woodwards), except for that year the styrofoam in the castle caught fire overnight and they had to keep the mall closed for several hours.
The new plans include a “village”, a “terrace”, polished stone and bistro cafes, wowsa! Guildford is definitely in need of an overhaul and honestly, I’m pretty excited about the new plans. Also, from the looks of the sketches Paul’s posted one image in particular stands out:
Note the Apple iPod posted on the left. It could be a tease, but perhaps it’s a sign of the type of stores they expect to attract at the new mall.
High end retail, promenades and who knows maybe even a Cheesecake Factory or PF Chang’s China Bistro. Whatever it is, I’m glad they’re using their existing mall land/parking space and not taking over some salmon habitat as seems to be the norm with developments in Surrey these days.
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March 10th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Total tease by the architect. Where’s the concept art showing what the outdoor arcade looks like on a rainy March? The little concept-sketch people could all be running between the raindrops with newspapers over their heads!
March 10th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Somehow, can’t see an Apple store out there:). I know a lot of people live out there and some parts of Surrey and Langley have a ton of money, but don’t Apple stores tend to go more urban than suburban?
March 10th, 2008 at 10:46 am
(And I lived in White Rock/South Surrey for a couple years.:))
March 10th, 2008 at 10:50 am
I dunno, I mean they *did* have a Hooters out there for years
March 10th, 2008 at 10:52 am
I heard/read that the plans for an Apple store are set for Pacific Centre downtown. It would be going in before 2010 and construction to start mid this year? I’ll have to look to see where I read that..
March 10th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Even if it’s not an Apple store, I’m happy to see that the mall is finally getting a face lift. It’s mostly dreary and dark in that place (though it managed to be perfect for “Juno”…)
I haven’t been there for years but the other mall which I remember needed a reboot was Champlain Mall.
March 10th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Out of the top places to have your car stolen. Guildford had 4 spots. Each corner of the mall was in the top 10 of Canada to have your car stolen
I hope that has recently improved lol.
March 10th, 2008 at 11:13 am
I believe Vancouver, Burnaby and Richmond have now passed Surrey on the auto-crime list.
March 10th, 2008 at 11:42 am
If they were in any sort of negotiations with Apple they would not have teased a store. Apple’s notoriously secretive about this sort of thing. Still who knows. Once the one at Pacific Centre is up and running we could see them popping up elsewhere.
March 10th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Champlain Mall was demolished some years ago for townhouses. There is a smaller, strip-mall type retail centre there now with a Starbucks and A&W, but no larger outlets like the Bay that used to be there — Metrotown and Brentwood are too nearby for a small mall like Champlain to survive.
I was trying to think when I last went shopping at Guildford. It has been a shockingly long time, since the brown tiles were still “in” and the mall, along with Park Royal, was spanky and new. That makes it at least 25 years, maybe 30.
March 12th, 2008 at 11:54 am
[...] Bollwitt — you might know her as Miss604 — is glad that Guildford Mall is getting a facelift. The aging shopping centre is serious need of an extreme makeover and early concept sketches seem [...]
November 5th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
im one of the shop fitters on the new Apple store due to open this Saturday.so get your selfs done there cos ive heard there is a load of free ipods getting given to firs 100 customers