The three largest shopping centres owned and/or operated by Oxford Properties in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) broke sales records in 2023 and Yorkdale continued to be Canada’s top-performing mall, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers’ (ICSC) annual report.

While focusing on the big three in the GTA, Oxford retail vice-president Robert Horst said the company’s entire eight-property retail portfolio in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta is positioned well.

“During the pandemic, there was concern about what's going to happen to retail and, in all of our centres, traffic has come back better than ever. In all of our centres, our sales volume and our sales productivity have come back better than ever. 

“We feel that with our strong portfolio of shopping centres, where we really do focus on catering to a best-in-class experience, we are going to have the shopping centres that really thrive in a post-COVID environment.”

Yorkdale

Yorkdale is one of the top-four performing shopping centres in North America and had $2.1 billion in sales in 2023, an eight per cent year-over-year increase. 

Yorkdale offers more than 270 stores and services and its 2023 sales performance of $2,402 per-square-foot was 65 per cent, or nearly $1,000, higher per square foot than its closest Canadian competitor (CF Toronto Eaton Centre), according to the ICSC report.

“Yorkdale has definitely become a global destination in fashion,” Horst observed. 

Yorkdale will welcome more than a dozen new luxury and first-to-market brands over the next 12 to 18 months with the completion of a 60,000-square-foot redevelopment. 

While Horst can’t name any of the new stores at this point, he said: “We believe that when we're done this project, we will be the largest collection of luxury brands under one roof in all North America and quite possibly the world.”

Twenty-five per cent of Yorkdale’s customers are tourists and he said that segment of the consumer market has become very important. 

“We have a large footprint of luxury, but Yorkdale caters to every type of customer,” Horst said. “We typically have a flagship or best-in-class version of all the brands in our centre.

“Great examples of that are the new Lululemon that's being built right now, the flagship Aritzia location, the two-level Nike location and our wide collection of restaurants that serve every budget and every palate.” 

Yorkdale is managed and owned by Oxford, with Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) being a co-owner. It opened in 1964 at 3401 Dufferin St., off Allen Road near Highway 401, and has grown significantly since then.

“If you look at a map of the GTA, we're right in the middle and that means that we're well-positioned to attract customers from every direction — from south, east, north and west,” said Horst. 

Yorkdale is the first retail centre of its size in North America to achieve a LEED Gold certification. It’s also the first globally to receive a WELL Performance Rating seal.

Square One

Square One is home to more than 320 merchants and achieved $1 billion in annual sales in 2023 after experiencing a sales increase of more than $100 per square foot. That represents three per cent annual growth. 

Square One, one of the country’s largest shopping centres with more than 2.2 million square feet of retail space, is now the GTA’s third-highest performing shopping centre and ranks among Canada’s top six shopping destinations.

Existing tenants are expanding to meet customer demand. Apple, for instance, recently relocated and expanded its space to 15,000 square feet while debuting one of its most advanced store formats.

Square One is managed by Oxford and co-owned by AIMCo and Oxford. It’s located in the heart of Mississauga at 100 City Centre Dr., where it opened in 1973 and underwent its most recent major expansion in 2019.

The region’s population growth is driving large-scale residential development, including Square One District, a planned mixed-use development and transit hub spanning 130 acres of residential, commercial, community and green space that will surround the mall. 

Oxford and The Daniels Corporation’s 45-storey, 539-unit Condominiums at Square One District and a 37-storey purpose-built rental apartment are under construction and scheduled for occupancy in early 2025.

The entire project is expected to include more than 18,000 residences in the immediate vicinity.

Scarborough Town Centre

Scarborough Town Centre is the largest regional shopping centre in the eastern GTA with more than 200 shops and services and 1.6 million square feet of retail space.

Twelve per cent annual sales growth at Scarborough Town Centre propelled it into ICSC’s top-25 most successful Canadian shopping centres with total sales of nearly $500 million.

The redevelopment of the former Sears box that welcomed the area’s first IKEA and Decathlon last year contributed to these results. Uniqlo will open in the mall on April 26.

“We cater to that market really, really well and we're repositioning that asset to be more regionally focused,” Horst explained. “Our strategy has been to continue to bring in brands that draw people from further away and a wider demographic.”

Scarborough Town Centre is managed by Oxford and owned by AIMCo and OMERS Realty Corporation. It was built in 1973 and is located at 300 Borough Dr. at Highway 401 between Brimley and McCowan roads.

Filling former Sears locations

“In all of our centres, we've redeveloped our Sears boxes and we have filled them up again with large-format, regional-type uses that will draw people from further away,” Horst said.

At Calgary’s 50-year-old, 1.1-million-square-foot, 165-store Southcentre Mall, at 100 Anderson Rd. SE, the former Sears store was redeveloped and its food court refreshed in 2020. It added Dollarama, Winners, PetSmart and Western Canada's first Decathlon store a year later.

“We had a lot of vacant Sears boxes in our portfolio after Sears departed Canada (in 2017 and 2018) and Southcentre was one of our first to fill up its box with Decathlon and Winners,” Horst said.

“And we've got a project underway to bring in a large-format entertainment complex on the third level of Sears there.”

Oxford’s future Canadian retail property plans

Oxford is owned by OMERS, the Canadian defined benefit pension plan for Ontario's municipal employees, and was established in 1960. Along with its portfolio companies, it manages approximately $85 billion of assets across four continents on behalf of investment partners. 

Oxford’s owned portfolio encompasses logistics, office, retail, multifamily, life sciences, credit (financing, loans) and hotels.

While Horst said Oxford is considering other ideas as well for its retail properties, current economic conditions have put things on hold.

“What Oxford has in our portfolio is really strong retail destinations that will evolve over time to be mixed-use destinations where people work, live, shop, play and learn,” said Horst.

“We're really executing on that strategy and Square One’s the first that is really seeing that come to life.”