With just under one year to go until the opening of Oakridge Park, another round of retailers has been announced for Vancouver’s brand-new shopping centre.
This is the third wave of retailer announcements this year to date, with the mall’s owner and developer today officially naming lululemon, Harry Rosen, Aritzia, Arc’teryx, Canada Goose, and GreenTee Golf Shop as the newest additions to the roster.
Some of these stores will be considerable in size for their respective brands and presence in Metro Vancouver.
At 6,000 sq ft, this will be a significantly sized lululemon, similar to the 6,900 sq ft recently expanded Robson Street store in downtown Vancouver. The Aritzia at 9,850 sq ft will also be far more than an outpost, comparable to the 13,000 sq ft Robson Street store and 10,000 sq ft Metropolis at Metrotown store.
Arc’teryx and Canada Goose at Oakridge Park will have nearly 4,450 sq ft and 4,200 sq ft of space, respectively, making these stores larger than their downtown Vancouver locations.
Other brands named in this week’s announcements include a 2,800 sq ft GreenTee Golf Shop and a 16,460 sq ft Harry Rosen, marking the luxury men’s clothing retailer’s grand return to the property. Additionally, Peninsula Seafood Chinese Restaurant will be making a comeback within a 9,800 sq ft space.
As well, the opening of the Time Out Market food hall, Signature BC Liquor Store, and the return of Safeway grocery store as an anchor tenant were reaffirmed. At 24,800 sq ft, Oakridge Park’s liquor store will be larger than the area’s existing Signature BC Liquor Store just north of the mall property. Both the liquor and grocery stores will be strategically located in the “neighbourhood convenience area” on the arrivals level, which doubles as an underground parking level for seamless liquor and grocery shopping.
Preliminary artistic rendering of the indoor mall entrance from the rooftop public park at Oakridge Park. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Westbank/Quadreal Property Group)
Artistic rendering of the new indoor mall area of Oakridge Park (Oakridge Centre). (Revery Architecture/Westbank/Quadreal Property Group)
All of this adds to Oakridge Park’s luxury retailer lineup announced earlier this year in February and May, including Louis Vuitton, Prada, Brunello Cucinelli, Moncler, Versace, Max Mara, Maison Margiela, Miu Miu, Christian Louboutin, Alexander Wang, Tiffany & Co., Rolex, Bvlgari, Chaumet, Chow Tai Fook, David Yurman, Jacob & Company, TAG Heuer, and Tudor.
These businesses are among the over 100 retailers, food and beverage establishments, and services that are part of the first shopping mall phase of Oakridge Park — entailing 650,000 sq ft of leasable retail space with an indoor mall environment — opening in Spring 2025. Over 1,000 construction workers are at the site daily to meet that ambitious targeted opening date.
As of this week, the first phase of the Oakridge Park mall is over 90% leased, according to Chrystal Burns, the executive vice president of Canadian retail for Quadreal Property Group, which has partnered with developer Westbank to pursue the project.
“That’s firm and binding lease contracts, but we’re oversubscribed on interest and letters of intent,” Burns told Daily Hive Urbanized in an interview. More retailer announcements are forthcoming.
“It’s been really rewarding and very fantastic that we have these retailers signed up at all aligned with us that this is the place to be at Oakridge Park, so we’re very pleased with the reception that retailers have shown on our shopping centre development.”
When asked whether the substantial level of retail leasing interest could accelerate the plans to build the remaining mall phase of 200,000 sq ft of outdoor retail on the west side of the property, Burns said their focus at the moment is to complete the new indoor mall.
Upon full buildout, the mall will have a total of 850,000 sq ft of leasable retail space for over 140 businesses. When leasable retail space, circulation space, and common spaces are accounted for together, the new mall will have 1.2 million sq ft of building floor area, including the various grand atriums, internal mall corridors, and other major non-leasable indoor mall spaces. This total building floor area represents the doubling of the size of the previous mall known as Oakridge Centre.
“We’re 100% focused on opening the shopping centre’s enclosed (indoor) component,” said Burns, adding that the next mall phase “is in our back pocket, [but] it’s not completely within our control as to when that might go. There are many market elements involved in that decision. It is on the plans, but the timing is yet to be determined.”
Artistic rendering of Oakridge Park’s new indoor mall. (Revery Architecture/Westbank/Quadreal Property Group)
Preliminary artistic rendering of the indoor mall entrance from the rooftop public park at Oakridge Park. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Westbank/Quadreal Property Group)
Preliminary artistic rendering of Oakridge Park. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Westbank/Quadreal Property Group)
Future tenant announcements will also focus on Oakridge Park’s food and beverage program.
Burns hinted at the opening of a French pastry shop, luxury restaurant offerings, a number of offerings in the coffee shop categories, and quick service food offerings around the transit plaza next to SkyTrain Canada Line’s Oakridge-41st Avenue subway entrance at the prominent intersection corner of Cambie Street and 41st Avenue.
Oakridge Park’s food and beverage program will be a “very broad offering for the community at all different price levels and different levels of formality,” Burns told Daily Hive Urbanized.
As for Time Out Market, more details on the highly curated upscale food hall will also be announced at a later date. There are eight existing Time Out Market locations worldwide, and another four are planned, including Vancouver, which will be larger than the only existing location of Montreal.
Outlining the latest specifications, she says Time Out Market Vancouver at Oakridge Park will span 40,000 sq ft of indoor space on the second level of the indoor mall and 10,000 sq ft of outdoor space on an upper level on the south-facing side of the nine-acre public park on the mall’s rooftop. The food hall will have 17 live cooking kitchens representing a diverse array of culinary cuisines, three bars, a coffee shop, a stage, and art and cultural spaces. It will have a capacity for 820 people indoors and 230 people on the outdoor patio.
Burns says Time Out Market will be the main food and beverage offering for the first phase of the mall upon opening next spring.
“If you’ve been to Time Out Market, whether that’s in New York, the one that they’re opening in Barcelona, or the original one in Lisbon, it is definitely a cultural entertainment venue with a lot of food and beverage with it. So it’s a full cultural hub experience,” she said.
“In terms of the actual curation, Time Out Market will start that process of discovery and sign up local chefs and up and comers that will join the market. That’s their secret sauce, and they don’t really talk about that too far in advance.”
Previous preliminary artistic rendering of the new indoor mall at Oakridge Park. (Revery Architecture/Westbank/Quadreal Property Group)
Preliminary artistic rendering of the indoor mall entrance from the rooftop public park at Oakridge Park. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Westbank/Quadreal Property Group)
Burns also shared that the underground retail-lined mall corridor reaching the underground ticketing concourse of Oakridge-41st Avenue Station, providing the transit hub with a secondary entrance, is expected to open on or near the mall’s opening day next spring.
Beyond retail, as part of the overall five million sq ft redevelopment, Oakridge Park will have 10 residential towers with over 3,000 homes for more than 6,000 residents, including nearly 1,000 secured purpose-built rental homes. The first four residential towers will be ready for occupancy in 2025.
As a public benefit, Oakridge Park includes a City-owned 22-storey tower with social housing and a 100,000 sq ft community centre with a new replacement and expanded Oakridge branch of the Vancouver Public Library. These components, including the vast majority of the rooftop public park, will be delivered to the municipal government in 2025.
The base podiums of various residential towers across the site will also contain 700,000 sq ft of office space — enough space to support about 3,000 jobs. To support shoppers, office workers, and other visitors, Oakridge Park’s first two underground levels will feature approximately 2,000 free vehicle parking stalls.
While Henriquez Partners Architects is responsible for the overall redevelopment design, Revery Architecture is behind the interior design of the mall. EllisDon Construction is the general contractor.
2022 artistic rendering of the revised design of the Oakridge Park (Oakridge Centre) redevelopment. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Westbank)
2022 artistic rendering of the revised design of the Oakridge Park (Oakridge Centre) redevelopment. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Westbank)
In anticipation of the mall’s opening, Oakridge Park is hosting the “Oakridge Summer Social” at the “Oakridge Park x Pac Rim Patio” at Rogers Tower (1067 West Cordova Street) in downtown Vancouver.
Between July 4 and September 2, 2024, the patio will be transformed into an immersive garden featuring custom floral displays and lush greenery, with a picnic-themed menu offered daily from 11:30 am to 8 pm, and programming focusing on family, community, arts, and wellness. This includes Wimbledon-themed Happy Hour events on select dates in July, and Cinema in the Park movie screenings every Friday evening from July 12 to August 2 starting at 8:30 pm.