Woodbine Centre

[swigg]

There are a bunch of those stores now, one that took over the old Sears, One at the old Zellers, and one in the new area they built ( with all the glass panels facing the apartment buildings next door ).

 

[J-M-Z]

Hi!



I wanted to ask a question about the mall. Ive only visited about three times. Once, in 2003, when i was 4 years old, My friends and I visited in October 2022, and I revisted last Wendsday. I went back because when i visited in October, i was fascinated by the awful animatronics at the entrance with the ferris wheel.



When i was there last week, my friend and i went to this really disgusting liquidation store outside of the food court. It was filthy. It was piled high with boxes, and there was garbage all over the place. There was a plastic container filled with brown water in the middle of the store. I only took one photo. The store is above the shop a lot.



I wanted to ask if the shop is a lot and this stores location used to be where the zellers was? I didnt have time to go to the shop a lot because it was closed when i arrived around 6 PM. I noticed from photos online that it was as big as the filthy liquidation store above it so i figured they used to be the zellers

Yes, Shop A Lot and the upstairs Liquidation were once Zellers. After Zellers closed, Target attempted to step in around the 2010's, but backed out at the last second.

The brown water was a problem back in 2019, too; when the pipes were being worked on beneath the fountain in the main concourse.
Apparently, the brown colouring is a reaction to rust in the water.

 

[kade1064]

Yes, Shop A Lot and the upstairs Liquidation were once Zellers. After Zellers closed, Target attempted to step in around the 2010's, but backed out at the last second.

The brown water was a problem back in 2019, too; when the pipes were being worked on beneath the fountain in the main concourse.
Apparently, the brown colouring is a reaction to rust in the water.

View attachment 458992

BRUH...thats just sad

 

[J-M-Z]

Apparently the Woodbine Centre in 2023 is Dave's happy place:

I was told the fountain you see was secretly added in with digital effects. The current Woodbine owner ruined the actual fountain years ago by, creating
a stage just in front of it. The end game hoping more entertainers rent out the concourse.

Special thanks to Adrian Caprara for sharing the above screenshot.

The full commercial can be seen here:
https://www.ispot.tv/ad/2TVi/gain-flings-bus-ride

 

[JasonParis]

Gain... it's just a smile away.

 

[kade1064]

Question, is the movie theater at "Woodbine Mall" getting a renovation?

 

[J-M-Z]

Question, is the movie theater at "Woodbine Mall" getting a renovation?

A common practice with the current owner of the Woodbine Centre is to seize control of stores and their assets once a tenant is no longer able to
pay rent. The owner then confiscates the store's remaining inventory, and re-opens the store under a new (but similar) shop name. Habitually, the
owner would then hire family/associates already employed at the Woodbine Centre to commandeer the replacement shops.

'Woodbine Cinemas' is another prime example of this practice. Once Imagine Cinemas left Woodbine two years ago, a massive liquidation
took place; selling off most of Imagine's movie equipment in the process. Projectors, popcorn makers, even the movie seats themselves
were all sold for pennies on the dollar. Photos from Woodbine's cinema auction can be viewed on previous pages of this thread.

Presently, the Woodbine owner is banking on the notion that another cinema company will step in, either by picking up the mantle of 'Woodbine
Cinemas', or posting a marquee of their own. The problem is, cinema owners in the GTA are weary about investing money into movie theatres
in 2023. Especially in a sparsely-populated, state of decrepitude that the Woodbine Centre has currently become.

Another considerable problem is that the lot which makes up Woodbine Cinemas has, since Woodbine's grand opening 38 years ago, always been
a movie theatre. Repackaging the lot as anything other than a cinema will take an intractable amount of remodelling; the cost of which, I would
imagine, is beyond what the current owner is reluctant to invest in.

Three of Toronto's biggest movie theatres have come and gone from the Woodbine. Cineplex Odeon, Rainbow Cinemas and Imagine Cinemas;
all in the span of three-plus decades. The latter, last I can recall, tried to air Bollywood and Tamil movies before closing down for good.

Using the theatre's current layout, the only remodelling I can see now is to convert the cinema into a banquet hall.

 

[kade1064]

Using the theatre's current layout, the only remodelling I can see now is to convert the cinema into a banquet hall.

that would make woodbine mall interesting

 

[J-M-Z]

that would make woodbine mall interesting

That or a doctor's office. Though, wasn't the upstairs portion of Zellers supposed to be converted into medical offices?
I keep getting confused with the international supermarket that was also rumoured to open in that general area of the mall.

 

[kade1064]

That or a doctor's office. Though, wasn't the upstairs portion of Zellers supposed to be converted into medical offices?
I keep getting confused with the international supermarket that was also rumoured to open in that general area of the mall.

i think those plans got canned.

 

[J-M-Z]

Question of the day: do you think the Woodbine Centre should just be used for filming movies and TV shows?
Now that the mall is dead, more companies are using the empty lots for commercials and what not.

 

[Mary James]

That or a doctor's office. Though, wasn't the upstairs portion of Zellers supposed to be converted into medical offices?
I keep getting confused with the international supermarket that was also rumoured to open in that general area of the mall.

I thought that the upper portion of Zellers was supposed to be a supermarket . I don’t understand how Chris Hinn had any success in this ventures. I can’t understand how he afforded to buy the mall…

 

[SubHuman]

... I don’t understand how Chris Hinn had any success in this ventures. I can’t understand how he afforded to buy the mall…

Amazon may be holding off. According to the Toronto Star there is concern they may have overexpanded during the pandemic which is now coming back to bite them in the ass. They opened a ton of new warehouses and distribution centres but now that the pandemic is pretty much done, demand is dropping.
https://www.thestar.com/business/op...urce=LI&li_medium=thestar_recommended_for_you

Amazon has paused construction of their Virginia HQ2 because of "slowing revenue".
I don't understand what the owner of Woodbine Mall is doing either. It seems that almost every other GTA mall is doing reasonably well and/or getting redeveloped into a more mixed retail/residential complex. You'd think there would be someone willing to buy this mall and do the same thing.

 

[J-M-Z]

On a lazy Sunday morning, a friend and I arrived at the Woodbine Centre, only to notice the continuing state of disrepair.

Our first stop on the tour was a phone shop. While chatting with one of the clerks (who was patiently waiting outside his
shop for anyone to pass by) the clerk asked my friend "do you smell sewage?"

Strangely, I did a double take when I noticed the fountain by the elevator had clean, running water. In front of the fountain was
another magic show taking place. Upbeat dance music blared over two magicians; who were in the process of bending pool
noodles for a packed house of 6 to 8 viewers.

Nearby was one of several missing stores - one that used to sell pricey statues for thousands of dollars. The name of which
escapes me.

Maybe Amazon backed out of their proposed redevelop plans. Maybe the owner is still hoping more TV/Movie productions film
on his property. Or, perhaps, the owner is still saving up to transform the Woodbine into a waterpark. Slowly but surely, the
remaining stores inside the Woodbine seem to be packing up at a steady pace.

 

[RGB_11]

It's funny that Morningside mall, which seems to have been in much better shape (structure, upkeep, etc) got torn down but yet Woodbine centre is still standing.