Kildonan Place Food Court

It seems Kildonan Place has been under construction for a decade. And to some extent it has. The loss of Sears and The Bay along with other stores meant the mall seemed to be perpetually replacing stores like Dominion, Sears, Bay, Zellers and Target. The addition of Save-on-Foods and a new and expanded movie theatre has helped bring stability to that end of the mall.

The goal of a mall is to extend how long each day people are there as well as try to get repeat business. A grocery store usually brings people to the mall at least once a week as do any pharmacies in the mall. A movie theatre can attract a younger crowd and help the restaurants and food court on a weekly basis and longer into the evening and weekends.

Polo Park and St. Vital Centre have also gone through substantial changes but Kildonan Place has been hit by the changes in retailing harder than most. It seems to have solved the issue of retailers as well as anchor entertainment but the long stalled upgrade to food court just didn't happen until now.

A good food court or all can add all sorts of life to a mall. The St. Vital food court expansion cemented it's spot as the most attractive of the courts with soaring ceilings, faux stone surroundings and fireplaces. Most food courts try to have a variety of ethnic choices albeit in fast food options. Polo Park's second floor food court is not nearly as attractive but it is large and has variety. It is possible that we see Polo Park do something different but I tend to believe if they had wanted to move, they would have used the space on the first floor of the Sears building. Still, I would not rule out a third floor being added to the mall in the next five years and the food court moving up. This would likely only happen if there is a new focus on hotel, housing and entertainment in the mall.

However, back to Kildonan, their food court has been in need of an upgrade for ten or more years. The food court they have sufficed with is cozy but the mall is bigger and the amount of people living nearby greater. The move and expansion of Dollarama as well as Cineplex Junxion set up opportunity for an upgrade. This was an 8000 square foot space to create a new food court.

The old movie theatre will be demolished and a newly re-designed entrance will go. Guest Services will move and re-open in April. As far as the food court goes, it will go from 8 vendors to 10 vendors and 325 seats to 550 seats. Although some things are expanding, the actual leasable space will be reduced by 30,000 square feet.

None of the work comes cheap and it will take till 2027 for work to be totally complete. By that time perhaps the next huge change happens to Kildonan. The ups and downs have hit this mall more than most but according to the landlord, it is still a profitable mall.

Some local retailers will displaced in this which is sad because clearly the mall depended on them when large national and international stores shut down. There is some evidence that some of these stores are finding other leasing space for themselves.