It's a mall world, after all.

Following a 14-year drought when no regional shopping centres - enclosed malls generally anchored by one or two department stores of at least 100,000 sq. ft. - were built in Canada, The Mills Corp. of Arlington, Va., is about to expand its concept of market-dominant retail and entertainment destinations in Canada after gaining a foothold in Ontario last November.

Partnering with Montreal-based Ivanhoe Cambridge, the principal real estate subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the two companies are ready to go out on a build-it-and-they-will-come shopping spree.

New Mills malls are on the drawing board for Calgary, Vancouver and Montreal, and retail analysts expect these to be very similar to the Vaughan Mills entry, a 1.2-million-sq.-ft. enclosed mall with 16 anchor tenants and more than 200 stores, restaurants and entertainment venues. The mall is situated about 30 kilometres north of Toronto.

Photos courtesy of Vaughan Mills
Vaughan Mills, north of Toronto, is the first venture by Virginia-based The Mills Corp. into the Canadian market.

"Ivanhoe Cambridge and The Mills Corp. have an exclusive arrangement to develop four Mills centres across Canada in the provinces of Ontario, B.C., Alberta and Quebec. Based on the success of Vaughan Mills, we are evaluating sites in Calgary, Quebec and elsewhere," says Rebecca Sullivan, director of public/government relations for The Mills Corp.

The Mills concept includes traditional retailers, off-price stores such as Winners and outlet shops, along with a strong entertainment component.

Vaughan Mills introduced Canadians to the NASCAR SpeedPark theme park, which features a state-of-the-art indoor-outdoor go-cart track, and Lucky Strike Lanes, a bowling mecca. On the retail side, offerings include Canada's first Burlington Coat Factory, the world's largest Tommy Hilfiger Outlet and a series of other firsts: The country's first Tommy Bahama outlet, the first Town Shoes outlet in Canada and the first Benetton outlet on this side of the border.

To lure the men in, Canada got its first Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, described as an outdoorsman's paradise complete with a live trout pond, natural waterfall and in-store fishing demonstrations.

Toronto-based retail analyst Ed Strapagiel, executive vice-president of Kubas Consultants, calls the Mills mall "the new version of West Edmonton Mall. It's simply the latest better mousetrap, the latest big invention. Basically, it's the next big thing."

Strapagiel says he's not surprised new malls are being built despite the fact so-called power centres - groupings of big-box category stores such as Wal-Mart or Best Buy - have been responsible for increasing the retail presence in most cities and towns.

"Yes, there is room for them (the Mills malls) in retail," Strapagiel says. "Like many other industries, somebody who comes along and builds a better mousetrap will win the day. It's not so much a question of room in the market. The market will create the room and pull back from a less desirable alternative."

He doesn't describe the Mills operation as a typical mall - one with department store anchors at each end. "The Mills approach is lots of big stores with big footprints, with separate exterior entrances. It's not quite the same thing," he says.

Plans are to move ahead with the Calgary entry first, retail analysts say, pointing to land Ivanhoe Cambridge already has on hand.

Project officials concur but would not comment on where this Mills mall would be constructed. "Plans are most advanced in Calgary, where we hope to open in 2007," a company representative said.

Retail specialists Alistair Corbett and Chris Thompson, both with CB Richard Ellis in Calgary, suggest a chunk of land located at Deerfoot Trail and Country Hills Boulevard is the likely choice.

"They've (Ivanhoe Cambridge) had it for a long time. We're assuming that's the site they're talking about. It makes the most sense," they told Business Edge.

Corbett and Thompson say they are not surprised by Mills' interest in Calgary, noting the city is high on the Canadian retail radar screen.

"Calgary is very much the flavour of the month for retailers looking at coming in. Our retail vacancy rate is at 3.9 per cent and that's a bit of a high," they said, pointing to space being vacated because retailers are looking at relocating to Calgary's new power centre, Deerfoot Meadows, only 15 minutes down the road from the potential Mills location. Both would be adjacent to different sections of Deerfoot Trail, the road that links Highway 2 between Calgary and Edmonton.

"Anytime that (vacancy) rate gets below six per cent, we're in a demand hole and we can't get it up fast enough," Corbett and Thompson add.

Vancouver-based retail analyst Blake Hudema, president of Hudema Consulting Group Limited, says he's not surprised that Calgary could get a Mills mall before Vancouver.

"One of the big issues in Vancouver is finding a large site," says Hudema. "Calgary has an undeveloped site that has zoning to permit an enclosed shopping centre approaching one million square feet."

He also predicts Montreal will likely be Mills and Ivanhoe Cambridge's next target after Calgary, citing an abundance of land just outside Greater Montreal.

"Their preferred location would be off a major arterial freeway, or ideally at intersection of two major highways," says Hudema, asked where the Vancouver version would likely be built.

"They probably want to be on the Trans-Canada Highway, they probably want to be central to the populations of Surrey and Langley. That's probably where they want to go, but that's from the ideal perspective.

"There's a very limited supply of development land. We have a comprehensive land-use plan for the region. Any land available for a 50- to 70-acre site is probably going to be $1 million- plus per acre."

Hudema says he doesn't expect the Mills concept to hit Vancouver until somewhere between 2010 and 2015, depending on how long it takes to find a suitable piece of land.

He expects the project to open in the Montreal region by 2010 and calls a 2007 opening for a Calgary Mills about "as aggressive as you can get."

(Laura Severs can be reached at laura@businessedge.ca)