Hundreds of shoppers lined up outside Vancouver's Oakridge Park on Thursday morning, spilling across the plaza in front of the mall's towering three-storey wooden revolving doors ahead of its long-awaited reopening. The doors opened to the public for the first time at the central Vancouver location, marking the grand unveiling of the city's largest redevelopment project in history.
Inside, workers in aprons were still making last-minute preparations when a tray of champagne flutes suddenly crashed to the floor, sending glass skidding across the polished lobby minutes before opening. The sound echoed through the atrium, but staff behind the entrance kept their composure.
At 11 a.m., security began letting the cordoned line inside. Crowds poured in steadily, many immediately lifting their phones to film the soaring atrium. Once inside, many visitors said the same thing: While the mall's sleek design and luxury stores made a strong first impression, it quickly felt more like a place to browse than to buy, with prices well beyond what they expected.
A New Era for Vancouver Shopping
Vancouver resident Anthony Le bolted ahead of the crowd, then jogged up one of the mall's wide wooden staircases and through its north atrium toward the food court Time Out Market. The internationally-known food hall is making its second Canadian debut at the mall. It features 20 Metro Vancouver kitchens, bars and cafés — about half focused on Asian cuisine — inside a 51,000-sq.-ft. space with three bars, a DJ booth, 1,000 reconfigurable seats, and a 10,000-sq.-ft. outdoor patio.
Le lined up at the DownLow Chicken Shack stall, where the first 100 customers were promised free nuggets. "I'm really excited," he told Postmedia. He said the new space feels a world away from the old suburban Oakridge mall, which closed nearly a decade ago to begin the phased redevelopment by QuadReal Property Group and Westbank.
"There is so much more space and light in here," Le said.
Luxury Retail and Mixed-Use Development
While the former Oakridge Centre had an upscale reputation, the redeveloped mall places a much stronger emphasis on luxury retail. The first phase of the $6.5-billion project opened Thursday with about 50 retailers, including brands such as Versace, Valentino, Acne Studios, Miu Miu, Dolce & Gabbana, Coach and Bvlgari, alongside nearly 1,400 residential units and 720,000 sq.-ft. of office space across eight city blocks.
In the atrium, waiters moved through the crowd with trays of complimentary champagne and desserts as music filled the space. On the second floor, Ahmet Gurses paused to examine a scale model of the 10-tower mixed-use development. One of Oakridge Park's towers, at 518 feet and 52 storeys, is now one of the tallest buildings outside downtown Vancouver.
He pointed to a more modern setup throughout the mall — instead of a traditional information desk, there is a concierge, while underground parking has been replaced with valet service and a "Find My Car" system that lets shoppers scan a code to locate their vehicle. "Vancouver is finally catching up," one shopper said. "My father is from Turkey, where malls of this scale with high-rise apartments above them are normal."
