The mall that almost wasn't

It has been said that the wheels of justice grind slowly. Surely, the same could be said about trying to build a shopping mall in Sault Ste. Marie.

In 1980, plans first began to expand the Sentry Discount Store and link it with the Canadian Tire at the corner of McNabb and Great Northern Road, with 30 to 40 new stores and 250,000 square feet of new retail space connecting the two anchor stores. The end result of these ambitious plans was the Cambrian Mall, the Sault’s second major shopping mall... eventually!

The road between the planning stages and the fruition of said plans proved to be a long and arduous journey.

It was in September of 1980 that the Burnac Corporation first put together a plan to build the new mall. But it took over a year for the company to even get a hearing with the Sault Ste. Marie Area Planning Board. Because of the immensity of the project, the city planners were hesitant to move forward too quickly. Burnac first had to pay a private firm $20,000 in early 1981 to conduct a study that would answer the planning staff’s questions on what effects a large new mall would have on the city.

The study indicated that the Soo’s economic conditions were suitable for a second major shopping mall.

Burnac hoped that the results of this study would be enough to convince the Planning Board to approve a rezoning application for construction. But the development still faced staunch opposition from the Queenstown Downtown Merchants Association, who feared that a new mall would lure customers away from the downtown shops and thwart city planners’ town centre concept.

Local residents in the area of McNabb and Great Northern also had concerns about how a new mall might negatively affect their lives and their property. Burnac on the other hand argued that the new mall would be a boon for the city, creating 345 new jobs, as well as bringing in $330,000 in business and revenue for the city each year.

Thus the battle lines were drawn. On June 15, 1981, lawyers and marketing experts for both sides converged on City Hall, and city council members listened to various arguments both for and against a new mall. Aldermen, presented with conflicting statements by various experts on what impact a new mall would have on the city and other store owners, were faced with a difficult decision. But in the end they voted 8-2 in favour of approving the Burnac zoning application. This did not end the debate, however. The Queenstown Association filed a letter of objection, which meant that a hearing would need to be held by the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) before plans could proceed.

The Burnac Corporation had to wait several months before it could even receive an OMB hearing date. However, in March of 1982, the Queenstown Association withdrew its objection, by which time an agreement was also close to being reached which would address concerns of local citizens near the new mall. Construction began in late 1982, with a tentative opening date set for fall of 1983. It should have been smooth sailing from then on. Except that it wasn’t.

Sentry, originally planned to be one of the flagship stores of the new mall, ended up closing down in November of 1983. As a replacement, the mall developers were able to bring in a second Zellers store to anchor the north end of the mall, but this major change delayed the planned opening.

Burnac also decided that a spring opening might be more economically advantageous. So the opening date, originally set as Oct. 26, was postponed five months. A new opening date was set as March 21, 1984.

Okay, so then the Cambrian Mall opened on March 21, 1984, you say? No, it did not. Zellers was not quite ready to open on that date. Not wanting to open the new mall without its flagship store, Burnac pushed the opening date back another week to March 28, so that the Zellers would open at the same time as the rest of the mall.

But it turned out that Zellers would still not be ready to open on March 28. The opening date was pushed back yet again to April 11, 1984.

This time the opening date stuck, and the Cambrian Mall officially opened its doors on Wednesday, April 11, 1984, at 9:30 a.m.

From planning to completion, the project took a good four years. And even after the new mall opened, there were some growing pains. Business owners on Great Northern Road and local residents complained of traffic congestion in the area, as eager shoppers flocked to see the new mall.

One nearby frazzled homeowner, tired of battling traffic jams to get home every day, even wrote a letter to the Sault Star editor, pleading for people not to come to the new mall. Of course, the novelty of a new shopping centre eventually wore off, and traffic in the area settled down as the number of daily visitors to the Cambrian Mall normalized.

The Cambrian Mall has evolved over the years. The grocery store has changed hands various times, from Loblaws to Carlucci’s to No Frills to Rome’s. Zellers shut down, other smaller stores have come and gone, and the mall itself has changed ownership two times, most recently in 2021.

The Cambrian Mall will celebrate its 38th anniversary this year.

Each week, the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library and its Archives provides SooToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past.

Find out more of what the Public Library has to offer at www.ssmpl.ca and look for more Remember This? columns here.