Mall Profile #12: Empire Centre, by Justin McElroy

Empire Centre
Location: Richmond
Opened: 2000
Approximate number of stores: 40 inside, 60 outside
Anchor tenants: Empire Supermarket, Chef Tony Seafood Restaurant (both outside)

Empire Centre will never meet anyone's definition of a "destination mall."

It might be the most physically generic of the cluster of malls stretching down Richmond's No. 3 Road from Aberdeen to Lansdowne, a place that looks like two strip malls on either side of a cramped parking lot until you realize the northern half is a large, walkable indoor area — one that focuses on service-based retail for local residents over any obvious bells and whistles that would attract a wider crowd.

And yet, Empire's success over 25 years is a reminder of the enduring power of malls, even in a period when they're often discounted.

When it opened in 2000, displacing a former Brick warehouse, it could have been seen as a bit of a risk: a partnership between Macdonald Development Corp. and Manulife, the mall was the fifth or sixth Asian-themed development in that part of Richmond to open in the previous decade, coinciding with a downturn in Asian immigration and in B.C.'s economy. But unlike nearby Admiralty, which opened around the same time, Empire has always had energy to it, its retail spaces almost fully booked on day one, with a mix of Taiwanese, Hong Kong and mainland Chinese stores that endures to this day.

Why Empire filled up when Admiralty didn't is hard to say — maybe being on the busier stretch of No. 3 Road or having a more open parking lot was the key difference. But the plan didn't hurt: a Vancouver Sun article that year described a focus on "specialty retail, food and every-day needs and services," and that mix has held. Hair salons and florists, dentists and small toy stores, plenty of serviceable small businesses and nothing that would make a teenager from Coquitlam come visit.

It's the food court where Empire Centre shines, though. It's just a collection of 10 or so outlets at one end of the single hallway on the north side of the mall, but it's all high quality, with mainstays like Cloud 9 Delicacy sitting next to newer players like Rice Holic and Cha Don — big portions of popcorn chicken and mango mochi, older immigrants who have been coming for years sitting next to younger Richmond residents wanting to check out the new One Cafe. It might be the most "cash only" food court in the city, and the tables have no separation from the rest of the mall, but we waited 15 minutes to get an open table and the food was very good, which is what really matters.

In terms of assessing the rest of the mall compared with others in Metro Vancouver, there are difficulties: with the exception of a somewhat dingy 40-metre stretch of covered indoor outlets next to that food court, it’s a strip mall. Cars quickly come and go to shop at the majority of the outlets with a dedicated entrance. On the northeast corner sits one of those medium-fancy restaurants for larger groups you find in a lot of malls, which is now home to the 1980s Hong Kong vibes of Loon Fong Hotpot, but has cycled through a lot of restaurants over the years.

There’s energy, but it’s not the same energy as a mall with hangout vibes or anchor tenants or an interesting interior design with a big atrium. It counts in this ranking, because it has more than 15 non-food court stores that aren’t directly accessible from the parking lot, but it is hard to recommend in the same way as most in our series.

And yet, it persists. The food court is packed, the stores decently used, the cursed parking lot cursed because there are actually people using it.

There's a certain cultural snobbery about mall culture today, as though they're all suburban malls in purgatory, struck down by Amazon to sit half vacant, a Backrooms pastiche devoid of soul.

But that isn't really true. Malls may no longer be a *destination*, but they’re still third spaces being used every day, in ways that few other parts of a city are. Empire is mostly better than the recently reviewed, currently last-place Denman on the strength of its food court, but in both "bad" malls there's plenty of loyalty and a decent amount of community — more than you might assume for a much-derided mall in the West End or a mostly ignored pseudo-strip mall surrounded by five other, more famous malls in Richmond.

There's always worthwhile stuff to enjoy, so long as you don't mind circling the parking lot one or two extra times.

TOTAL SCORE

Small Stores: 5/10 (There are a lot of them, but they’re all on the smaller side, and aside from a couple of toy and antique stores there’s not much in the way of interesting browsing. Still, it does what it needs to, and therefore gets the barest of passes.)

Anchor Tenants: 2/10 (A supermarket and a couple big restaurants are draws, but they’re outside the main indoor area of the mall and don’t really contribute to a sense of mall community)

Food Court: 7.8/10 (Loses a couple points here and there for being relatively small and dependent on cash, but it’s massive portions and high quality food for a food court)

Design/Accessibility: 4.2/10 (The basic single corridor of indoor wandering is serviceable and well lit, but the parking lot is truly substandard due to the small size for demand and lack of transition space between the street and the lot.)

X-Factor: 6.3/10 (The food court’s minimalist aesthetic is charming and there’s something to be said about a strip mall surrounded by bigger malls that has its own unique energy.)

OVERALL: 25.5/50 (The structure of Empire Centre and the lack of interesting non-food options makes it hard to recommend as a “mall”. But there’s enough that is good and distinct about it that it’s out of our bottom tier, and definitely worth a visit if Asian food courts are your thing)