Mall Profile #17: Lansdowne Centre, by Samantha Chang
The middle child of Richmond's mall offerings, Lansdowne could be good — but instead, is just sort of there.
Lansdowne Centre
Location: Richmond
Opened: 1977
Approximate number of stores: 120
Anchor tenants: Best Buy, HomeSense, Jysk, Winners, T&T
When I close my eyes and think back to my teen years in Richmond in the early aughts, I think of walking in endless circles around the quintessential mall with my friends. I think of department store anchor tenants like Sears and The Bay and Old Navy and Sport Chek, with their endless makeup counters. I think of White Spot and Famous Players. I think of Sweet Factory and Payless Shoes and Claire’s and Ardenes, and trying to make it all the way to the back of the Gap without any sales associate speaking to you. I think of a bustling food court at the centre of the mall.
But I digress, because our next mall is Lansdowne Centre, and not Richmond Centre.
First opened in 1977, Lansdowne was Richmond’s first mega mall, a 650 thousand square foot complex.
It was fully owned, built and conceived by Woodward’s, the biggest retail game in British Columbia for close to a century, our equivalent to Eaton’s or the Bay. By the 1970s there were Woodward’s in Burnaby, Surrey, New Westminster, West Vancouver…but not in Richmond, and a woman named Gwen Abraham starts a campaign, saying “We Want a $1.49 Day in Richmond”, referring to their ubiquitous sale prices.
Whether or not Richmond should redevelop a former race track to allow for a Woodwards mall is the biggest issue of the 1973 election (it was a simpler time). When it does open, it consists of four anchors: one Eaton’s, and three separate Woodward’s spinoffs: the department store, the bargain store, and the food floor.
Whoops.
Within 20 years, Woodward’s and Eaton’s both go bankrupt. Four other significant malls open directly north of Lansdowne, all catering more to the city’s growing Chinese community. In the last decade, it has gotten the most attention for a proposed massive mixed-condo redevelopment that many suburban malls are trying to achieve.
Lansdowne was even the focus of a national newspaper piece called, “The Mall is Dead”. But my question is: can a mall die if it never really happened? After all, Lansdowne is not your typical “death of mall culture” case study.
Because aside from the brief period of time where it was home to Bonkers and therefore a premium destination for kids’ birthday parties, Lansdowne has never really been anyone’s premier mall destination. Perhaps the best adjective for Lansdowne, built on that old horse racing track and designed in the shape of a continuous racetrack oval, is “also-ran”. It’s just kind of there, one extremely average mall amongst Richmond’s many, many, many malls.
There is so much about Lansdowne that should be successful: its wider corridors, its two circular atriums, the ample amount of parking, its many restaurants (including long-standing Richmond institution No. 9 Restaurant). But while Cindy and Justin are fans of Lansdowne’s “unique” layout, those of us who are more directionally challenged (me) find the design of two short loops connecting to two atriums to be very confusing. There is never a time when I am wandering Lansdowne where I do not find myself completely lost in the space-time continuum.
More than that, Lansdowne has never been able to hold onto any true premium anchor tenants or to draw any of your regular Cadillac Fairview type, big brand stores. That’s not to say the anchor tenants are not substantial – it currently houses a Best Buy, HomeSense, JYSK, T&T, and Winners. Rather, the mall has primarily locally-owned and operated mom-and-pop shops, whose names are, more often than not, a literal description of the goods or services they sell (Eyes Inspire, Excellent Hearing, Ink or Toner, Luxury Baby, etc.). That’s not a knock on these shops, because it’s nice to have a lot of different local stores offering unique goods and services; it’s just that it doesn’t offer a particularly cohesive browsing experience. You go shopping at Lansdowne not to wander, not for the inherent joy, but because you need something specific from a particular shop.
In the same vein, the food court is a popular spot and features the beloved Taco Luis (which actually originated at the old food court at Oakridge Centre!). When the Taco Time-esque establishment closed for renovations at the end of August, it sparked a mild panic from devoted fans concerned that this fan favourite Mexican food court stall was gone forever. It mercifully reopened in October with a fresh new look, but beyond that, only the newly opened One Cafe really inspires mass appreciation in the food court. Lansdowne also offers a number of full service restaurants, none more beloved than the legendary No. 9 Restaurant, but despite all of this, it can’t quite top the food offerings at Richmond Public Market or at Aberdeen Square.
It’s possible that a group of jaded and perhaps too online Millennials is not the target audience for Lansdowne: free Tai Chi meetups happen every morning in the atrium, the card and claw machine stores get a fair number of teenagers, and there are plenty of other malls more befitting of a “The Mall is Dead” obituary.
And yet, while Lansdowne has a lot of good things going for it, it doesn’t do any of them better than any other mall in its vicinity. It could be a great mall, and there’s always the promise that it’s about to get better, but for the last three decades it’s just sort of been there.
This is an instance where the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts — even if the parts are still pretty good.
Sam Chang is a Vancouver lawyer and recovering sports podcaster.
TOTAL SCORE
Small Stores: 7.6/10 (A large mall with Lots Of Stuff, Lansdowne has a mix of service and retail-based options that is quite broad, from the Daiso/Miniso/Claw Machine combo to five salons to three banks. There’s no premium outlets, but overall this is the strength of the mall)
Anchor Tenants: 6.3/10 (There are a lot of big outlets, but are any of them — beyond the large T&T — actually great? Jysk, Best Buy, HomeSense, Winners and Structube might fill a need in Richmond, but they all come across as trying to fill the excess space the mall had designed for its giant Woodward and Eaton’s department stores, instead of being organically healthy outlets. Still, points for quantity and variety.)
Food Court: 7/10 (Points for the iconic 24 hour No. 9 restaurant, and for having a large and well lit food court. Slight deductions for the fact that there’s a reason you never hear foodies gush about this food court compared to others in Richmond, because while it’s a good variety the food is mostly Just Fine)
Design/Accessibility: 5.7/10 (As stated, Justin and Cindy were charmed by the short loops and dual atriums — even if the one that isn’t next to the food court has quite a bit of dead space — while Sam found them confusing. It also suffers from that overgrown 1990s mall aesthetic feel. Still, ample parking, a SkyTrain stop next to the ample parking, and good lighting are all helpful)
X-Factor: 2.9/10 (But while some of us quite liked the design of Lansdowne, nobody was really charmed by Lansdowne: it exists as this theoretical middle ground between Richmond Centre and the more Asian-oriented malls directly north of Lansdowne, without having a really clear purpose or identity, moreso than most malls we’ve reviewed.)
OVERALL: 29.5/50 (In our podcast recording, Cindy said ‘this is Henderson Mall done right’, and yet our scores show it as being worse than Henderson. Whoops! Check this space when this project is completed and we make our final rankings, and it’s possible this mall is a little higher, and Henderson a little lower. We retain the right to be charmed in the future. Still, the fact remains that Lansdowne remains technically competent, while also searching for a broader purpose in the crowded Richmond mall market)
