Mall Profile #6: Central City, by Colin Sharp

Central City
Location: Surrey
Opened: 1972 (as Surrey Place Mall), renamed and extensively renovated in 2003
Approximate number of stores: 130
Anchor tenants: Walmart, Winners, Best Buy, T&T
 
(To listen to our podcast on Central City, click here)

Picture a suburban mall. Are you doing it? Good, you have now been to Central City Mall.

Once you brush aside some interesting exterior elements and walk around inside, this is a straightforward mall that is just trying to get the job done for people in the area. It will not appall you, it will not surprise you, it will merely serve you to the best of its ability.

This would be a disappointment to the dreams of the provincial government and City of Surrey in the 1990s, when they hatched a complicated scheme: what was once just an aging mall called Surrey Place would be turned into a new university called Tech BC, a new tower operated by ICBC, and a newly renovated mall called Central City, all integrated and all designed by star architect Bing Thom, who had high hopes for the mall.

“If I’m successful, you will no longer think this is a shopping mall,” he said on the day of the announcement.

“This is going to be the Robson Street of Surrey.”

Spoiler Alert: that didn’t happen. Robson Street is still Robson, and Surrey is still Surrey. Armed with a list of the most common reasons to go to a mall, you can probably do at least a functional version of them at Central City. You just won’t be that excited about it.

The anchor tenants don’t have the splash of an Apple Store or even the fast-fashion allure of an H&M, but with Walmart, T&T, Best Buy, Shoppers Drug Mart, and The Brick all represented, you could show up to buy a couch, a TV, a humidifier, a pair of sweatpants, and a ready-made meal before heading home to enjoy a newly perfected living room experience.

If you’re hungry now and don’t want to wait for the couch to be delivered, the food court itself delivers on the mall’s apparent mission of “no one will be happy, no one will be sad.” It’s classic food court fare: A&W, Opa, Manchu Wok, Subway, Orange Julius, Fresh Slice, and more. When you are elsewhere in the world and faced with 20 different food outlets you might explore menus and imagine a variety of tastes and cuisines. At Central City, this is not your concern. You have tried it all before, and you will simply pick your comfort fast food or whatever you happen to have a coupon for.

There are also small stores.

Okay, maybe that’s not giving them quite enough credit. But again, I compel you to actually get excited by these options. Assorted clothing stores you’ve barely heard of. A supplements store. Dentists and barbers. A Freedom Mobile. A Chatr Mobile. A Bell Mobile. A Rogers Mobile. A Wirelesswave. Two separate dollar stores with a third opening soon.

Aside from a cute little board game shop and an Extreme Bounce InflataPark for the kids, you’re not getting anything unique. How far you get with this selection of small stores will vary based on which particular boring errands are part of your life.

That’s not to say there aren’t compelling things in Central City. It’s just those compelling things are out of reach for the typical mall denizen.

The architecture at the top of the main atrium is a fairly striking Bing Thom rendition of the 2000s trend of glass plus wood. But that’s up on the ceiling. To appreciate it as you walk past cell phone case kiosks in the mall, you would have to hold your neck at an angle that this nearly 40-year-old writer does not recommend.

It is pretty cool to look at that ceiling if you’re an SFU student walking above the mall on the fifth floor of the galleria. It’s got classrooms, lecture halls, a library, and even multiple computer labs. As a former student at Simon Fraser University, this mall was deeply appreciated. Everything from the food court, to the dollar store, to the liquor store was crucial to my pursuit of university credit.

But does it actually integrate with the rest of the mall? (no)

If you’re in the mall, does the university add to the feeling of being in a vibrant public space, instead of a weirdly cramped central corridor? (also no)

As a non-student, will your purchase of boot cut jeans at Urban Planet be improved knowing that directly above you there is a group of 20-year-olds learning about “Media Across Cultures”? (for a third time, no)

Overall, this mall is mid. It has the basics, and that’s fine. Stretch your ranking rubric to a breaking point and you can start to talk about the merits and uniqueness of the “Surrey Central” area as a whole: the library, City Hall, and Holland Park. Unfortunately, Central City Mall delivers less to that equation than you might think.

It’s a valuable resource to have if you live nearby or have another reason to be there, but it is not a mall that would compel you to ride nearly the full length of the Expo Line — unless you had a podcast episode to record.

TOTAL SCORE

Small Stores: 6.5/10 (It’s an above average mix of Things That Are Useful, from those dentists and barbers to fitness fashion offerings, that you could definitely enjoy exploring if the design of the mall was a little better)

Anchor Tenants: 8/10 (A legitimately good mix! We’ve got a Walmart, Best Buy, Winners, T&T, Brick, and Extreme Bounce Inflatapark. Unless you’re a teenager that needs to bounce, your excitement may vary, but it does check a lot of boxes)

Food Court: 6.2/10 (There’s a couple of interesting wrinkles — Surrey Indian Bites, Steve’s Poké Bar, a Chaiiwala of London — but this is mostly your Manchu Wok/Subway/Opa 2006 starter pack court, a somewhat disappointing thing considering the very diverse city the mall represents)

Design/Accessibility 5.3/10 (The entrance is striking and the tall serpentine roof is stunning, but the actual getting around the mall is a frustrating mix of grafting on the late 1990s renovation onto the older section, loops that go nowhere in particular, a lack of lighting, lack of integration with the SFU part of the building, and an overall cramped feeling that makes is hard to give a full recommendation to)

X-Factor: 3.3/10 (Which is why overall, the mall did not spark joy and a sense of exploration or of a community square. It sparked feelings of missed opportunities and feeling the need to be there as an obligation, rather than of enjoying a centrepiece of Metro Vancouver’s second largest city.)

OVERALL: 29.4/50 (Does that make Central City a bad mall? No. It has too many things to do, and too many things to consider, to not get a passing grade. But it’s definitely an example of a mall that, for all its good intentions, is less than the sum of its parts.)