Mall Profile #7: City of Lougheed, by Justin McElroy

City of Lougheed

Location: Burnaby

Opened: 1969

Approximate number of stores: 110

Anchor tenants: Walmart, London Drugs, SportsChek 

(To listen to our podcast on the City of Lougheed, click here)

In the 21st century, many large decades-old suburban shopping malls follow one of two pathways: they try to transform into a mixed-use world-class upscale down payment on a condo retail experience (think Amazing Brentwood), or they sort of slowly decay into a series of Manchu Woks and Dollaramas and cell phone kiosks that technically function as a mall but with little of the charm or nostalgia or things that would make someone hang around and take in the atmosphere (think Capilano).

But being in mall purgatory and waiting for the redevelopment shoe to fall doesn’t have to be a death sentence. You could be quirky. You could be interesting. 

You could be the City of Lougheed. 

Opening in 1969 as Lougheed Mall, it had a few elements that made it a little more distinct than your ordinary mall: the first Famous Players movie theatre outside Vancouver’s downtown area, the first Bay store situated inside a separate mall, and a Googie-style space-age dome in the middle, with a curved semi-circle roof continuing down the spine of the building.

The Bay and the Famous Players are no more, but the core of its design had survived several decades, a couple of renovations, and a name change to Lougheed Town Centre before it was bought by its most recent owners, SHAPE properties, in 2010. Like the Brentwood mall which they bought around the same time, there was a straightforward plan for the future: build lots of towers, essentially replace the mall with a new type of retail experience, and give it a really presumptuous-sounding name. In the decade after, the Safeway, Sears and H&M all shut down, Shape began developing the area to the immediate east, and mall purgatory set in.

But then a funny thing happened: the timeline for tearing down the old mall seemed to keep extending far into the future. SHAPE renovated the food court and added a new playground next to it in the central atrium, a nice bit of mall placemaking synergy. 

And most importantly, funky, non-traditional groups filled those big anchor spots: what was once a Safeway is now a pickleball complex. What was once an H&M is now the City of Burnaby’s temporary Cameron Community Centre, with a library, recreation facilities, childcare services and plenty of other things that bring an eclectic demographic to the mall. K-Town Entertainment and a Miniso bring some modern entertainment retail options that fit with the demographics of the Burquitlam area, while a number of banks, barbers and other professional services fill out the mall to a point where you’d be hard pressed to know the mall is still on the chopping block. 

(Plus, that food court is legitimately solid, with excellent Indian and Singaporean options complementing a good, if not great, selection of more traditional options.)      

The end result is a mall that meets the needs of a community, a mall that has some interesting and unique things to do, a mall connected to rapid transit with a fun design.

In other words, somewhat inexplicably, the City of Lougheed is, in 2026, a good mall. 

Not a great mall, mind you: that SkyTrain station still sits rather inexplicably 200 metres away from the actual mall, forcing a walk across two busy streets and an endless parking lot. The inside of the mall is dimly lit and pedestrian outside the atrium and central spine, and even that area has an elevator that only goes to a parking lot. With apologies to Walmart, London Drugs and SportChek, the big retail options do not exactly scream excitement. 

That being said, the fact the City of Lougheed is an interesting place worth hanging out in is a real triumph, and a very interesting contrast to the nearby mall that SHAPE has fully converted into its ultimate vision. 

Because at the end of the day, a good mall doesn’t need to have the hottest stores, a pretty courtyard with a giant fountain, or the adjective “Amazing” next to its name.

Sometimes, a good design, a good sense of who it’s serving, and a good library are more than enough. 

TOTAL SCORE

Small Stores: 6.6/10 (You can get clothes and gifts, crafts and books, your hair or taxes done…aside from the K-Town and T&N game stores, nothing really stood out to us, but it was a good variety in a number of different genres)

Anchor Tenants: 5.6/10 (Between the pickleball, community centre and Walmart, it’s a genuinely eclectic mix, with the SportChek and London Drugs providing worthwhile second options. Nothing is really an exciting selling point, but there’s too much to consider this part failing)

Food Court: 7.1/10 (Your A&W and Manchu Woks options are balanced are balanced by Persian, Singaporean and Indian options, a Steve’s Poke and Waffle Cafe, and a few other options that show a real effort into the redesign, even if it’s rather chainy. )

Design/Accessibility 5.2/10 (We love the glass and the dome, but it does show the wear of a 50+ year old mall that developers would really like to make into condos at some point. Add in the lack of connection to the nearby SkyTrain and a few corridors that don’t really go anywhere, and it’s a bit of a mixed bag)

X-Factor: 7.5/10 (It’s both a genuinely fascinating mall, and one with interesting things to do and look at. More than the sum of its parts, it has a unique spirit we particularly enjoyed, even if there’s some rust around the edges)

OVERALL: 31.9/50 (Lougheed is a model for what an older mall can be: lean into the quirk and the community aspect, embrace the retro design, and upgrade the food court so it’s no longer 1985. No, it will never have buzz until it redevelops — but in its current incarnation, it’s doing a better job at what it’s trying to be than The Amazing Brentwood is at being an Amazing regional destination, and so it edges above it)