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Feature Article, September 2005
Larger-than-life-style Center
U.S. developer making a big splash in Canadian market with major retail-entertainment project.
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An overview of Lac Mirabel.
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It's been almost 30 years since Quebec has seen a major retail development, but it's about to make up for lost time. A 14 million-square-foot, mixed-use project with 1.8 million square feet of enclosed retail and entertainment facilities is currently taking shape in the city of Mirabel, about 30 minutes north of Montreal. The $425 million project, called Lac Mirabel, has been 4 years in the planning and is being developed by Greenwich, Connecticut-based Gordon Group Holdings, LLC, who created The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and The Pier at Caesars, currently under construction in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The project is being promoted by Rubin Stahl, an independent shopping center consultant and former president of West Edmonton Mall. “We're creative, non-conventional builders,” says Stahl. “In 1985 I opened West Edmonton Mall with 836 stores and 111 restaurants in a city of 600,000 people. Each store was unique, and the project had the most incredible amenities you've ever seen, including four ocean submarines going through the mall, one of the largest roller coasters in the world and a water park that held 10,000 people at one time.”
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Inside Lac Mirabel, the 1.8 million-square-foot center that Gordon Group Holdings is developing in Quebec.
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The mammoth, mixed-use Lac Mirabel will be a lifestyle center like nothing seen before on the continent. Among the attractions and amenities will be 330,000 square feet of mini lakes, a 140,000-square-foot aquarium with 20,000 different species, a roughly 100,000-square-foot therapeutic spa, a 70,000-square-foot Kid Tropolis educational indoor city for children, a butterfly and hummingbird sanctuary, two high-tech amusement rides, a 3,000-seat auditorium, and a 500,000-square-foot sports complex that will serve the surrounding municipalities of Mirabel, Blainville and Boisbriand. The developer is also taking advantage of the Canadian climate and providing space for outdoor activities, such as ice skating, ice fishing, snowmobile rides and skiing in the winter, with 331 acres of cross-country ski trails. The development will also include two major hotels by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., which owns the Westin and Sheraton chains as well as such major hotels as the St. Regis, W and Meridien. Also planned are condominiums, a 2,000-car, underground parking garage and 8,000 outdoor parking spaces. A narrow-gauge railway, sponsored by Via Rail, will take visitors to and from the parking lots and around the project grounds.
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Quebec's first large format retail center in 30 years, Lac Mirabel will feature cutting edge design.
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The 330-acre site is located 30 miles from downtown Montreal, adjacent to the Laurentian Autoroute with direct access off the highway. An estimated 150,000 cars pass the project every day.
“People view the project all day long,” notes Stahl.
In addition, the Quebec government is contributing $25 million for a new overpass, Highway 15, that will give access to the site.
“We now have 331 acres with 14 million feet exposed to the freeway and a mile and a half of frontage,” adds Stahl. “The accessibility is unbelievable.”
Tourists will be a big target market, especially U.S. visitors (there are more than 14 million visitors to Montreal every year). The development is also located 60 miles from Mont Tremblant, the largest ski resort in eastern North America, which attracts more than 4.5 million visitors annually.
The project will also benefit from a surge of residential growth in Mirabel and Glenville, cities that are directly across from one another and that are the “Number 1 cities for producing homes in Quebec and, perhaps, North America,” according to Stahl. Homes in Glenville, he says, range from $500,000 to $1 million.
“There are more homes being built here than anywhere in the country — in Glenville, in Mirabel — in the whole region.”
Lac Mirabel will feature mostly mid- to high-end retailers, though that wasn't always the plan, says Stahl.
“We were going to do a value center, but people in Quebec are very sophisticated and the words ‘discount' or ‘value' don't relate well. We look for very big stores that do high volumes.”
Among the retailers planned for the project include Aldo, Build-A-Bear, The Children's Place (with a 20,000 square-foot store), La Senza, Tommy Hilfiger, and home furnishing and art specialist Simply Artrageous. Many American stores who are entering Montreal for the first time have chosen Lac Mirabel for their initial location, including Bebe and Bebe Sports, Brookstone, Liz Claiborne and H&M.
Lac Mirabel is expected to generate more than 13,000 new jobs in addition to the 4,300 new jobs that will occur just in the construction phase, which was scheduled to begin at the end of August. Full construction will start in the spring, and the project is scheduled to open in fall 2007.
— Susan H. Fishman
©2005 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.
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