Mapleview Centre in Burlington, Ontario has been expanding at a fast pace and is now welcoming another world-class brand. In the fall of 2020, they announced that they would be opening their doors to Décathlon, the largest sporting goods retailer in the world.
Décathlon’s Superstore Expansion Across Canada
The French behemoth, which opened its first store in France in 1976, has big plans to make its sporting goods accessible all over the world. Ontario isn’t its first stop in Canada, as Décathlon’s cross-Canada superstore expansion started in April 2018, when their first store opened its doors in Brossard, Quebec.
Two more retail outlets followed in Quebec, and a fourth is coming soon to the Montreal Eaton Centre. Another shopping mall owned by Ivanhoé Cambridge, a Canadian real estate company, is about to welcome a Décathlon store as well. The Mic Mac Mall, the largest shopping mall in Atlantic Canada, will lease 23,080 square feet of its suburban Halifax Mall in Nova Scotia to Décathlon.
Décathlon in Ontario Province
The French retailer that has more than 1500 stores in over 52 countries already has one of its stores in the Ontario province, located at 1055 St. Laurent Boulevard in Ottawa. That location opened September 2019 as part of Décathlon’s Canadian expansion.
Now with the new announcement at Mapleview Centre, Décathlon will occupy almost 54,800 square feet of the space that was previously occupied by Sears.
Décathlon also has plans to expand to other Canadian markets in the near future, including Calgary, Vancouver, and the Greater Toronto Area. For the moment, the sporting goods giant has its eyes set on Ontario, where its first experience store is already changing the lives of Canadian consumers.
Experiential Customer Focus Coming to Mapleview
Ever since its inception in 1990, Mapleview has been all about enhancing the customer journey and bringing the best brands to its consumers. Between 2008 and 2010, the shopping centre went through extensive renovations that further improved its sales and market growth.
Today, it houses 150 retail outlets over its 635,000 square feet, including Apple, H&M, Hudson’s Bay, Shoppers Drug Mart, and Indigo, as well as restaurants such as Turtle Jack’s and Earls Kitchen + Bar. Soon, it will make room for Décathlon as well.
Décathlon stands out from the majority of other retailers because of its unique experiential customer focus. Every customer coming to any of its stores can expect a one-of-a-kind personalized shopping experience that they can rarely find somewhere else.
They can try different sports, and try out the products, even take them home for a few days to see how they fit their needs. They can try rock climbing, basketball, volleyball, and an array of other sports, right in the store.
Summary
Ontario is definitely becoming a very credible place for retail commercial real estate investors. Décathlon coming to Mapleview in Burlington is just one example of many world-renowned brands setting their eyes not only on this province, but also on the entire fast-growing Canadian retail market including provinces like Saskatchewan and Alberta.
ReDev specializes in the retail commercial real estate throughout Canada. Contact us today to discover what makes our commercial real estate so attractive.