- Source: Market Square Shopping Centre (Kitchener)
Market Square Shopping Centre is a mall located in the downtown core of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, whose tenancy skews to services.
History
Built between 1971 and 1973 on the grounds of the original Kitchener City Hall in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. It was home to an Eaton's (opened in 1973 and later became a Sears Canada retail store), and home to the Kitchener Farmer's Market from 1973 to 2004. Eaton's closed on June 30, 1997, one of the company's first locations to shut down following its restructuring announcement.
A glass clock tower at the corner of King and Frederick Streets pays homage to the former city hall clock tower, which is now located at Victoria Park, Kitchener.
Decline
The mall has since declined, through the 1990s (with a half empty food court with long time McDonald's leaving in 2015) as shoppers have fled to larger malls in Regional Municipality of Waterloo like Conestoga Mall in Waterloo or Fairview Park Mall or Cambridge Centre to the south.
In January 2020, Conestoga College opened an 7,600-square-metre (82,000 sq ft) campus in the building, occupying about 1⁄3 of the centre's space. The other major tenants were triOS College and The Record, the latter of which occupied a former Sears Outlet store. Few retail stores remain in the mall, which is now primarily used as office space. Nordia Inc. operated a call centre on the uppermost floor of the former Eaton's until 2019. triOS and the Record departed in the following years.
The mall has a multi-level indoor parking along Duke Street and a walkway across to Oxlea Tower (22 Frederick Street), a large office tower across Frederick Street.
The mall is now owned by Europro Real Estate, which owns a number of buildings in the city's core.
Tenants
Mr Wu's
Service Canada
Conestoga College, campus for International Business, effective 2020
Transit connections
Grand River Transit has a number of routes that have stops around the complex:
Bus Routes
Route 1 Queen–River via stop on Frederick Street
Route 3 Ottawa South via stop on Frederick Street
Route 4 Glasgow via stop on Frederick Street
Route 7 King via stops on King Street
Route 204 iXpress Highland–Victoria via stops on Frederick Street
Light Rail
ION light rail 301 at Frederick station