McArthurGlen Group’s outlet mall near Vancouver International Airport has set a company record for traffic by recording its millionth visitor in only three months.
“Traffic has been well over our expectation, which would have been about 600,000 at this point,” mall general manager Robert Thurlow told Business in Vancouver October 1.
His company tracks how visitors arrive so he was able to estimate that 40% of the shoppers arrived on the Canada Line. Of the 60% who came in a vehicle, about 10% were from the U.S., said Thurlow, who has his staff do periodic counts of American licence plates in the parking lot.
“The whole centre has amazing circulation,” he said. “We have traffic counters at every store so we can see how many people per day are going into each store. All of the cetnre is being traversed quite evenly. When somebody does come here, they don’t just go to one store or piazza, they’re really doing the loop.”
Tenants filled about 156,000 of the mall’s 240,000 square feet on the July 9 opening day, and 12 more tenants signed leases to open stores in another 60,000 square feet by the end of the year.
Puma opened in August. Children’s wear retailer Carter’s and Corning both opened in September.
The Italian restaurant Bibo is expected to open its second Metro Vancouver location in the mall on October 19.
By the end of the year Sunglass Hut, Brooks Brothers, Escents Aromatherapy, Columbia and others are expected to open.
The mall was a hit since its opening weekend. It set a company record for the best opening weekend when 160,000 people visited in the first four days.
McArthurGlen’s Richmond mall is its first in North America. The company operates 20 other malls in Europe.
