Montreal Eaton Centre facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Montreal Eaton Centre
Mall interior (2016)
Alternative names	Eaton Centre (colloquial name)
General information
Status	Open
Type	Shopping mall office building
Location	705 Saint Catherine Street West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Coordinates	45°30′11″N 73°34′19″W / 45.503°N 73.572°W / 45.503; -73.572
Named for	Eaton's
Opened	1990; 35 years ago (1990)
Owner	Ivanhoé Cambridge
Management	JLL
Technical details
Floor count	5 (mall arcade) 11 (highest number of levels in office building)
Floor area	45,000 square metres (480,000 sq ft) of gross leasable area
Other information
Number of stores	125

The Montreal Eaton Centre is a large shopping mall and office building in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. People often call it simply the Eaton Centre. It got its name from a famous old department store called Eaton's. This mall is one of only two "Eaton Centres" left in Canada, the other being in Toronto.

The Montreal Eaton Centre first opened its doors on November 14, 1990. In 2018, it grew even bigger by joining with a nearby mall called Complexe Les Ailes. Now, both buildings are part of the Montreal Eaton Centre. You can find it at 705 Saint Catherine Street West, and it's easy to reach through Montreal's Underground City. This underground network connects directly to the city's subway system at McGill station.

The shopping part of the Montreal Eaton Centre is huge, covering about 45,000 square meters (484,376 square feet). Above the shops, there are also many offices. Inside the mall, you can see a bronze statue of famous hockey player Ken Dryden. There's also a beautiful three-story artwork made by artist Bernard Séguin Poirier.

A Look Back: The Mall's History

From Les Terrasses to Eaton Centre

The entrance to the Eaton Centre on Saint Catherine Street West in downtown Montreal.

Before the Montreal Eaton Centre, there was another mall on the same spot at 705 Saint Catherine Street West. It was called "Les Terrasses" and was open from 1976 to 1987. This mall was built over an old street, which was removed to make way for the new building.

Les Terrasses had a unique design, like a triangular spiral. Its floors slowly rose, making it feel like you were walking up a gentle ramp to the top. It had 140 stores, all facing the center of the triangle. After only about ten years, Les Terrasses was taken down. A lot of construction happened, and then the Montreal Eaton Centre opened in its place in 1990. Just like Les Terrasses, the new mall was connected to the subway and the Underground City. The Eaton's department store, which the mall was named after, closed in 1999.

The Old Eaton's Building

The Eaton's building in 2013, before it became part of the Montreal Eaton Centre.

The building at 677 Saint Catherine Street West has a long history. It was first built in the early 1900s for a department store called Goodwin's. In 1925, Eaton's bought the building and made it their main store in Montreal. Over the years, it grew much larger with several additions.

A special part of the building was the Eaton's Ninth Floor Restaurant. It had a beautiful Art Deco style, inspired by a fancy dining room on a ship. This building was Montreal's biggest department store for many decades.

After the Eaton's chain closed in 1999, the building was bought by Ivanhoé Cambridge. Between 2000 and 2002, the inside of the building was completely redone, keeping only the outside walls and parts of the ninth floor. It then became a new mall called Complexe Les Ailes. For a while, this new mall was named after its main store, Les Ailes de la Mode. When that store closed in 2016, the mall's name changed again. In 2019, a large sports store called Decathlon moved into the space.

Growing Bigger: Mall Expansion

In 2014, the owners, Ivanhoé Cambridge, announced plans to combine Complexe Les Ailes with the Montreal Eaton Centre. The idea was to make them one big mall. They decided to keep the Montreal Eaton Centre name, bringing the famous Eaton's name back to the building that once housed the original Eaton's department store. Both malls were renovated to have a similar modern look and feel.

Main Stores at the Mall

Here are some of the biggest stores you can find at the Montreal Eaton Centre:

See also

• Eaton Centre
• List of shopping malls in Montreal