West Edmonton Mall (WEM), located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, is the largest shopping mall in North America and the tenth largest in the world (along with The Dubai Mall) by gross leasable area. It was the world's largest mall until 2004. The mall was founded by the Ghermezian brothers, who emigrated from Iran in 1959. West Edmonton Mall covers a gross area of about 490,000 m2 (5,300,000 sq ft). There are over 800 stores and services in the compound, and parking for more than 20,000 vehicles. More than 24,000 people are employed at the property. The mall receives ~32 million visitors per year; it attracts between 90,000 and 200,000 shoppers daily, depending on the day and season. The mall was valued at CAN $926 million in January 2007.
West Edmonton Mall first opened its doors to the public on 15 September 1981. The mall was developed in four phases, completed in 1981, 1983, 1985 and 1999. It was the largest indoor shopping centre in the world until 2004, and was named such in the Guinness Book of Records. The four phases of construction are used in a colour-coded system as a guideline for finding stores and attractions. The Mindbender indoor roller coaster had a fatal accident on 14 June 1986 when several of the cars came loose and came off the track. Three people died and one was injured in the accident.
In the early 1990s, the Woodward's department store chain, one of WEM's anchors, went bankrupt, and its locations were purchased by the Hudson's Bay Company. As a result, WEM boasted two full Bay department stores until the late 1990s when the company closed the store that had replaced Woodward's, leading to a renovation (known as Phase IV) that added a Famous Players multiplex, a two-floor HMV location, which is complete with an HMV stage, which has played hosts to autograph signings for bands, Hollywood celebrities and World Wrestling Entertainment superstars, a $12.6 million Playdium entertainment complex/arcade (now closed), an indoor shooting range, a Chapters bookstore with a Starbucks, and several other smaller stores. In 2005, the upstairs space previously occupied by Playdium was rented by three NewCap Radio stations: 790 CFCW, K-97 97.3 (Formerly, 97.3 K-Rock), and 96.3 Capital FM (formerly 96.3 Big Earl). The downstairs area was at one point partially used as a paintball playing area, but is now vacant. In 2007, the Famous Players multiplex, formerly known as Silver City, was renamed Scotiabank Theatre.
The closures of Canadian Tire and IKEA in the mid-1990s left vacancies that sat unfilled until the spaces were converted into a T & T Supermarket in 2002, and an entertainment complex called Ed's Rec Room that consists of a billiard hall, bowling alley and nightclub, respectively. Among the stores that are only found in Edmonton at WEM are DeSerres along with others. On 11 July 2004, the mall suffered millions of dollars in damage when a severe storm of hail and rain caused roofs to fail and drains to overflow. The Ice Palace and surrounding sections were the most damaged, and the World Waterpark had a sewage overflow. The damage was promptly repaired. The Ice Palace has suffered occasional flood damage as well.
In the summer of 2009, the mall's dinner theatre was relocated and Edmonton's second branch of Bed, Bath and Beyond opened in the dinner theatre's old location above the west-end food court. In August 2010, Victoria's Secret opened their first Canadian store in the mall. La Maison Simons opened a 115,000 sq ft (10,700 m2) store in the mall on 31 October 2012, its first outlet outside of Quebec. The construction of the Simons store resulted in HMV reducing its second-floor footprint.
In early February 2014, Sportchek opened an 80,000-square-foot (7,400 m2) flagship store in the old Edmonton Event Centre location in West Edmonton Mall. The new Sportchek features 800 display screens. Zellers closed in 2012 and was replaced by Target which later closed in 2015. Currently the mall and Fantasyland Hotel employs more than 1,500 people.
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