Honeydale Mall is a community shopping mall

Shopping mall

A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...

 located in Eatonville

Eatonville, Toronto

Eatonville is a neighbourhood in the Etobicoke community of the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located west of the area known as Islington, Eatonville is bisected by Highway 427, with the community generally located north of Dundas Street West and south of Rathburn Road...

 (part of the former Borough of Etobicoke), Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, at the intersection of Dundas Street and The East Mall Crescent (the latter being a link connecting the grade-separated roads, The East Mall and Dundas Street).

It opened in 1973 with a supermarket anchor, a Woolco

Woolco

Woolco was an American-based discount retail chain. It was founded in 1962 in the city of Columbus, Ohio, by the F.W. Woolworth Company. It was a full-line discount department store unlike the five-and-dime Woolworth stores which operated at the time. At its peak, Woolco had hundreds of stores in...

 department store, and a short enclosed mall. In 1994, Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Canada

Wal-Mart Canada Corp. is the Canadian unit of Walmart and was founded in 1994 in Mississauga, Ontario with the purchase of the Canadian Woolco stores from Woolworth Canada....

 took over the Woolco location and remained in the mall until 2003.

The mall has declined

Dead mall

A dead mall or greyfield is a shopping mall with a high vacancy rate or a low consumer traffic level, or that is dated or deteriorating in some manner. Many malls in the United States are considered "dead" when they have no surviving anchor store or successor that could serve as an entry into or...

 since Walmart's departure, has many vacancies, and has been described as being on "death row". In 2007, The Bay

The Bay

The Bay is a chain of 91 department stores that operate across parts of Canada. It is the main brand of Hudson's Bay Company , North America's oldest company. It has its headquarters in the Simpson Tower in Toronto. In French, the chain is known as la Baie, short for "Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson"...

 Furniture Outlet opened inside the mall, and then a flea market. But soon, both stores were gone because of low traffic. A clearance warehouse opened temporarily, but was closed within two months.

In May 2009, it contained two anchor stores; (a No Frills

No Frills (grocery store)

No Frills is a chain of deep discount supermarkets in Canada, owned by Loblaw Companies Limited, a subsidiary of George Weston Limited...

 supermarket and a flea market) and a restaurant and dental office.

Azuria Group, the owner of Honeydale, has allowed the property to decline and it attempted to pursue high density residential redevelopment options which may include land for a new subway station. However, the application has stalled as the city of Toronto has required Azuria to do studies on the project.

Reasons for decline

Honeydale Mall was one of the numerous post-World War II small neighbourhood community malls that were built in the inner suburbs of Toronto where residential neighbourhoods were growing. All of these community plazas were strip malls with one or two anchors, and most of these fared poorly by the 1990s, as shopping trends changed to power centres anchored by big-box store

Big-box store

A big-box store is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store...

s. The one exception to this was Bayview Village Shopping Centre

Bayview Village Shopping Centre

Bayview Village Shopping Centre is an upscale shopping mall in the North York area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, catering to affluent customers and containing over 110 stores. The shopping mall is located at Bayview Avenue and Sheppard Avenue in the community of Willowdale, and neighbourhood of...

, which was largely comparable to Honeydale until the 1990s. Unlike Honeydale, the owners of Bayview Village frequently overhauled the property to keep up with current trends, and found high-end independent boutiques not available in larger malls. Bayview Village is located in the affluent area of Willowdale

Willowdale, Toronto

Willowdale is an established, affluent community in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located in the district of North York. It was originally called Lansing, which is now the name of a nearby neighbourhood....

 where significant condominium development has enabled it to thrive despite being close to the larger Fairview Mall

Fairview Mall

Fairview Mall is a major shopping centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada of about 80,000 m² , located at the northeast corner of Don Mills Road and Sheppard Avenue in the former borough of North York...

.

Near to where Dundas Street crosses The East Mall is Cloverdale Mall. Both Honeydale and Cloverdale are in the shadow of the considerably larger and affluent Sherway Gardens

Sherway Gardens

Sherway Garden is a large shopping mall located in Etobicoke with over 200 stores. It is located on the south-east intersection of The Queensway and The West Mall in the west end of the city on the Mississauga border...

. Although Cloverdale is only a mid-size retail centre, it has nonetheless managed to thrive as it maintains four anchor stores and it had a major renovation in 2003-04. By contrast the owners of Honeydale have been reluctant to spend money to keep the mall competitive since the departure of Wal-Mart, instead attempting to rezone the land for sale or a condo development.

Former stores

• Walmart, 1994-2003
• Woolco, closed in 1994
• Bank of Montreal
  Bank of Montreal
  The Bank of Montreal , , or BMO Financial Group, is the fourth largest bank in Canada by deposits. The Bank of Montreal was founded on June 23, 1817 by John Richardson and eight merchants in a rented house in Montreal, Quebec. On May 19, 1817 the Articles of Association were adopted, making it...
  
  , closed In 2007
• Golden Griddle restaurant, closed in 2008
• Hair salon, closed
• Diner, closed
• Shoe store, closed