Confederation Mall

Confederation Mall is a 329,128 sq. ft.^[1] shopping mall located at 22nd Street and Circle Drive in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The mall was originally named Confederation Park Plaza when it opened in mid-1973, at which time its anchor tenants were Canada Safeway and Woolco.^{[citation needed]}

Confederation Mall

Confederation Mall Main Entrance
Location	Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Coordinates	52°07′57″N 106°43′17″W
Address	300 Confederation Drive
Opening date	1973
No. of stores and services	42
No. of anchor tenants	4
Total retail floor area	329,128 sq ft (30,577.0 m2)
No. of floors	1
Website	www.confedmall.ca

The mall was originally planned for a location on Saskatoon's east side, at the southwest corner of Clarence Avenue and Circle Drive (site of the present-day Saskatoon Auto Mall), but in May 1972, the Saskatoon City Council rejected the plan, citing community concerns. As a result, the mall's developers looked to build on an alternate site on the city's west side.^[2] However, plans for a mall in the area around what is now Confederation Park had existed at least as early as 1966.^[3][4]

An unusual aspect of the mall is that, around the time construction began on 18 November 1972,^[5] the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, in conjunction with mall developers Trizec Equities Ltd., hosted a "You Name It" contest inviting readers to come up with a name for the mall. A Saskatoon resident won an Air Canada flight to London and $300 for choosing the name "Confederation Park Plaza".^[6]

In 1994, Woolco became Wal-Mart, and around this same time the mall underwent an expansion that added a food court and a new Safeway store; the original Safeway location became part of the food court with the remaining space used for a third anchor tenant, initially a branch of the Family Video home video rental chain, and later Petland. Other stores include clothing stores, electronics, services, florists, banks, and jewelers. ^[7]

In the summer of 2009, a new state of the art Walmart was constructed in a new power centre commercial area in the Blairmore Urban Centre several kilometres west of Confederation Mall; the only Walmart in Saskatoon to house both a McDonald's & a Tim Hortons,(closed in 2022) the one in the mall closed after the 2009 holiday season and in 2010 was renovated to house a Canadian Tire (with Mark's Work Wearhouse) that opened in Spring of 2011 (in turn, the new Canadian Tire replaced a standalone location that had operated in the nearby Plaza 22 shopping centre since the 1970s) and now houses three separate retailers and a fitness centre Fit 4 Less, Dollar Tree, Sport Chek, and a Jysk, The new Canadian Tire and Marks is a standalone, as its connection to the rest of the mall was closed. This resulted in a portion of the mall being reconfigured to house a new anchor, Winners, which is accessed from inside the mall. This was followed by the launch of a major interior renovation to the mall which, as of 2015, was to expand the food court which currently today houses a Tim Hortons & a TacoTime.^[8]

Anchors tenants

• FreshCo since 2020
• Urban Cellars since 2023
• Petland since 2000
• Canadian Tire since 2011
• Winners since 2013
• Anytime Fitness since 2019

Former anchor tenants

• Safeway 1973-2019 (became FreshCo)
• Woolco 1973-1994 (became Walmart)
• Walmart 1994-2010 (relocated to Blairmore)
• Sport Mart 2004-2011
• Family Video (Later VHQ) 1994-2003 (relocated to Fairmont Dr in Fairhaven and has since closed)

See also

• List of shopping malls in Saskatoon
• Confederation Urban Centre, Saskatoon