Upper Canada Mall becomes a neighbourhood. Does Newmarket's downtown move?

Upper Canada Mall opened in 1974 at Yonge and Davis and became, without anyone deciding it, the centre of the top half of York Region: the place Aurora, Newmarket, East Gwillimbury and Georgina all drove to. That role is ending the way it is ending for every regional mall: The Bay left in 2025, and Toys “R” Us, Northern Reflections and Torrid have followed.

What replaces it is a neighbourhood. A master plan by MHBC proposes residential and commercial buildings, a street grid, parks and green space around the mall over the next thirty years. Down Yonge, the Mulock estate opened as a park this summer after years of work. East Gwillimbury next door is planning for 128,600 people by 2051. The Yonge corridor is filling in.

Newmarket has had a Main Street since 1801 and it is, by the standards of the region, an unusually good one. The question is whether a town can have a new centre without the old one becoming a museum.

Sources: NewmarketToday, the Upper Canada Mall area master plan · Town of Newmarket, the recommendation report on the master plan · BarrieToday, store closures at Upper Canada Mall · NewmarketToday, East Gwillimbury targets six growth areas