CALGARY – CrossIron Mills, the out-of-town megamall, will be absent a second Day 1 anchor tenant, with the Indigo book superstore not ready for the grand opening next Wednesday, mall general manager James Moller said today.
Last week, developer Ivanhoe Cambridge announced that the Holt Renfrew shelved its plans for an outlet store in the mall north of Calgary. Unlike the high-end fashion chain, Chapters/Indigo still has definite plans to open once they’re ready, Moller said.
The more than 200 other shopping stores at CrossIron will be ready to go for the mall’s first big day, he added.
In anticipation of a crush of traffic in those early days — with 70,000 shoppers expected on the Wednesday and up to 90,000 on the weekend — the mall has begun telling Albertans to consider avoiding Highway 2 to get to the mall, even though the mall is prominently situated right off the expressway. CrossIron’s website suggests Calgarians take Centre Street or out-of-town range roads north to the mall’s Township Road 262.
Based on experiences at the 2004 opening of the similar Vaughan Mills mall north of Toronto, police and mall officials are predicting bottlenecks on the Queen Elizabeth II highway, and will focus extra police and security staff to limit problems.
jmarkusoff@theherald.canwest.com
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