Rockland Centre

Rockland Centre first opened in August 1959[2] with Steinberg's, Morgan's, Woolworth's, Holt Renfrew, United Cigars and 35-40 other tenants.[3][4]

The original Rockland Centre was a non-linear outdoor shopping centre covered on the sidewalk.[5] It was the first shopping centre in the province to bring the "mall" concept, meaning a central corridor in the form of an esplanade surrounded by boutiques on each side.[2] It was primarily a single-level mall, but Morgan's had three floors (when counting its basement). Rockland Centre was built on what used to be a golf course.[6] It was designed by architect Victor Prus, and commissioned by Morgan's and Steinberg's.[7][5]

Some of the tenants of the original centre included Reitmans, Laura Secord Chocolates, Browns Shoes and Bank of Montreal.[8]

Morgan's rebranded as The Bay on June 19, 1972.[9][10]

By 1982, Rockland Centre was in steady decline due to the emergence of newer shopping centres.[6] Its 80 tenants had their sales decreased by a third in the last decade.[6]

Rockland Centre began on April 23, 1982 a major renovation at the cost of 68 million $ to transform itself into the upscale shopping mall it is today.[11] The majority of the original shopping centre was demolished. Only Steinberg's, The Bay and a handful of small tenants (e.g., Bank of Montreal) were spared from the demolition. The Bay temporarily closed its store on January 15, 1983 for renovation with the intent of reopening in August 1983 with the new mall.[12]

Rockland reopened as a three level fully enclosed mall on August 24, 1983 anchored by The Bay, Eaton's, Steinberg's and Holt Renfrew.[13][14] The Eaton's store was built in the place of the demolished boutiques from the old shopping centre, at 139,000 square feet and making a fifth of the size of the new mall.[13] The Bay reopened in a new building of 153,000 square feet, larger and adjacent to its former location, but with two floors instead of three. The Bay's original building was converted into mall space and its basement was turned into a food court. Holt Renfrew inaugurated a new store of 25 000 square feet; its largest at the time in a shopping mall.[14] The Cumberland pharmacy doubled its size, while fitness chain Nautilus (known today as Nautilus Plus) opened its largest location at 14 000 square feet.[14] Linen-Chest moved to the mall its original store that had been located since 1961 on Queen Mary Road in the Snowdon neighbourhood.[15][13]

A multi-level parking lot was built on the north side between The Bay and Eaton's during the transformation of the shopping centre. Rockland Centre increased its size at 800,000 square feet and its number of tenants to 175 stores as a result of these renovations.[13][16]

Steinberg's, one of the last tenants from 1959, became a Metro in 1992.[17][18]

Metro closed the store in 1999.[17] Today the space is shared between Pharmaprix, Société des alcools du Québec and a relocated Bank of Montreal.

Eaton's closed shop in 1999.

The existing Linen-Chest store doubled its size by relocating into the first floor of Eaton's in December 2001.[19] The rest of the first floor of Eaton's went to Laura.[20] As of 2018, the size of the Linen-Chest store has been reduced to half of what it was following a massive renovation that caused it to be temporarily closed for three months, while Laura relocated elsewhere in the mall as a regular boutique.[20][21] An IGA supermarket will open in those vacant spaces during Spring 2020.[22][17][23]

The second floor of Eaton's was initially taken over by Sports Experts. In 2005, the Sports Experts store was moved to the vacant food court area on the basement (The Bay's until 1983). In a swap of locations, the food court was moved to the second floor where Sports Experts had been (and which had been Eaton's second floor). Almost 15 years later, the food court was closed for many months in 2018 to undergo a major renovation.[24] This food court was rechristened "La Cuisine" on March 13, 2019.[25] Also located within the second floor of the former Eaton's store is a Renaud-Bray bookstore which opened on October 4, 2018.[26][27] The aforementioned second floor used to have a H&M store which has since closed and is now vacant.[20][21]

Although revitalized into mall space in 1983, the exterior of the old Morgan's/The Bay building can still been seen to this day from the multi-level parking lot.

The mall was the filming location in 1992 for the episode "Tale of the Pinball Wizard" from the children's horror/fantasy television show Are You Afraid of the Dark?.