Shop till you drop at Vaughan Mills as expansion opens

Yorkregion.com
Oct. 31, 2014
By Tim Kelly

There’s now a whole lot more of Vaughan Mills to shop till you drop in.

The massive mega mall held the grand opening of its 200,000-square-foot, $87-million expansion Oct. 23 as hundreds of delighted shoppers waited eagerly to get in and start hunting for fresh new deals.

Stephen Gascoigne, general manager of Vaughan Mills, was excited to talk about the new development at the now 1.2 million-square-foot mall.

“We have 50 new retailers and some first-to-market retailers such as Charming Charlie, a Doctor Martin’s outlet, a Jack and Jones outlet.”

“We also have new experiential elements, too, the new digital lounge with 18 different monitors of various sizes and interactive capabilities for photo-capture for magazine covers; 12 large screen monitors in our sports core where you can sit back and enjoy some live sporting events and an amazing, awe-inspiring event court,” said Gascoigne.

He talked about how the mall at Rutherford Road and Jane Street has been renovated and how the food court will be redone in 2015.

“If you liked Vaughan Mills before, you’re going to love it now,” said Gascoigne.

Patient customers who were excited to get in and shop in the new area had to wait a bit while executives from Vaughan Mills parent company, Ivanhoe Cambridge and local dignitaries spoke about the opening.

Robert Jymfi of Toronto said outside that he was going to the new Nike outlet for some Air Jordans at “no special price, just restocking some limited shoes.”

And Trudy Taitt came all the way from Pickering to “just get some kid stuff for soccer and new shoes for me.”
John Stanton, founder of the Running Room, was on hand to welcome the 124th store in the North American chain.

The 66-year-old was excited about the new expansion and said, “Vaughan is a great area for running, a lot of young professionals live in the area, like the lifestyle and run up here. This area draws not just from Vaughan but all the way up to Barrie and Muskoka.”