The Algo Centre Mall (legally Eastwood Mall since 2005 but almost never referred to as such) was a mall and hotel located near Highway 108 in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada. It was the largest commercial complex in the area. When the community was hit by uranium mine closures in the 1990s, the complex gradually refocused, hosting multiple services, such as a library, constituency offices, and public health offices. In the years leading up to 2012, many businesses located in the mall either closed or moved to outside locations. Still, the mall was a community hub, with most of the area's clothing stores and its largest grocery store, employing upwards of 250 local residents. It accounted for 10% of the community's retail space and 6% of the total wages.
The mall was plagued by structural problems and leaks throughout its history. It underwent a partial structural failure on June 23, 2012, when a 12m x 24m (39'-by-79') segment of the rooftop parking deck collapsed into the building, crashing through the upper level lottery kiosk adjacent to the food court and escalators to the ground floor below. Two people died in the collapse and more than 20 people received non-life-threatening injuries. An investigation and class action lawsuits into the collapse are ongoing and the mall has been demolished.
The city of Elliot Lake purchased the vacant former Algo Centre Mall site in 2019, as the first stage in redeveloping the land for new residential and commercial uses."Elliot Lake buys site of former Algo Centre Mall" . Northern Ontario Business, April 18, 2019. Part of the site will be retained by the city as a municipal "community hub" project, while the rest of it will be sold back to residential and commercial developers.
History
Algocen Realty Holdings Ltd., the real estate branch on the Algoma Central Railway, commissioned the Algo Centre Mall project. The project was subsequently approved by the Ontario Municipal Board in 1978, with an estimated cost of $10 million. Construction began in 1979 and the project was finished the next year. The 80-room Algo Inn, the town's largest hotel and retirement residence, was also built into the mall. In its first year, 1980, the mall featured Woolco, Dominion, and Shoppers Drug Mart, and a total of 35 units. A distinctive architectural feature of the building was rooftop parking.
After the closure of the uranium mines in Elliot Lake, in 1990, the revenue prospects of the mall dropped sharply, with no recovery in sight. This prompted the Algoma Central Company to write off over $5 million in lost property value, despite 98% occupancy.
In 1996, a report commissioned by the Town, Downtown Core and Industrial Area Improvements, presented a less-than-favourable assessment of the structure's exterior:
The final owners, Eastwood Incorporated, acquired the company in August 2005 for the price of $6.2 million. This firm, owned by Bob Nazarian, was registered in 1994 as a numbered company. At various points, the company has owned strip malls in Kitchener and London, Ontario. Algo had retained Marino Locations Limited to redevelop the property "to accommodate new specialty retailers and possible new anchor/big-box retailers that are not yet in the market. The possibility for exterior pads also exists on the surrounding lands." (Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd. also performed a redevelopment feasibility study on the mall in late 2010, early 2011; part of the cost was not repaid.) Between August 2005 and June 2012, the mall had a series of five managers.
Zellers received $1 million from the City of Elliot Lake to open.
At some point in the summer of 2008, a location of SAAN, a department store, closed. The Bargain! Shop purchased the brand in August of that year, taking over some leaseholds. In September that year, Mayor Rick Hamilton located his campaign office at the mall. In January 2009, the Elliot Lake Model Railroad Club opened at the local civic centre, moving from the mall. In 2010, a new Shoppers Drug Mart opened away from the mall, more than doubling the unit it had at Algo. The mall was offered for sale in 2010, for $9.9 million, an increase of $3.7 million from the purchase price five years prior. In 2011, the hotel office was victim of a break-and-enter, with an attempt to do the same at Zellers.
The mall hosted car shows, charity head shavings, antique appraisals, promotions for community events,. Elliot Lake Standard. an annual rocking chair marathon for charity, amongst other community events.
Despite the centre's issues, it remained a community hub; the mayor notes that it was the social centre of the community, and residents would visit weekly, and in some cases daily.
Structural problems By 1990, the mall was already regularly plagued with leaks and water damage.
The Elliot Lake Standard reported in 2008 on "greater than normal" leaks causing damages to multiple units. Starlight Cafe closed permanently, despite being profitable soon after opening, as customers would occasionally need umbrellas to stand at the take-out counter. Drip-tarps installed by the mall in the kitchen of the restaurant were ineffective. The cafe owner was not made aware of the leaks before starting her lease in 2007, and was successful in a lawsuit against the owner. Scotiabank had closed for a few weeks in 2008 as a precaution. (Scotiabank began construction on a new location in July 2011, to replace their mall location.) Some businesses suggested that additional leaks started after the new owner started repairs to the roof. Tenants noticed a reduced amount of traffic after leaks started, and buckets were scattered throughout the mall.
In 2009, leaks in the mall roof and mould caused Elliot Lake city councillors to consider moving the Elliot Lake Public Library out of the mall and back to the Solomon Building, where it had been before 1992. Many books were damaged, despite library staff using tarps to cover shelves. At some points, entire sections were blocked for public health reasons. Much of the leaking was said to be corrected, before council considered the issue, and an environmental study was completed. Some library board members and councillors worried that liability insurance wouldn't cover them in the mall, despite reassurances by library management and the city's insurance broker. With a multi-use complex in the works, some of the library board was concerned with a five-year lease that mall management was pursuing, despite the library's preference for a 2½-year lease. In the end, the library remained at the mall.
Some tenants suggest that mall business owners were said to not be vocal about their disappointments, unless "water is dripping right on their head (or) if the water is destroying their business"; conversely, one previous mall manager suggests he was called daily by tenants about the issue, before 2008 repairs started. The owner was aware of the mall's roof problems when purchasing the facility, and suggested there would be renovations to the mall, but would not commit to a date for completing roof repairs or interior upgrades. Over $1 million was spent in an attempt to repair the roof. Architect John Clinckett of Kitchener was hired to oversee the project; Canadian Construction Controls of Breslau declined to bid to install a membrane created by Carlisle Syntec Systems. Taking issue with the $1-million cost, Nazarian cancelled the project, hiring Peak Restoration; only a fraction of Peak's $823,657 worth of work was paid for, and the lien expired in 2010. The mall manager left soon after, in summer 2008, suggesting that he believes mall maintenance staff were set to repair the roof. In spite of the issues, the mall would use the roof for events. In 2011 and 2012, it served as the site for the Heart and Stroke Foundation's Big Bike ride.
In June 2011, a piece of concrete fell through the ceiling at a mall restaurant, Hungry Jack's. Reports were filed with the mall manager and the city, with an inspector scheduled to visit two weeks following the incident. The inspector did not show, and mall management did not reply. Hungry Jack's is near to the eventual mall roof collapse. Mall owners continued repair and maintenance work in 2012, spending $120,000 into repairs within the 12-month period leading up to June 2012. An engineering and structural study "turned up nothing", according to the mall manager. Even after the repair, there were photos of serious interior damage to the mall's roof. A local plumber that had done work for the mall suggested there was obvious signs of water damage, eight months before the collapse. In March 2012, the mall management pleaded guilty in provincial court, after their fire alarms and sprinklers did not meet code. The mall spent $50,000 to upgrade the infrastructure to avoid further fines. The process included adding a new roof to the hotel, gutting the second and third floors, including the hotel lounge.
The problem was very obvious to residents of the town. During the press conference announcing the class-action lawsuit, a resident suggested that some residents had placed "bets" on when the building would collapse. Ontario's Ministry of Labour visited the mall six times in the three years before the collapse.
Pinchin Ltd. issued an "unequivocal" report attesting to the soundness of the structure and deemed the corrosion "not of structural significance."
At the 2013 inquest into the roof collapse (see #Government reaction below), testimony has revealed that many unpublicized structural problems at the mall dated all the way back to its initial construction in the late 1970s."'Sloppy' construction of Elliot Lake mall worried engineer". Toronto Star, March 6, 2013. In particular, the expansion joint above the escalators, the failure of which appears to have caused the roof deck collapse, was already not properly binding to the concrete, in turn allowing water to seep into the building's seams, as early as 1981—barely a year after the mall's original opening."Collapsed mall plagued by faulty expansion joint". CBC News, March 13, 2013. The expansion joint was fixed many times, and fully replaced twice, during the building's lifetime, yet always began tearing away from the concrete again shortly after the repairs were complete.
2012 roof collapse
At approximately 2:20 pm EDT (1820 GMT) on Saturday, June 23, 2012, part of a 12m x 24m (39'-by-79') segment of the parking deck/roof collapsed at the Algo Centre Mall, sending metal and concrete debris crashing down through two floors of the shopping centre resulting in the deaths of two people and injuring more than 20 people.
Soon after the collapse, the owners arrived at the mall. A representative spoke on behalf of the owner, stating "I'd rather not [comment], because we have talked to our lawyers and we're going to be in the City Hall to represent ourselves. But nevertheless, we are very much concerned [about] this accident."One confirmed dead after roof collapse in Elliot Lake . The Globe and Mail, June 24, 2012.At least 9 unaccounted for after Ontario mall roof collapse . Victoria Times-Colonist, June 24, 2012.
By approximately 4:00 pm, local authorities alerted the Commissioner of Community Safety, Dan Hefkey. Hefkey called the Toronto-based Heavy Urban Search and Rescue (HUSAR) at 9 pm. The HUSAR crew, after assembling their equipment and travelling the 540 kilometres from Toronto, arrived by 4:25 am Sunday, June 24, and immediately began work.
After initial assessments, the HUSAR team felt they had the proper equipment for the mission. In the early hours of Monday morning, June 25 – and despite discovering signs of life – rescue work was suspended due to the danger of additional concrete falling on the potential survivors and the HUSAR rescuers.