Cadillac Fairview on Tuesday celebrated the grand opening of the retail expansion at Sherway Gardens, part of an extensive $550M revamp aimed at helping the top-producing mall capture more of an increasingly wealthy west end market.

Bisnow was there for the ribbon-cutting, and snapped Cadillac Fairview EVP Development Wayne Barwise (wielding the big scissors), with, from left, Sherway GM Andy Traynor, a rep from area MPP Peter Milczyn’s office, local councillor Justin Di Ciano, Toronto deputy mayor Vincent Crisanti, and Cadillac Fairview SVP Finley McEwen. The redevelopment represents the single-largest investment CF's made in an existing property. “It shows the confidence we have in Sherway Gardens,” Andy tells us. “This is about taking one of our top 10 shopping centres in Canada (with 10,500,000 visitors a year) to the next level."

The 210k SF expansion (above) features a new 24k SF Harry Rosen and a relocated 38k SF Sporting Life. There's also a renovated 225k SF Hudson’s Bay. Other big-name brands include Kate Spade New York, Ted Baker London, Undo De 50, Maison Birks and Davids. And the biggest are yet to come—Saks Fifth Avenue opens next February, followed by Nordstrom in 2017. “Retailing is becoming very global,” Wayne tells us. “And our customers are astute—they travel, have access to the Internet—and they’re telling us they want access to more retailers and a greater variety of quality brands. That was the impetus here.”

There’s a new Gourmet Fare food court on the upper level of the north expansion, with 900 seats, double the capacity of the erstwhile eating emporium, which dated to Sherway's 1971 opening. The expansion includes three new “premium-casual” restaurants—Joey's, The Keg and one to come—with rooftop terraces overlooking The Queensway. There’s a new 1,200-car parkade. “Customers have told us there’s never been enough good parking,” Andy says. “So we’ve built three multi-level decks adjacent to the main entrances.” They’ve also just “fired up” a new navigation system that shows via indicator lights which stalls are free.

The grand opening at Sherway coincided with Cadillac Fairview’s announcement that it’s tweaked the names of its 20 shopping centres across Canada in a rebranding effort meant to “link the corporation with a premium shopping experience in the minds of Canadian consumers.” As such, it’s now CF Sherway Gardens (and CF Toronto Eaton Centre and CF Fairview Mall). “We wanted people to know that when they come to a mall, if it’s owned by Cadillac Fairview, they’re going to receive a certain quality of offering and quality of experience,” Wayne explains.

Additions and renos at CF Sherway Gardens will bring the size of the mall at Highway 427 and QEW to 1.3M SF, giving it scale Andy says was needed to capture an affluent market seeking aspirational, luxury brands. “We just didn’t have capacity to hold the stores our customers were looking for.” Arrival of US heavy-hitters Saks and Nordstrom will be a big boon, but don’t sell Canuck retailers short, says Wayne. “What’s great is that these big international retailers recognize the strength of good-quality Canadian retailers, brands like Harry Rosen and Sporting Life, and wanted to be associated with them in the same mall.”