Midtown Plaza welcomes new era with opening of food hall

Hungry shoppers at Midtown Plaza celebrated Thursday morning as the mall opened its new food court to the public.

Called a food hall rather than a food court, the new Midtown Common grand opening symbolizes a new era for the aging mall that was built in 1968 — when TCU Place, the YMCA and the Sid Buckwold Bridge opened to the public.

“It was an exciting new era for Saskatoon 51 years ago … here we are 51 years later, kicking off a revitalization for the downtown for the next century,” Mayor Charlie Clark said when he spoke to a collection of Midtown management and business people gathered at the grand opening ceremony.

Located on the second level at the south edge of the mall, the new space features a more wide-open concept, with sunlight entering the mall from a window wall on the west side of the building.

“I can’t believe this used to be Sears,” Clark said. “It is incredible. It looks like a complete transformation, both from the inside and from the outside.”

(From left to right ) Attorney General Don Morgan, Mayor Charlie Clark and Midtown Plaza general manager Terry Napper join together for the first bites of food at Midtown Common. (Keenan Sorokan/650 CKOM)

While many people walking through the mall see a new, clean place to grab a bite between shopping, Clark sees much more.

“It’s really taking a 20th century mall and moving it to become a 21st century mall,” he said. “When they built Midtown Plaza in 1968, it was a major revitalization move for the downtown… And now, here we are 51 years later on the next stage of revilitilization of the downtown.”

Some of the food hall’s first customers agreed with Clark’s assessment of the mall entering a new stage in its development.

“I really like how modern this one is, it’s really nice. It has a really nice face lift — all the natural sunlight that we didn’t have before,” Echo Roberts said after grabbing a drink.

“We were just saying how it feels like we’re in a different province right now. It’s really high-end, really on trend with how industrial everything looks,” Tyler Saysiz said of the new modern appeal of the food mall.

Like Clark, Roberts thinks an update to one of downtown’s most common meeting places is a sign of things to come.

“I like that we’re getting higher up, like we’re not stuck in old Saskatchewan anymore. We’re starting to get more big city with the new bridges and stuff, so it’s really nice Saskatoon is able to do this,” she said.

Midtown Common has 15 different restaurants for hungry shoppers, many of which were stalwarts of the previous food court. Newcomers include Pi Co.,  a Neapolitan pizza restaurant, and Bourbon Street Grill.

Midtown Plaza’s new food hall is located on the second floor of the south end of the building, where Sears used to be. (Keenan Sorokan/650 CKOM)

By April 2020, Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) is expected to open in the mall right next to Midtown Common to finish the reconfiguration going on at the south end of the mall.

MEC will change the way shoppers experience Midtown Plaza as its entrance will face Idylwyld Drive, meaning the new food hall will not be instantly accessible from any mall entrance.

Updating the mall to modern standards in a time where the online marketplace has made shopping malls less and less relevant doesn’t create any doubt in Clark’s mind.

“Talking to the owners and the people involved in the project, this is one of the only malls across the country where they’re making this reinvestment right now,” Clark said. “They see that even with the challenge of online retailing, that there is opportunity in Saskatoon because of a lot of the other developments going on, and because of the strong history Midtown Plaza has.”