Royalmount — Montreal’s new 824,000-square-foot “luxury” shopping mall — officially opened its doors on September 5, bringing a slew of high-end stores, restaurants, green spaces, and art installations to the city.

Spearheaded by real estate development and management company Carbonleo, the $7 billion Royalmount mega-mall complex houses a total of 170+ stores (50% of which are brand new to Quebec or stores with never-seen-before concepts) and 60+ cafés and restaurants. It’s eventually expected to include a VIP movie house, REC room, arts and entertainment events and much more.

For those wondering which stores and brands are available at the new Royalmount mall, you can read all about it here. With so much excitement surrounding the opening, many might be wondering just how they can access the new mall. Turns out, you can get to Royalmount in a few different ways.

The Wishing Bear Art Piece by Catherine Dong (Photo credit to Geminy Agency. Art from Catherine Dong) (CNW Group/Royalmount)

The 200-metre enclosed skybridge, which connects De La Savane metro station with the Royalmount mall, passes directly over the Décarie Expressway, and is equipped with stairs and escalators, making it an easy trip for those travelling with baby strollers or bikes.

“This important extension of Montreal’s infrastructure will help facilitate travel to Royalmount and between neighbourhoods while encouraging sustainable and active mobility in our amazing city,” Carbonleo said.
Many came by métro, walking to the mall via the glass-enclosed $50-million skyway that was so bright it somehow managed to make the perennially clogged Décarie Expressway coursing below look attractive.

Gawkers started arriving at 8:30 a.m., even though stores didn’t open till 10, wandering through the wide concourses bathed in natural light via massive skylights. Families with children in strollers took pictures in front of the 20-foot-high Wishing Bear sculpture by local artist Chun Hua Catherine Dong, while at the Fou Fou food court, diners lined up at higher-end restaurants not normally found in a mall food court and sought out tables located indoors and at outdoor terraces.

While many of the high-end luxury stores like Gucci, Balenciaga and Louis Vuitton still had “opening soon” signs out front, others like Versace were welcoming customers, and mid-brand stores like Aldo and a massive Sports Experts were doing brisk business. Roughly 50 per cent of the stores were open, a number projected to rise to 75 per cent by Christmas.

“This is the vision of an entrepreneur who knew the area and who basically said, ‘Hey, this is what Montreal needs,” Salvo said. “We need to stop thinking that this city is falling behind. We need to tap ourselves on the back and say, ‘Hey, we could do this.’

Asked whether the city can support a grouping of high-end stores, Kyriakos noted that Holt Renfrew recently underwent a large expansion that has proven successful. “That shows it can work,” she said.

For others, the appeal was all about the space. Tiffany Brotto of St-Laurent came with her nine-month-old daughter, Lily, and two-year-old son, Alexandre, because her mother and father wanted to see it. “It’s so bright, and so nice,” she said. “We’re definitely coming back in the winter.”