# Intercity Shopping Centre

Intercity Shopping Centre is a shopping mall in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. It was one of the first shopping malls in Thunder Bay and is the largest of its kind in Northwestern Ontario, with 456,430 square feet (42,404 m$^2$) of retail space.
Originally, Intercity was built as a strip mall in 1982. However, in the 1990s, the entire Intercity site was redesigned. The strip mall was demolished and a more modern mall was constructed. Since then, the mall has seen various anchor stores and changes over the years. Today, it is Thunder Bay’s dominant shopping mall.

## Description

The mall is located in the middle of Thunder Bay, in the heart of the Intercity Neighbourhood. The mall is surrounded by the Harbour Expressway to the North, Fort William Road on the east, Isabel Street to the south, and Memorial Avenue to the west. By the main entrance, Thunder Bay Transit has a 2-platform bus hub, served by routes 1, 3M, 8, 9, and 12 when the mall is open.
The mall is home to dozens of shops. Shops range from clothing shops, to hair salons, to electronic shops, and more. The main entrance (on Fort William Road) leads to the food court on the south side of the mall. In addition, there is a second floor on the north side of the mall. This second floor is called the Office Galleria, and is home to several offices situated within the mall.

### Anchor Stores

Today, there are 4 anchor stores within Intercity Shopping Centre. At the very south, is Dollarama. It has two entrances: one from Fort William Road, and the other from the mall. The southwest corner has Urban Planet, which can only be accessed by the mall. The west side of the mall is home to Sportchek, the only original anchor store remaining. It can be accessed from Memorial Avenue, or from the mall’s food court. At the very north, is Marshalls, accessible from the mall or Fort William Road.
The southernmost anchor store was originally Zellers from the opening of Intercity Mall until January 2013, when Zellers closed permanently. Renovations to this part of the mall began immediately, and a new Target store opened on 16 July 2013. Zellers and Target, both also had a third entrance at the corner of Memorial Avenue and Isabel Street. Like most Target stores in Canada, the Intercity location closed on 1 April 2015. In August 2016, Lowe's had renovated this spot in the mall and was one of the mall's anchor for several years. This location of Lowe’s had a garden centre on the west side of the store, and used the Memorial-Isabel entrance as their contractor’s entrance. In 2020, Lowe’s closed their Thunder Bay location and the south anchor was empty until Dollarama opened a store in the eastern half of the space in 2022. Thunder Bay Public Library intends on using the other half of the space to create a central library.
At the north end of the mall, Sears was the tenant of a 2-storey anchor store. They sold clothing and footwear on the lower level while furniture and home decor were sold on the upper level. Other than Thunder Bay Airport, Sears was the only other place in Thunder Bay to have escalators. There were three entrances, one from the mall, second from Fort William Road, and the third facing the Harbour Expressway. Finally, Sears Canada closed down in 2018, resulting in the closure of the Thunder Bay location too. Subsequently, Marshall’s moved into the space after renovations. However, Marshall’s is only occupying a fraction of the first floor, leaving the second storey of Sears and the northernmost space from Sears abandoned.
The southwest anchor store formerly was HomeSense. It relocated to Thunder Centre on the opposite side of Fort William Road on 20 March 2018. Following their relocation, Urban Planet has been located in that space. Sportchek, on the west side of the mall, is the only original anchor store that has not been changed.

### Food Court

The main entrance (Entrance 1) on Fort William Road leads into a passage that leads to the food court. The food court leads to several fast food restaurants that serve the mall. They include:
* A&W
* Feta & Olives
* Manchu Wok
* Subway
* Sheffield Express
* Sam’s Kitchen
* Tim Hortons
* TacoTime
* New York Fries
Rocky Mountain Chocolates is located on the north side of the mall instead. Freshly Squeezed used to be located in the centre of the food court but has since moved to a larger location in the middle of the mall.
The food court has a recycling and composting program. Instead of using garbage bins, all food waste is to be brought to a tray station in the centre. Customers bring their trash to the station and staff will sort recycling and compost and dispose of them sustainably.

## Thunder Bay Public Library

Thunder Bay Public Library has shown an interest in acquiring space from the former Lowe’s space and making their central library. Currently, they have two main libraries located in the core of the two former cities of Port Arthur and Fort William. The creation of the Intercity library would see the consolidation of these libraries as the main library, leaving them to become neighborhood branches, much like County Fair and Mary J.L. Black branches are today. Currently, this development is in the consultation phase.