New Horizon - What Happened to Calgary’s $200 million Dead Mall 

2:29 Sweet, that's MY store! I have to say that videos like this do no favours for anyone. Portraying the mall as dead and creepy instead of showing what actually IS here - like the multiple isles that ARE full - builds on the narrative of it being dead at the expense of everyone who actually operates a store here. It might appeal to certain people with a morbid fascination in empty spaces, but it might help us out a bit more to come on a weekend and show the collector toy store, the board game store, the Japanese vintage and import video game store, the guy that paints Heavy Metal t-shirts, the British food shop, the card and model shop behind mine, my shop, the soap store across from me, and all those places you DIDN'T show.

This mall is a huge success ... for the developers. They took the money and ran with it.

Okay, I’m being 100% serious here…. I’ve lived in Calgary for 11 years now. And this is seriously the 1st time I can remember hearing about this mall.

Most spots were purchased by rich foreigners looking to stash their money outside their home countries. They didn't care about renting space out. And the appeal was owning your space. If you just rented, why not rent at Cross Iron, Chinook, etc.? It's a failure as a mall, but successful at laundering money for Chinese billionaires.

I live about 10 minutes from this mall and always assumed it was strange that someone would open a mall right next Cross Iron. Told my wife that it was likely some sort of fraudulent activity. funny to see I wasn't very far off.

It had nothing to do with shoppers not coming, all you have to do is look next door at cross iron to see retail activity is still very high in Calgary. The problem was many and or most of the units were bought by speculators, who turned around and tried to turn a profit on rent. Only problem was they took away a huge part of the incentive of opening up there, and cheaper commercial space was available IN town. Demand never developed from a store operator standpoint, and here we all. There should have been contract items in the purchase agreement that the space was going to be owner occupied and at LEAST a business plan presented, provided it wasn't a larger known entity. The sales people are what killed this mall.

I'm a frequent patron of New Horizon because of Bento Gaming. The interesting thing I've noticed because of that is that stores you'd typically only see at Calgary Comic Expo or Otafest are actually thriving and expanding in New Horizon. A good example of that being Bento Games which now has two stalls for the store and one for card tournaments and the local Gundam model community to meetup. I don't know if it's the be all end all solution to the occupant problem, but I think getting more of these niche stores into New Horizon might be the fix for encouraging growth. I wouldn't be surprised to see a comic shop open up there in the near future.

I was looking at opening up an outlet here -- once I realized that property developers and speculators purchased most of the stalls i knew the mall would fail. the only way this type of small shop mall works is if the small stalls are owned by individual shop owners who have a vested interest in being there every day. This was a failure of the developers who took the easy way out by selling to speculators.

Greed destroyed it. It was supposed to model the one in Ontario. but they sold to realtors and investors instead of store owners. Sad

I told my sister in the U.S. about this mall, it was hard to describe just how hauntingly abandoned it is. Now I have this video to share with her. I have personally been there only one time and it was probably the last time I really want to go there. The general description in this video is extremely accurate, in my humble opinion. Its a fine place to go for a laugh at the hubris and lack of foresight by the developers, but little else.

I'm from Toronto and I can tell you why it didn't succeed. Lack of population. The one in Toronto is in an area that is largely Chinese, plus the population of the GTA alone is more than the entire population of Alberta.

It always seemed like a scam or money laundering scheme. Isn’t the first principal of retail success: location, location, location. I actually couldn’t believe it when I first heard about this project, given that Cross Iron Mills was already there and CMI never actually seemed all that busy the few times I was willing to drive up there only to look around Bass Pro Shop. It’s just another stupid mall, too far for most people and empty to boot. I feel bad for the folks who bet their life savings on it.

Too bad it can't be turned into a medical facility/seniors living facility. Add a few stores and dining/coffee shops for them. Convert part of it into a kind of courtyard that resembles outdoors. Add a fitness spot and a few activity areas. Think of the great indoor walking opportunity. Pity our country or a private company would not take on that project.

Years ago I went to China and went into a few malls there and they seem to have a very warehouse-like or barn-like design, when I was visiting my cousin in Calgary we went to Cross Iron Mills then we wanted to check this place out after out of curiosity and immediately I got this Chinese mall vibe from this place. This place stinks of a money laundering scheme for some very rich people and the 1-2 stores being in there to keep it going.

New Horizons is a perfect example of everyone wanting to be the landlord and nobody wanting to be the worker.

I've been there for like 20 minutes. (In June 2022) I wanted to leave right away honestly, the vibe was so weird/dead there. Exactly what you saw in the video. I really recommend visiting the Cross Iron Mills mall, it is like a 8 min walk from the New Horizon mall :)

This mall reminds me exactly of a similar disaster in Toronto, “Improve Canada”. A home improvement centre with miles of empty glass cubicles, and the ones that were occupied were appointment only. Similar condo style ownership. Still seems to be in business though. Both these places smell like a laundromat for dirty money.

This reminds me of Art Central (Jubilee Block) in Downtown Calgary. The owner was the landlord, so we didn't own the units, but the churn was high, the rent was high, and people were taken advantage of during a time when lease space availability in Calgary was at an all-time low. Not to mention that artists are easily taken advantage of because we are always looking for opportunities to show our work and/or open little businesses. Excellent public access with the train just next door but bad parking. Management was a nightmare to deal with. Lease rates were outrageous. They were billing some of us for utilities which weren't even metered yet they claimed there was metering. When we moved out, they tried collecting "metered utilities" from the deposit rather than giving us any money back even though the space was cleaned and painted professionally. Half the tenants were behind on rent for years and the rest of us were paying. Favoritism was rampant with some of the tenants paying less than others or not at all. No customers, people walked through the +15 from office to the train without stopping. There are plenty of landlords who take advantage of people in Calgary... Art Central (Jubilee Block) is now the Telus Sky tower.

Great story and presentation with upscale production values for an independent journalist. Loved your description “The empty halls feel like they are haunted by ghosts of dreams that died with the mall’s failure… Every ‘For Lease’ sign is the tombstone of an investor who thought this would be a good place to park their money.” Looking forward to seeing more from you. Are you on any other social media, twitter, facebook etc.? Cheers from Barrie, Ontario.

Demographics are a factor too. Pacific Mall is surrounded by hundreds of thousands of people of Asian descent, which matters for an Asian style mall. And not only does it have bus stops nearby, but also a train station across the street.

I agree going into that mall is a unique experience. That playground on the top floor is kind of impressive, even with it's critical flaws.

Thank you for posting this video. I own a hobby shop in High River and I was thinking for years to open a store in NH, but it always seemed like such a failure. Interesting that it's still so empty now.

Trying to locate the washroom was insane!

This is disgusting. You'll have an empty building doing nothing, yet the homeless are still sleeping out in the cold.

I remember this, been in it. Its got like, 10, maybe 12 stores. Its literally the deadest mall on the planet, and coming from one of the riches cities. Its surprising.

Lease for 300 a month, move people into the empty shoppes, cover the windows with dark paper, and a warm dry place to winter that is affordable!

I prepared drawings for a few of the units and trying to get things approved through the micromanagement of the mall developers was brutal. The rules constantly changed and anything was just up to the whim of a dude named Mel. Was the worst experience I had with a developer in more than 10 years of architecture and design.

Some of those spots are so small they look more like prison cells than a possible store.

There’s so much they could do with this space and yet it stays empty 4 years later and no one seems to be trying to change it. The price was stupidly expensive from the get-go that didn’t help!

The interior & exterior of the building looks like it should be a recreational/fitness center (like Talisman or Village Square Leisure Centers), offering physical joy in contrast to Cross Iron Mills' more relaxed nature next door; complimenting the area as a bigger hub for people to gather to have fun instead of hopelessly competing against the established mall.

As soon as I saw that the mall had no troubles selling multiple store fronts to investors who wished to turn around and lease the units at a much higher price, I knew the mall would not succeed. If they had wanted success, they would have stipulated that the buyer must have a business occupying the space within 60 days of purchase. No business? you forfeit your space.

Wow, the store sizes, tiling, decoration are like a tad bit above Pacific Mall in Toronto. 20 years later, Pacific mall floor tiles are all busted, ceiling dripping with water stains and dead full of nail salons, even the ceiling frame work is down to the bone basic like New Horizon mall.

I finally made it to this place on the weekend, and you are spot on. It's a real shame because if done properly, this concept could work great for small businesses just getting their feet wet, or ones catering to a very small or specific clientele (ethnic foods and clothing, for example). I find this style of shopping way more exciting than a big mall with all the same chain stores as every other mall in town. There are a few fun and quirky little businesses at NH, but a lot more wasted space, and wasted potential.

This was really bad business. It’s one thing to launder your money. It’s another to just drop bombs and slap everyone and think it will go unnoticed. I was in cross iron yesterday and drove by this place. Whole thing is insane.

This mall is based on Pacific Mall in Markham ON, just north of Toronto. That was built in the early 1990's on an empty plot of farmland. At the time, only one other mall was in the area, a relatively small one (Market Village, closed 2018). Because of its isolated location, that was often the only choice for people to do shopping nearby, contributing to Pacific Mall being a relatively busy and popular mall. Also, Pacific Mall has been host to a lot of illegal activities, most notably pirated CD's and DVD's for sale; many of those shops were raided by the RCMP and local police departments over the last couple years. Pacific Mall was designed by Hong Kong immigrants, and Hong Kong is a place where a lot of malls have tiny little shops, partly due to the very limited land there, and also the shopping styles there are really different. Unfortunately, when they based New Horizon Mall out of Pacific Mall, CrossIron Mills (essentially a clone of Tsawwassen Mills and Vaughan Mills) was already thriving, and it was a much better shopping environment compared to New Horizon. Furthermore, Canadian malls typically have larger shops because it's how the style and culture of shopping here evolved. As most chain stores and small businesses in Canada prefer larger shops, the tiny little shops in New Horizon simply wouldn't be a good fit for them, and so the result is a nearly dead mall. Also the almost non-existent public transit in that location partly contributed to this as well.

Never shed a tear for real estate speculators.

Same as Aberdeen Square & Landowne Mall in Richmond BC... some small stores and rest are empty units.

Pacific Mall in Toronto is pretty much the same building. That place is overflowing.

Turn it into a hospital to relieve some of the pressure on the city's medical facilities.

Never thought I'd see a liminal space in broad daylight, let alone so close to home.

Great video, I live very close and work at the Lowes right next to it. The most popular I've seen New Horizon is through its parking lot funnily enough. Every Wednesday night over the summer there's a car show and it gets very packed. The last one of the year was just a few weeks back and the place was full. The inside of the mall? That's a different story haha.

This is a wonderful video, here's my 2 cents as a local. I've been to this mall a handful of times, everytime in hopes of something to catch my interest, each time has ended in disappointment. The last time I went there was for the farmers market, we were the the hours it said it was open and it was not open. Each time before, the few stalls open are either not, or are filled with stuff you could find on wish for cheaper. The gaming store in the mall is really good, but its not worth it for me to make a trip out there for it when there are already Asian style malls closer to home. I also find some of the stalls that are open are trying to get your business by shouting at you to come in the store, but it feels far too pushy to be inviting. I really feel for the small business owners in here, but I do think it was bought up by greedy investors who didn't give a crap about the stores in it. It's a very sad mall for those involved, but the heated underground parking is very nice.

I personally think it is unique and cool to have a ghost mall so close, they should play on that and make it like a haunted house, only make it a haunted mall. It’s not depressing, it’s just quiet and empty in lots of spots. But there is stores there and it’s worth the adventure just to go see it.

So much for the old saying “Build It and They Will Come”.

They should somehow turn this into a mixture of residential and commercial space instead. Some malls in the states have done it and it’s actually cool.

usually a new mall offer free rent or at least 6months free or until over 80% unit is rented out and opened. this is why one managment is important. it fails because they are individuals owner.

We have a mall near us (in British Columbia) that has always had too many vacancies. When the pandemic hit the biggest medical clinic in town leased a whole bunch of space, renovated and moved in. Since then other medical type businesses have moved in. There are food and retail shops, but mainly businesses that sell things like motorized chairs, a blood lab, the government has a vaccination center. Picking a 'theme" has revitalized the whole mall. Maybe that is what this mall needs. The owners that are there could actively start recruiting other small business to started buying from the investors - don't offer to rent - offer to buy and get the investors out of there!

Very well presented piece! Kudos! Great investigative work and final edit! Keep up the great work!

Lol. This place is not empty, it's actually growing

I’d love to see someone find a creative use for the space - accessible housing? Community resource hub? You have the individual units and the food court there already. You have bathrooms. Add some public transit options to Calgary and Airdrie, you’re set. It wouldn’t take a whole lot of imagination to make this a valuable space for a lot of people.

I always wondered what that building was as I drove by... no idea it was a shopping mall!

This story highlights the hype media play in people's perception of Real Estate in general. The same thing has happened in residential sales in the Calgary area.

I went to this mall about 2 years ago when there was one store open. My initial thought was how boring this mall is. Even the interior of the CrossIron Mall is slightly less boring, but the differnce is the Cross Iron Mall has open shops. Also, the Horizon mall gives off a small vendor rip off vibe. The same kind of feeling I get with a used car salesman or a rigged game setup like they have at the stampede. My other thought when seeing the size of the shops was how anyone could fit anything larger than a candy stand in there was beyond me. If you sold anything larger than candy bars, where would you fit a cash register, cleaning supplies, storage or sale merchandise racks? Doomed from the start. Even Farmers market vendors have more individual sales space. Too small and too cold looking. The only thing that might save this place is gutting it and turning it into an indoor amusement park like the WEM has.

I really wanted this store to pop off but it never did. It's very sad. I really do hope some day in the future, it will be a lively location.

The day it opened, people described it as looking like one big flea market. The mall’s interior is quite dull. I feel bad for this venture as it would’ve been nice to have an alternative to going to Cross Iron Mills right across. Also quite a waste of space, when this building was being built, I hoped it would be a recreational facility.

This place was a huge success if they sold all of the stalls. All thats left is to build the monorail.

Pac Mall in Markham has a HUGE Asian population all around it and all over Toronto, You cannot compare them at all.

Yep. Allowing speculators to buy everything up killed the entire premise. Buying into a new and interesting location has some appeal, but if I were to want to lease commercial space, I'd want it to be in a location that already had foot traffic and a nearby anchor store or two. I don't feel the least bit bad for the speculators who were actively looking to fleece would be small business operators.

I always wondered about this mall and why it failed, and attributed it to the lack of anchor tenants or Cross Iron Mills nearby. But your explanation about how it operates and that units were sold rather than rented makes more sense.

That is a $20 million barn. It's basically a warehouse without anything of value inside.

Pacific Mall works in Toronto (actually it is in Markham on the border of Toronto) as you can get just about anything and everything illegal you want there (counter-fit everything...) ...it is in the middle of a bunch of middle class neighbourhoods, and it caters to the SE Asian community who heavily populate the residential areas around the mall. The stores there offer a lot of items you cannot get at other places in the NE Toronto area (for the most part)...when I use to visit the mall 10 to 20 years ago, I use to go as there were a few food places both in the mall and in the adjoining plaza that were so unique and so good (Mongolian Grill for instance (now closed) had amazing, tasty food and a very unique cooking experience)...I actually use to drive out of my way to go there as it was somewhat close to a major highway (a few kms south of the 407 - also a few kms north of the 401 though 401 is more a perpetual construction parking lot than hwy...)...New Horizons has NO residential around it, nothing to draw people to the mall from Calgary...it really needs some unique food places for people to start showing up IMO for starters...

I visit crossiron mills once in awhile and have seen the new horizon mall but I didn’t even know what the building was.

You did an amazing job on this vid.

I personally go to the mall to support smaller business owners, I don't really like name brands. Every business owner and employee there, is incredibly nice and they don't deserve this lack of apprecitiation. Building it beside crossiron was the worst business idea I've ever heard of. Why not in the south east where there's a larger demographic of higher income individuals and a need for a local mall. I really hope they can figure this out because the owners deserve better.

turn it into a big grow-op --- for vegetables

Flood the floors, let the Flames play there, looks nicer than the dome.

If I had to take a wild guess, I would say that foreign buyers likely purchased the units and never intended to open stores in them.

even while this place was being built, i was saying how bad an idea it was. i mentioned how it was a bad location and strange business type. anyway, thank you for clarifying this all.

the money laundry gig got too much attention.

It's a traditional Chinese mall design. I remember seeing those in Beijing in the early 2000's. I also worked on one (Aberdeen Square) in Richmond BC where there's a large Chinese population (53% of the city). If this had been built closer to a Chinese population centre, it would probably do much better.

I have lived in Calgary for over 30 years and this is the 1st time I have ever heard of this mall

It's awesome to see a 400 sub youtube channel get 150k views about Calgary.

They should probably do an Amazon store that sells returns that’ll get people in there

The base consumer population of Calgary is in the deep SW and NW area of the city. This mall is in the top North East, no where near consumers and their huge SUV's and large tanks of gas. Even for Alberta this is just nuts.

I was surprised when that mall was being built because of the close proximity to Crossiron mall as well as a Costco. I have never heard one positive thing about it.

The number one reason why Pmall succeeded was that it originally was purchased by shop owners and only later became a haven for investors.

They tried to save it when they first opened by having haunted house at Halloween and other such activities in the parkade but it’s been years since I’ve heard anything about it. The opening was covered and definitely a flop. I’m in Calgary and don’t go that far out of the city just to shop. Plus if there’s only ~9 stores why would you go there unless you were supporting a friends store that was there

I remember walking in there and thinking it was one of the most miserable places I had been in.

Every time I've been to this mall, none of the stores are even open. This was even true around Halloween time when Haunted Calgary was bringing larger groups of people to the mall. As you mentioned in the video, "the sense of defeat is palpable".

local content love to see it good video👍👍

They based themselves off of the Pacific Mall in Markham which was starting to die when they started building this one.

i'm from toronto and I've been to pacific mall, which new horizons is based on. it's gotten pretty dead in the last 5 years or so, even before covid. it's all cell phone accessories, snack food/drinks and clothing stores. this concept of individually owned tiny little shops just isn't conducive to any other type of business.

This is too bad. I absolutely LOVE Pacific mall. That being said, we don't have the population in Calgary to make this mall successful. Even Pacific mall has tons of empty lots.

One of their biggest mistakes was building RIGHT ACROSS from a MEGA MALL! You can literally see both malls as you exit the highway. There’s no reason to turn right when you can turn left. The exceptions would be to go to the asian store that sells a lot of inexpensive Asian products and for the tiny “farmer’s market” in the basement. As someone else pointed out, the gaming stores seem to be thriving.

On a positive note, the most successful tenant is Sky Castle on the second floor. You can find tons of videos of kids having a blast in the large play area.

Easily turned into an internment camp under the guise of a shopping center..

Anyone else remember the malls in Calgary when they started to loose their anchor stores in the 90ies? This store never had an anchor store, and zero chance for random foot traffic. The location combine with the style of mall pretty much doomed this effort from the start.

My partner designed the play palace, so we have made several trips to NH mall. Best Shop is good and there was supposed to be a farmers market too? The rest is so creepy tho. A condo tower of a few thousand residents might help!?

Over 50% of the stalls are open now, so it’s getting more popular. It gets pretty busy during the weekend because of the indoor playground. I like the mall, and I don’t find it depressing at all

It's haunted that said for $500 a month and six months free ... (or $300) 3:47 Anyone who wants to gamble on an idea may have a maker space or a personalized youtube studio :) Next time I visit cross Iron maybe i'll trek over to experience it lol

Luckily, and last time I was there, there are more stores opening. I think the children attraction on the second floor has been prominent in keeping it afloat.

Interesting video. It would also be interesting how many government subsidies were provided to the developers and the incentivized low interest loans that tenants may have been given.

I’ve lived in Calgary for 13 years.....never even heard of this mall..

Last 2 years with covid and lock downs didn't help the mall as well. Mall lost two years to maybe turn things around.

I went here for the first time a couple days ago. Sky castle is a great addition and brings in I would say most of the traffic. Perhaps they should add more entertainment spaces.

Investors ruined it. All they needed to do was cap the number of units that could be leased out, but greed won the day and ruined the opportunity for everyone. I grew up in the Vancouver area and moved to Calgary in 2012. When I heard about New Horizons mall I was thrilled. I, and many others, knew that an Asian style mall with countless small kiosks was just what Calgary needed. Turns out that the exploitative rental property investors that were completely ravaging the Calgary housing market were too chummy with the powers that be at the time and were given free rein. The landlords in Calgary were getting so despicable at that time, they were using legal loopholes to evict tenants, then put units back on the rental market for a 50% rent increases or more (since it was illegal to increase rent by more than 10% a year, and even that wasn't enough for them.) These are the same people that were allowed to buy property in New Horizons Mall, and surprise surprise, no one wanted to sign their leases. People that actually wanted to buy units to run shops themselves weren't able to, because the blocks were open to investors first, or the dates and times were passed around in private channels but weren't made public until it was too late for regular buyers to secure funding. I remain pissed off about it to this day, and get reminded of it every time I drive past it on my biweekly trip to Costco just down the way.

The whole idea behind the mall was to draw local consumers together to shop, eat, and socialize back in the 1950's. It worked back then up untill the 2000's when things started to change. People aren't shopping like they used to be. Shopping on line from Ebay and Amazon and other on line distributors are the fastest growing as more and more people shop on line and it has taken place of driving to crowded shopping malls, cost of gas and public transport fares to get there not to mention the hanging around the bus depot to get home! Convenience has taken place of the bullshit consumers don't have to go through anymore! So trying to figure out what happened to the mall isn't rocket science and these stupid ass developers can't make consumers go back to mall shopping no matter what ideas they put on paper!

we have corrupt politicians giving contracts to developers who want to build things and make money... Calgary is Canada's New Jersey

when i was a teen in Central Minnesota i was biking with 4 or 5 friends and we came across an abandoned new horizons daycare center and it still gives me and some of the friends nightmares, there were old dolls and creepy stuff just solidified in time.

Amazon is killing retail stores and malls. People shop from their computers now. Soon people will never have to leave their homes. Work from home, get groceries and restaurant food at home. Shop from home. All the entertainment you ever need at home. We are in training for the Barcaloungers on the Wall E ship.