Oakridge Park mall and rooftop public park now months away from opening | Daily Hive

Oakridge Park mall, rooftop public park, and community centre now months away from opening

Construction progress on Oakridge Park, as of Jan. 4, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

After well over half a decade of major construction activity on the single largest mixed-use residential and commercial building development project in Vancouver’s history, the city is nearing the much-anticipated return of its second major shopping centre (after CF Pacific Centre in downtown Vancouver), completely rebuilt in a dramatically expanded and entirely new form.

Construction on the first phase of Oakridge Park is now entering its final and most visually striking phase, with the massive redevelopment rapidly taking shape and edging closer to completion.

The mall, previously named Oakridge Centre, is now just months away from opening.

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Last fall, QuadReal Property Group confirmed Spring 2026 will be the revised opening date of the indoor mall and rooftop public park. The Time Out Market food hall will also open this spring.

As of early January 2026, visible construction progress both inside and outside suggests the project remains on track to meet this revised opening window, possibly in mid- or late spring. Certainly, this year — even when accounting for potential variances in final construction permits and occupancy permits.

Oakridge Park has transitioned from a worksite dominated by barren concrete and a grove of cranes — previously as many as a dozen cranes — to one defined by finished form and detail. Exterior cladding and glazing are now largely installed around the vast indoor mall structure, office podiums, and residential towers, while interior work continues on common spaces and tenant areas.

Construction progress on Oakridge Park, as of Jan. 4, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

Looking through the uncovered floor-to-ceiling windows from the outside, one can glimpse the indoor mall’s common areas, revealing interior work at a highly advanced stage of completion, with gleaming white ceilings and integrated lighting.

Some retail and restaurant tenants began work on furnishing their empty shell spaces to their own specifications as early as a year ago. As well, in recent weeks and months, some businesses have begun the process of hiring to fill key staff positions in preparation for the forthcoming opening.

When the mall opens this year, it is not expected to feature barren corridors with only a handful of shops and restaurants operating in time for opening day; instead, roughly 100 businesses are expected to be ready on the first day.

Oakridge Park will have a wide mix of mid-market to upper-end retailers, as well as notable community-serving businesses such as the return of the Safeway grocery store and the relocation of the nearby Signature BC Liquor store to the mall.

Construction progress on Oakridge Park, as of Jan. 4, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

As previously reported by Daily Hive Urbanized at several points over the past two years, a roster of dozens of shops and restaurants opening at the mall have already been revealed, including a number of firsts not only for Metro Vancouver but also for Canada. There will be numerous new international upscale fashion, apparel, and jewellery retailers, building on the previous mall’s decades-long positioning as a partially luxury shopping destination.

Today, for the latest reveal, Daily Hive Urbanized can also now report that Italian fashion house Giorgio Armani will open a store at Oakridge Park. As well, adjacent to this luxury store will be Giorgio Armani Cafe — the chain’s 27th food and beverage location, and only the third in North America after the locations in New York City and Orange County, California.

Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) will also be opening a major campus location of about 50,000 sq. ft., featuring dozens of classrooms, computer labs, and semi-wet science labs. This will help provide the mall with additional steady foot traffic and activity when FDU Vancouver opens in Fall 2026.

Fairleigh Dickinson University FDU Vancouver Oakridge Park

Concept of Fairleigh Dickinson University’s FDU Vancouver campus at Oakridge Park. (Perkins&Will/FDU)

Beyond the already known large-format tenants — such as the approximately 50,000 sq. ft. Safeway, the 40,000 sq. ft. Time Out Market, the 25,000 sq. ft. Signature BC Liquor Stores location, and the 16,500 sq. ft. Harry Rosen — another sizeable addition will be sports clothing and apparel retailer Sporting Life. The Canadian-based retailer is known for large-format stores typically ranging between 30,000 sq. ft. and 50,000 sq. ft. Oakridge Park will mark Sporting Life’s second location in British Columbia, following the 44,000 sq. ft. store that opened in 2019 at The Amazing Brentwood in Burnaby.

Time Out Market — which should not be confused with a traditional food court, as this global food hall chain’s concept is based on featuring a curated mix of local independent food operators offering mid-market to upscale fare — will not include any fast-food outlets within this space. Fast-food and other dining offerings will instead be located elsewhere in the mall.

Time Out Market Vancouver will feature 18 kitchens, one dessert counter, and one coffee counter, in addition to three bars, multiple event spaces, approximately 1,000 seats, and a large outdoor terrace facing the rooftop public park. Some of the names in the first lineup announced last fall include kitchen concepts by renowned local chef Robert Feenie.

It remains to be seen what will happen to the completed shell space of a two-storey, 140,000 sq. ft. anchor retail unit within the mall, which was set to be occupied by the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). HBC cancelled its planned occupancy of the space in Fall 2024, months before the company’s financial crisis hit the breaking point.

Construction progress on Oakridge Park, as of Jan. 4, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

Prior to the start of major construction activity for the redevelopment, Oakridge Centre was consistently ranked for many years by the Retail Council of Canada as one of Canada’s most profitable shopping centres, based on revenue per square foot. Oakridge Park is set up to reclaim the mall’s pre-construction standing and momentum.

In 2018, as some construction began, the mall was ranked as the country’s third most profitable, trailing only Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre and downtown Vancouver’s CF Pacific Centre, as previously reported by Daily Hive Urbanized. This represented a drop from second place in 2017, when the mall was still intact and not affected by redevelopment-related vacancies.

The new mix of retailers and the resulting overall offering, combined with direct access to public transit — SkyTrain’s Oakridge–41st Avenue Station and R4 41st Avenue RapidBus at the doorstep — reinforces the mall’s positioning as a regional-scale shopping destination, and one that will likely directly compete with downtown Vancouver’s retail offerings, CF Richmond Centre, and McArthurGlen Vancouver Airport Outlet Centre, and even attract tourists.

There is also an opportunity to fill part of the void in Metro Vancouver’s luxury retail market following Nordstrom’s 2023 closure of its downtown Vancouver flagship store, which was a collateral damage of the U.S.-based department store chain’s broader decision to exit the struggling Canadian market. As previously reported by Daily Hive Urbanized, while Nordstrom’s downtown Vancouver flagship was the company’s best-performing store anywhere — across both Canada and the United States — the overall poor performance of its other Canadian locations ultimately weighed down the business and contributed to the decision to withdraw from the country.

Atop the expansive roof of the indoor mall will be a 7.5-acre accessible public park, formally designated as a City of Vancouver park and programmed and operated by the Vancouver Park Board, while being maintained by the mall owner.

The rooftop park — featuring open grass lawns, event-friendly spaces, pathways, gardens, and extensive landscaping and trees — is expected to open sometime in the middle of 2026. It will be directly accessible from the indoor mall, as well as via multiple grand staircases and entrances from street level.

Rooftop park; construction progress on Oakridge Park, as of Jan. 4, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

Late 2025 construction progress on the 7.5-acre public park on the rooftop of Oakridge Park’s indoor mall. (Vancouver Park Board)

oakridge park oakridge centre mall 2022 rendering

2022 artistic rendering of the revised design of the Oakridge Park (Oakridge Centre) redevelopment. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Westbank/QuadReal Property Group)

In addition to the Oakridge Park mall and rooftop park, the northwest corner of the property will feature a five-storey, 100,000 sq. ft. civic centre owned and operated by the City of Vancouver.

This civic centre will include a community centre, seniors centre, youth hub, performance space, fitness gym, gymnasium, movement studio, childcare facility, artist studios, music rooms, and 25,000 sq. ft. Vancouver Public Library (VPL) branch, which will be the second largest VPL location after the Central branch in downtown. The civic centre is expected to open in Summer 2026. Work is currently progressing on the interior of this public facility.

The civic centre is also attached to a 22-storey social housing tower containing 187 units, which currently appears to be nearing readiness for its first residents. The social housing tower is expected to reach full completion this winter.

Civic centre and social housing tower; construction progress on Oakridge Park, as of Jan. 4, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

Completed units in the social housing tower; construction progress on Oakridge Park, as of Jan. 4, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

Progress is also taking shape on the developer-funded sub-project of expanding Oakridge-41st Avenue Station to better prepare the subway station for much higher ridership from not only Oakridge Park’s various major mixed uses, but also the growing high-density developments in the surrounding area, including the 2026 completions of mixed-use residential towers at the northeast and southeast corners of the intersection of Cambie Street and West 41st Avenue.

These upgrades include a new large, honeycomb-like mass-timber roof for the street-level entrance, two new additional escalators reaching the street level, a new street-level elevator, and a new direct underground connection from the indoor mall — providing the station with a second entrance. The station upgrades are expected to completion in Summer 2026.

By the end of 2026, nearly 1,400 homes across Oakridge Park’s five towers — comprising both market condominiums and social housing — are expected to be completed, along with approximately 700,000 sq. ft. of office space.

By 2029, the final phases of the development are scheduled for completion, bringing Oakridge Park to a total built area of five million sq. ft. across 10 towers and the mall. At full build-out, the project will have a cumulative total of more than 4,300 homes, including nearly 1,000 secured purpose-built rental units, as well as an additional 200,000 sq. ft. of leasable retail space on the west side of the mall property, and a further 1.5 acres of public park space at ground level, bringing Oakridge Park to a total of nine acres of public park space. QuadReal is developing Oakridge Park with Westbank.

Oakridge Park’s size and calibre and the short travel times on SkyTrain to Vancouver International Airport and downtown Vancouver have also spurred two mixed-use hotel projects immediately east of the mall, totalling about 330 rooms — the projects of 488 West 43rd Ave. and 6012-6088 Cambie St. A student housing tower with over 400 beds for post-secondary students is currently also under construction next to the mall.

oakridge park station construction jan 4 2025

New honeycomb roof for SkyTrain’s Oakridge-41st Avenue street-level entrance; construction progress on Oakridge Park, as of Jan. 4, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

Future direct underground entrance into Oakridge Park mall from the ticketing concourse of SkyTrain’s Oakridge-41st Avenue Station; construction progress on Oakridge Park, as of Jan. 4, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

cambie 41st avenue pci polygon january 4 2025

Construction progress on PCI Developments’ 41st/Cambie mixed-use rental housing and commercial project (left) and Polygon Homes’ Claridge House mixed-use residential and commercial project (right) at the northeast and southeast corners of the intersection of Cambie Street and West 41st Avenue, across from Oakridge Park, as of Jan. 4, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

cambie 41st pci rental housing td january 4 2025

Construction progress on PCI Developments’ 41st/Cambie mixed-use rental housing at the northeast corner of the intersection of Cambie Street and West 41st Avenue, across from Oakridge Park, as of Jan. 4, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

cambie 41st polygon claridge house january 4 2025

Construction progress on Polygon Homes’ Claridge House mixed-use residential and commercial project at the southeast corner of the intersection of Cambie Street and West 41st Avenue, across from Oakridge Park, as of Jan. 4, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

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