Westgate Shopping Centre isn’t just where Brendon Banville has operated a camera and passport photo store for nearly four decades.
The owner of Superior Photo also met his wife at the mall, back when she worked at another tenant called Toy City.
“It’s more than just a place to buy things,” Banville said of the 70-year-old Ottawa institution.
People would come for a coffee or to sit all morning and talk to shop owners and others, he recalled.
“Yeah, it was a great place.”
Banville speaks of the mall in the past tense because the Carling Avenue shopping centre’s story is coming to a close.
Retail leasing giant RioCan said it will close the shopping centre “at the end of October” as part of a planned site revamp.
The mall will be demolished except for the section containing Shoppers Drug Mart, which will remain open beyond October and “continue to be part of the long-term vision for the site.”
Construction on a new grocery store is expected to begin in the first half of 2026.
“We are grateful to all our tenants for their long-standing support and presence at Westgate,” a spokesperson added via email.
One of those tenants, Mohammed Hannawi, owns two stores across the hall from each other: Carducci’s Shoes and Satchels Luggage & Handbags. He’s been a mall fixture for over 30 years.
“Half of my life,” he said, adding that he’s moving Carducci’s to Wellington Street.
Linda Wang, owner of Fine European Tailoring, said she’ll work from home. One of her customers recently brought a thank you card to the store.
“I [will] miss them all so much,” she said of seeing her patrons in the store.
The Rockin’ Johnny’s Diner franchise that sits at the heart of the mall will close too, though other Ottawa locations will remain open.
Angela Nunn has worked as a server there for seven years. She worries about the restaurant’s regulars, especially the seniors whose families are far away.
“We have been a comfort for them,” Nunn said.
One of those regulars comes in every Sunday for breakfast, doesn’t have any family close by and even tries to open the door herself, despite being 93 years old, Nunn said.
“We call her the Queen.”
That person, Pauline Nicholson, wears her reputation proudly.
“I’m the Queen of Westgate,” she said, adding that it’s nice to come to the mall and “meet her people.”
“You don’t stay in the house,” she said of her routine. “[You’d] go crazy.”
Nicholson said she might decamp to Carlingwood Shopping Centre.
But “it’s not the same,” she added.
“Some [people] will talk to you. Some of them just say hi, you know, and then [a] long face. I don’t like that. That’s one thing I hate.”
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