business

New owner, manager look to the future at Galeries de la Capitale

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Marie-Christine Paré probably could not have foreseen that one day the former fashion student and teenage nanny in Toronto would one day become the boss of Quebec’s largest shopping mall, and the eighth largest in Canada.

Earlier this month, that unpredictable development became reality as she assumed the post of general manager of Les Galeries de la Capitale, succeeding Stephan Landry who held the job for eight years.

“I feel very proud,” Paré said in an interview with the QCT. “I’m very excited about this new challenge. We’ve got a great team here so I’m very confident the future will be very bright and very fun.”

Paré’s promotion to the top job, after serving eight years in a senior position at Les Galeries, comes as new owners take over the mall, a popular destination since it opened in 1981.

The vision of legendary de- veloper Marcel Adams, the shopping centre was built on what was at the time a remote and empty field at the intersection of Boul. Lebourgneuf and Autoroute Robert Bourassa. In 2013, Adams’s company, Iberville Developments, sold Les Galeries to a partnership of Oxford Properties and the Canada Pension Plan invest- ment fund.

In October 2024, Toronto- based Primaris Real Estate Investment Trust acquired the mall from the Oxford partner- ship for $325 million. Oxford is a major player in Canadian and international commercial, industrial and residential real estate and owner of several of Canada’s largest malls. Primaris, which specializes in smaller-market enclosed shopping centres, boasts 26 malls across Canada, with Place du Royaume in Saguenay the only other property in Quebec besides Les Galeries. Its portfolio is evaluated at some $2.8 billion.

At the time of the sale, Patrick Sullivan, president and COO of Primaris, said in a news release, “Les Galeries de la Capitale exemplifies the type of property we are targeting in our growth strategy. Its strategic location, excellent accessibility, and strong tenant mix make it a valuable addition to our portfolio.”

One of the options on the table, given the size and strategic location of the 91-acre site, is residential development, a trend underway at other malls in the city. Paré said Primaris “will take their time to analyze the site but for sure we’re going to see growth over the years.”

In the communiqué announcing her appointment, Primaris lauds Paré’s “15 years of ex- perience in shopping centre administrative offices,” making her the “ideal manager to lead Galeries de la Capitale’s future projects.”

Paré, 42, got her start in the mall business as an administrative assistant at Place des Quatre-Bourgeois while she was studying business at the Lévis campus of Université du Québec à Rimouski. When the manager retired, she offered Paré the position, which eventually led to her also managing a mall in Charny.

After taking time off to have her daughter, now 11, Paré worked at Cominar, a major city developer, before landing the job with Les Galeries. Having “fallen in love with the shopping centre industry,” she said getting a senior job with such a large mall made her proud.

Paré said, “It’s always been my dream to be in retail. It’s colourful, it’s vibrant, always something new, always moving. I’m very passionate about it.”

Part of her attraction to the business, she said, is her interest in the fashion industry, which she studied in Montreal, and also working in several clothing stores on the marketing level.

As for the fluent spoken English of a girl from Sainte-Croix- de-Lotbinière on the South Shore, Paré credits the two years she spent as a nanny in Toronto when she was in her teens. “It was scary to leave my family and friends and the first few weeks were difficult,” she said, “but it was a great experience.”

Starting a new job at the beginning of a new year, Paré said she is looking forward to announcing new tenants, as well as welcoming a Winners store in the space vacated by the Galeries Gourmandes project.

Paré said for shopping malls to succeed in the face of online competition, “we need to be very innovative” and respond to what customers want.

“People still want to meet at a mall, get entertained, catch up with friends, have a meal; they want to feel, they want to try the clothes,” she said. “I really believe we are here to stay, for sure.”