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A power centre is an unenclosed shopping centre with 250,000 square feet (23,000 m²) to 600,000 square feet (56,000 m²) of gross leasable area^[1] that usually contains three or more big box retailers and various smaller retailers (usually located in plazas) with a common parking area shared among the retailers. It is likely to have more money spent on features and architecture than a traditional big box shopping center.^[2]

The term is used in Canada, while in the United States the spelling “power center” is used. In the United Kingdom the term “retail park” is more commonly used. The phenomenon is also common in Australia and New Zealand.

Power centres function similar to a traditional shopping mall, but more closely resemble open-air malls and lifestyle centres, rather than the modern enclosed shopping malls of today.

In recent years, it has become quite common for an older shopping mall to expand as a power centre, adding big-box stores, category killers and strip malls to the parking and open areas, rather than to add anchors and new retail space to the existing mall facility. Puente Hills Mall and Del Amo Fashion Center in Southern California are good examples of this. Power centres are almost always located in suburban areas, but occasionally redevelopment has brought power centers to densely populated urban areas.

Some new power centre developments have attempted to re-create the atmosphere of an old-town Main Street, with varying levels of success.

Smart!Centres, formerly First Pro Shopping Centres, is Canada's largest power centre developer; most of its developments include a Wal-Mart. Other developers include RioCan.

The first recognized power centre was 280 Metro Center in Colma, California, which was opened in 1986. A year later, Canada's first power centre, the Crossroads Centre, was built in Toronto.^[3]

Power centres began forming in the Greater Toronto Area in the late 1980s, and have since displaced nearly all traditional shopping mall development in the region, and to a lesser extent, the entire country. There are currently more than 300 power centres located throughout Canada.

1. ^ ICSC SHOPPING CENTER DEFINITIONS
2. ^ Garbarine, Rachelle, "The New Goal at Retail Power Centers: Eye Appeal; Bowing to demands by towns to give more attention to design." New York Times, New York, N.Y.: Aug 15, 1999. pg. RE9
3. ^ Jones, Kenneth G., and Michael J. Doucet, "The big box, the flagship, and beyond: impacts and trends in the Greater Toronto Area." Canadian Geographer 45, no. 4 (Winter 2001): 494-508.

• Big-box store
• Category killer
• Lifestyle center
• Shopping mall
• Warehouse club
• Warehouse store
• South Edmonton Common

• SmartCentres - includes photos of its developments
• Scottsdale Center - Northwest Arkansas Premier shopping center.