Crunching up the concrete at old Cloverdale mall

Its a little dark but here's a photo of the site of the old Cloverdale Mall I took with my iPhone. These two machines are crunching up the pavement and cement. There is a bulldozer pushing the ground up concrete around and flattening out the site. I guess they're recycling it as filler for the new buildings they'll be putting up here. Photo was taken from the parking lot of the legion on 57th Ave. The United Church can be seen in the centre. You can click on the photo to get a better view that's a little less dark.

Photos of Cloverdale Mall Demolition as of March 1 2011

I took a few photos of the Cloverdale Mall destruction today - March 1 2011. There is only a small section of the building left standing. It used to be a Chinese restaurant called the 4 Seasons, then it was a fish and chips place, and then a cheap cuts hair salon, back in the days of $6 haircuts! The Bank of Nova Scotia and Shopper's Drug Mart were on the other side, so that's the section that's still standing. You can click on any of these photos to get a larger view.



This photo was taken on 58th Avenue. In its final years this section was home to some religious groups. The building here is flattened. This is the roof collapsed onto the building. The roof vents are very visible.

Photo taken from Hawthorne Square on 176th Street. Used to be you could look up this walkway and the east entrance of the Cloverdale Mall was right here.

Photo taken from the parking lot of the Cloverdale Legion off 57th Avenue entrance. You can see the United Church again for the first time since the early 70's!

Cruncher at work.

Cloverdale Mall demolition Feb 21 2011

I took some photos of the demolition at the old Cloverdale Mall. Sorry for the quality - only had my iPhone with me. You can click on the photo for a larger view.

The old Safeway is completely gone and if anyone remembers where the BC Liquor Store used to be beside it, that's gone too, and the bakery that used to be next to it by the side entrance from the 57th Avenue side.

If you stand on 57th side you can see daylight right through to the other end of the mall. One of the photos where I was near the temporary fence, the old ramp for the Safeway trucks is still there, just an indentation in the parking lot now.

Cloverdale Mall Getting Ready for Demolition

A couple of days ago a security fence appeared around the Cloverdale Mall's parking lot. One can no longer enter from 58th Avenue. There is a small parking lot area off the 57th Avenue entrance, presumably parking for the demolition crew.

The parking lot around the Cloverdale Legion has no changes.

I noticed a security guard in a car near the 58th entrance last night.

The parking lot where the church patrons parked on the alley on the northeast corner of the mall is also fenced in. Today there were several cars parked there and the door to one of the churches was open. I guess today or this weekend is final clean up day for them and the fence was moved so the cars could get inside to pack up.

The name of the demolition company is on the side of the fence but I don't remember its name. I'm assuming the fence is up so random people can't just come in and scavenge. There is already a pile of metal stacking up near the 57th Avenue entrance. That may be a result of some of the clean up inside the mall. Aside from some pre-demolition work I noticed rooftop on the mall in December there is no signs of major demolition starting yet.

In about a year's time construction is to begin on the site and will be a combination of commercial and residential units above.

I hope the new building fares better than the old one. I remember the original Cloverdale Mall being built in 1973 on the old baseball fields. Almost from the beginning it was leaky. And after 20 years most of the tenants had had enough and were moving to new locations. They're tearing down a building that isn't quite 40 years old.

Demolition begins on Cloverdale Mall

For the past couple of weeks I've seen an excavator parked in the lot near the old Cloverdale Mall but it hasn't moved.

Today I saw several people on the roof of the old beginning demolition. It appeared they were taking out the windows in the upper areas so I'm guessing they are trying to salvage what they can for resale. Surrey New & Used has a lot of pre-used construction materials.

Oddly enough there is still at least one tenant in the old mall, a religious group whose entry is in the alley behind the parking lot for the Cloverdale SuperMarket.

There also seems to be a very high number of sea gulls and crows around the old mall today too. Not sure if the demolition crews have unearthed some tasty treats for them or if something else is going on.

I really hope with the demolition of the mall that those charitable foundations with bins set up for clothes and books remove them soon. They've become a nuisance as a dumping ground. Two couches and an old freezer are there right now.

Cloverdale Mall demolition upon us soon?

A couple of nights ago we were walking down 176th Street and saw someone moving into an empty building across from the Clova Theatre. That building was originally home to the Red Barn Antiques. I remember a shoe repair shop being there for quite some time before the owner tragically died about 10 years ago. Since then a video rental place and more recently a healing place.

We asked the fellow what his business is and he is from Peter Pook Insurance from the Cloverdale Mall. They were in a kiosk in the centre of the mall for a long time and then a few years ago moved into the frontage that was originally home to Shopper's Drug Mart.

He said they have to be out by the end of October because they're going to start demolition within the next couple of months.

When we walked past the mall we saw a huge moving truck at the south entrance so perhaps that furniture place that has taken up most of the interior atrium part of the mall is on the move.

But for the most part the tenants still appear to be in place today. The antique place in the old Safeway slot has cars in the nearby parking lot. A couple of religious groups still have all their things in place. So perhaps there has been an extension to some of the tenants.

I'll keep an eye on things on my walks past there.