Yorkdale Shopping Centre, Yorkdale Mall, or simply Yorkdale, is a major retail shopping centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located at the intersection of Highway 401 and Allen Road, it opened in 1964 as the largest enclosed shopping mall in the world. Yorkdale is currently the third largest shopping mall in Canada by floor space and has the highest sales per unit area of any mall in Canada, with current merchandise sales levels at roughly /square foot. At 18 million annual visitors, it is one of the country's busiest malls. Many international retailers have opened their first Canadian locations at Yorkdale. Yorkdale is currently owned by a joint venture between the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System through its subsidiary Oxford Properties Group and the Alberta Investment Management Corporation. History Construction and design In the 1950s, the department store chain T. Eaton & Co. bought a site at Dufferin Street and Highway 401 for a new massive, suburban location. In 1958, rival department store chain Simpson's purchased a site to the east and the plan to build the complex was announced that year. Design of the mall was given to the Seattle firm of John Graham Consultants, except for the Simpson's store, designed by John Andrews of John B. Parkin Associates. Howard Lesser was the planning and development consultant. Using Lesser's market research, the developers determined how much floor space to give up to each category of retailer, and chose retailers who would appeal to a broad range of shoppers. The mall opened on February 26, 1964, under the ownership of the Trizec Corporation. Its gross leasable area (GLA) was over , by far the biggest in Canada at the time. It was one of the largest shopping centres in the world. When it opened, Yorkdale was the first Canadian mall to include two major department stores: Simpson's and Eaton's, under the same roof at a cost of ($ in dollars). The mall had the shape of the letter L and was bordered in its extremities by Simpsons and Dominion, while Eaton's was at the junction of the two corridors. Yorkdale was the first major suburban mall constructed in Toronto. Located at the edge of the urbanized city, the new shopping centre was dependent on the construction of the Spadina Expressway, later renamed Allen Road, as the developers would not proceed until the freeway was approved for construction. The mall was constructed