History
The Shops on Steeles and 404 is a medium sized community mall, originally planned on opening in 1975, but was pushed back two years for construction to 1977. The mall opened as Markham Place (proposed as Markham Marketplace) by Trizec Properties.
Markham Place opened on September 28th, 1977 with tenants including but not limited to, McDonald's, Miracle Mart, and the now defunct Sears Canada which used to be a major anchor. The Sears store opened at 9:30 AM on the 28th of September, and the store included a cafeteria on the upper level, as well as an auto centre.
The Shops on Steeles and 404 was sold to Bramalea (company) in 1986 operating under the same name, Markham Place, until it was subsequently sold and eventually changed its name. In 1995, Bramalea (company) filed for bankruptcy and sold off all their remaining properties, including Markham Place. It is speculated that the mall was sold to Wycliffe Property Management in 1995, but it is not known when the mall was handed over from Bramalea.
Miracle Mart was succeeded by Food Basics in 1992 following their bankruptcy.
In the early 2000s, Sears was converted into a Sears Home store (selling furniture and appliances; upper level as an outlet centre) and in recent years as a Sears Outlet Store.
The location then closed in April of 2017, citing financial difficulties by shuttering unprofitable stores. Bobby's Liquidation Outlet occupied the anchor tenant space vacated by Sears. A liquidation outlet called Closeout King was located within the anchor building as well, but was removed after five months of non-payment. In January 2019 Bobby's Outlet closed (moved to Promenade Mall in Vaughan) with mall owners planning to re-develop the space. [1]
Within the former Sears anchor operates an Active Green + Ross Tire & Automative Centre, which was formerly occupied by a Sears Auto Centre but was sold off as part of a deal Sears Canada secured with Active Green + Ross Tire & Automative Centre in 2004.
In recent years, Wycliffe Property Management operated the mall until 2023.
As of 2025, the lower floor of the former anchor space is now occupied by a flea market named Hwy 404 & Steeles Flea Market. The upper level tenant of the former Sears space is now a liquidation outlet centre called Krazy Dealz.
Site Development
In 2007, the mall was slated for residential re-development called Markhamgate Summit, [2] with some retail stores at ground level, as well as a new transit hub for the Toronto Transit Commission and York Region Transit. [3] Although the land is in Markham, Ontario (in the community of Thornhill, Ontario), Toronto city councillor David Shiner invoked the 1974 Agreement, which grants Toronto limited planning authority over York Region land that is within 45 metres of Steeles Avenue, which Toronto owns, to veto the developer plans of several condominium towers. Shiner argued that the proposed number of residential units was too high which would create too much traffic in the neighborhood, while Markham councillor Howard Ian Shore and the developer countered that the project would not be viable if the number of residential units was lowered below the agreed-upon figure. [4] As of 2018, the project has not proceeded and the original mall remains standing and operating.
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