West Edmonton Mall

West Edmonton Mall

The Sea Life Caverns wing, 2017
Location	Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Coordinates	53°31′22″N 113°37′23″W / 53.52278°N 113.62306°W / 53.52278; -113.62306Coordinates: 53°31′22″N 113°37′23″W / 53.52278°N 113.62306°W / 53.52278; -113.62306
Opening date	15 September 1981 (35 years ago) (1981-09-15)
Developer	Triple Five Group
Management	Jeff Sheckter alongside The Ghermezian family
Owner	West Edmonton Mall Properties Inc.
No. of stores and services	800+
No. of anchor tenants	16
Total retail floor area	350,000 m2 (3,800,000 sq ft)
No. of floors	3
Parking	20,000+, 10,000 overflow
Public transit access	West Edmonton Mall Transit Centre (see below)
Website	www.wem.ca

West Edmonton Mall (WEM), located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, is the largest shopping mall in North America and the tenth largest in the world (along with The Dubai Mall) by gross leasable area. It was the world's largest mall until 2004. The mall was founded by the Ghermezian brothers, who emigrated from Iran in 1959.

West Edmonton Mall covers a gross area of about 490,000 m² (5,300,000 sq ft). There are over 800 stores and services in the compound, and parking for more than 20,000 vehicles. More than 24,000 people are employed at the property. The mall receives about 32 million visitors per year; it attracts between 90,000 and 200,000 shoppers daily, depending on the day and season. The mall was valued at $926 million (CAD) in January 2007.

West Edmonton Mall first opened its doors to the public on 15 September 1981. The mall was developed in four phases, completed in 1981, 1983, 1985 and 1999. It was the largest indoor shopping centre in the world until 2004, and was named such in the Guinness Book of Records. The four phases of construction are used in a colour-coded system as a guideline for finding stores and attractions.

The Mindbender indoor roller coaster had a fatal accident on 14 June 1986 when several of the cars came loose and came off the track. Three people died and one was injured in the accident.

In the early 1990s, the Woodward's department store chain, one of WEM's anchors, went bankrupt, and its locations were purchased by the Hudson's Bay Company. As a result, WEM boasted two full Bay department stores until 1999 when the company closed the store that had replaced Woodward's, leading to a renovation (known as Phase IV) that added a Famous Players multiplex, a two-floor HMV location, which is complete with an HMV stage, which has played hosts to autograph signings for bands, Hollywood celebrities and World Wrestling Entertainment superstars, a $12.6 million Playdium entertainment complex/arcade (now closed), an indoor shooting range, a Chapters bookstore with a Starbucks, and several other smaller stores. In 2005, the upstairs space previously occupied by Playdium was rented by three NewCap Radio stations: 790 CFCW, K-97 97.3 (Formerly, 97.3 K-Rock), and 96.3 Capital FM (formerly 96.3 Big Earl). The downstairs area was at one point partially used as a paintball playing area, but is now vacant. In 2007, the Famous Players multiplex, formerly known as Silver City, was renamed Scotiabank Theatre.