Pandemic: Greater Sudbury malls open, but many stores now closed

Malls in Greater Sudbury remain open for now amid a COVID-19 state of emergency, but you're likely going to find numerous stores have been closed by their parent companies.

For example, retailers Reitmans and Spring, which both have locations in the New Sudbury Centre, have temporarily closed all of their stores in Canada.

It's probably best if you call ahead to see if the store you plan on visiting still remains open.

A notice on the New Sudbury Centre's website said as a precautionary measure, the mall's management company, Morguard, is offering retailers the option to reduce their store operating hours.

Those reduced hours are 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, Saturday 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. starting on Tuesday, March 17, until further notice.

Though some retailers will operate on reduced hours, the New Sudbury Centre will remain open to the public during regular operating hours to provide access to stores that have decided to operate as normal or are essential services, said the statement on the mall's website.

The mall said it has introduced intensified cleaning, additional hand sanitizers and health and safety best practices.

The Rainbow Centre Mall said it has implemented some reduced hours for the retail portion of the property, but has provided full discretion to tenants as to the hours they wish to keep.

An email statement from Robert Green, one of the Rainbow mall's managers, said the reduced hours correlate to certain doors and access points being limited at specific hours.

Green said the mall has taken these measures to do its part in attempting to limit the spread of COVID-19.

“The vast majority of offices and services are still open,” Green said.

“Some tenants have elected to provide their services on an appointment basis. Some tenants, such as World Gym and Imagine Cinemas and Heal Spa and YMCA Immigration and Employment Services, are temporarily closed."

Green said the Rainbow mall has increased the capacity of its cleaning services so as focus on continuous sanitizing all hand touch surfaces. 

All washrooms are posted with hand wash guidelines as issued from WHO. 

“We are in communication with the Sudbury and District Health Unit so as to keep apprised it best practices now and going forward as this event develops,” Green said.

Other malls in the area — including the Southridge Mall and the Hanmer Valley Shopping Centre — have not yet addressed the COVID-19 situation on their websites or social media accounts.

We weren't able to immediately contact mall management for these facilities.

However, a call to retailers in these malls confirms they are still open to the public, as are some — but not all — of their stores and businesses.

***Editor's note: This story has been updated with information from Rainbow Centre Mall management.