How adding condos could help London's once-mighty malls evolve

In the first episode of Season 3 of the Netflix show Stranger Things, the Starcourt Mall is the place to be. 

The parking lot is full, the food court is jammed and kids are queuing up to jam quarters into arcade games.

And while the show is fictional, Starcourt's success is an accurate depiction of a typical suburban mall in 1985: Teeming with people because in the pre-Internet world, it offered one-stop shopping. 

A shopping mall scene set in 2023 would look quite different. There would be fewer people and a lot more vacant shops.

As retail analyst and author Bruce Winder points out, the shopping mall model that once pushed so many downtowns to the brink of ruin is now itself under pressure to evolve or die. 

A main culprit of course is e-commerce. The mall no longer has it all when it comes to shopping. With it now possible to shop online and have the product at your door the next day, the malls have to offer something more. 

"Malls have had to change from where we were in the 1980s," said Winder. "You have to have a reason to bring people to malls now." 

A key change coming to malls — and it's part of a trend that's reshaping London's three largest shopping centres —  is a move to add residential units to the space, including apartments and condos. 

At CF Masonville Place in north London, the city has approved special planning rules for the mall and surrounding neighbourhood that will allow residential towers up to 22 storeys tall. 

At Westmount Mall, which is currently two thirds empty, adding residential spaces with up to 900 units is part of the redevelopment plan. 

Last week Westdell Development Corporation bought White Oaks Mall, with the new owner telling CBC News they plan to add residential units as part of their future redevelopment plans. 

While Westmount is clearly struggling, Masonville and White Oaks appear to be doing well, with parking lots and retail spaces that are full. 

However retail consultant Doug Stephens of Retail Prophet said most mall operators now understand that shopping alone won't ensure their survival. 

"They have these decaying assets that are losing value as more and more retail goes online," he said. "To raise the asset value, these companies are saying 'Well, we have to create mixed-use communities.'"