Royalmount owner puts a good face on it
Andrew Lutfy, owner of Royalmount, tries to put a good face on how the mall is doing, one year after its opening, in a Gazette article not far off an advertorial in tone.
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Blork 10:22 on 2025-09-02 Permalink
I went to Royalmount on Sunday for the first time. What I found was not what I had expected. There were plenty of shoppers around; it wasn’t jammed, but it was somewhat busy. Also, there were plenty of normal stores like H&M, Sports Experts, UniQlo, etc., so the now-boring joke about people taking the Metro to buy their Gucci bag just falls flat.
The food area is nice, like a better-lit TimeOut market with a few nice sit-down restaurants as well as the market section. The outdoor spaces are really nice too, and they were quite busy with people sitting and sipping coffees and cocktails and whatnot. Most notably, the food area and the food places outside are NOT the usual food court chain operations. I saw Sammi & Soupe dumplings, Tommy Café, Ca Lem ice cream, Ganadara (Korean), and others.
As malls go, it’s a really nice mall. I’d rather shop there than at the Dix30 if shopping were needing to be done (it was needed on Sunday). Dix30 is too spread out and like a weird fake city owned by a shopping mall, whereas Royalmount is just a mall with a nice outdoor space. Once you’re there, you’re there, no lugging your stuff outside in the rain or snow for hundreds of metres to get to the store that’s way TF over there; it’s a mall that runs in a loop, so it’s compact and convenient.
Also: the indoor parking area literally has a bike path running through it. https://blork.org/pix/RoyalMount-bike-lane.jpeg
Ephraim 11:52 on 2025-09-02 Permalink
I know they originally said that parking was paid. I saw that they had an Asian market this weekend, but it appeared to be the same one that they had at T&T but with a door charge. The one at T&T sucked. The vendors were expensive and there way no way to tell if what they were trying to sell was good or not.
Anyway, it’s way on the other side of town and a royal pain to get to. And no where for reasonable groceries. So, I’ll skip it.
Blork 12:47 on 2025-09-02 Permalink
The first three or four hours is free in the underground parking. There’s plenty of open-air parking, which I assume is free.
Getting there by car is weird because you have to go through the spaghetti of the Decarie circle and negotiate some unexpected side lanes and whatnot. Even using Waze I took a wrong lane and had to do a go-around. Getting there by Metro, on the other hand is easy; just go to Station de-la-Savanne and pop across the passerelle and you’re there.
I expect this will mainly serve people in TMR, NDG, CdN, and VSL, and in particular people who don’t hate malls. It’s not for everyone.
Joey 14:07 on 2025-09-02 Permalink
I think outdoor parking is paid as well. Accessing it from the east or the south isn’t too bad by car, you just take de la Savane/Royalmount. I’ve been a couple of times for back to school stuff, and would agree with Blork. It’s a perfectly nice mall. Should kill off Rockland quickly enough.
Nicholas 14:11 on 2025-09-02 Permalink
I went there once, it’s fine. A mall that’s easily accessible by metro. Obviously downtown is more convenient, as is Alexis Nihon, but it’s a shorter walk than to Angrignon and similar to Place Versailles. For people in that area it’s reasonable, but locally it’ll have to compete with Décarie Square, Plaza CdN, Marché Central and Place Vertu, plus Fairview down the road. So it really needs to be a destination.
DeWolf 18:47 on 2025-09-02 Permalink
I haven’t been yet but their choice of food and beverage tenants is pretty savvy. As Blork mentioned, the emphasis is on local places, fairly trendy ones at that, as opposed to national or international chains. Most of the people I know who go to Royalmount go there to eat.
I’m sure the Uniqlo is a big draw too. It’s hugely popular wherever it is so it must drive a lot of traffic.
Kevin 20:47 on 2025-09-02 Permalink
Outdoor parking is paid, and they have attendants to handle the influx/ problems with machines.
Joey 13:27 on 2025-09-03 Permalink
@DeWolf the Uniqlo is pretty small compared to the stores in Laval and downtown, though I agree it’s likely a draw. H&M too. The Sports Experts is huge, replacing the big one at Rockland, I think.