Fun Times and Fashion Spring Into Sunnyside Mall
You can always feel when spring is around the corner-it hangs in the air. This year, the season comes with a new air of excitement. As of March 21, Nova Scotians can enjoy themselves in public with no restrictions.
Rest assured, people will be flocking again to a classic hangout spot-the mall. And it just so happens Bedford has the best one to get together with friends and family of all ages: the Sunnyside Mall.
Not only is it one of the best places to grab a bite to eat; with unique, authentic joints like Pete’s Frootique and Fine Foods and On the Wedge, it’s also a place to go to have fun and shop for the new Spring fashions.
“As soon as the announcement of the restrictions being lifted, the next day at the mall I saw an increase in traffic,” said Lynn Chisholm, Sunnyside Mall’s general manager.
“Walking through the mall and heading to MarketSide, all the tables were full. Other food courts don’t compare to our MarketSide because most of our tenants are independents.”
So many malls feel like one-trick ponies. It can feel as though you are walking past the same store repeatedly while your browse. Sunnyside Mall doesn’t have that problem. It has 60 extremely varied tenants.
One of the most unique clothing destinations at Sunnyside is Lisa Drader-Murphy, a boutique that has been designing its own line of clothes in Halifax since 1997. Lisa even has her own collaboration boutique in France – an indication of Drader-Murphy’s quality.
Like most retail outlets, the past two years have been difficult for the boutique. Even when restrictions were relatively loose, customers weren’t going out to clothing stores due to Covid-19.
“We may as well have been closed because people were so nervous,” said Lisa, the boutique’s owner and founder. “It’s been very challenging. But the mall has been great to work with and things are looking much better now.”
But now, like most tenants at Sunnyside, Lisa is preparing to open back up to normal operating hours.
When asked if her boutique at Sunnyside Mall will have anything novel to offer fashion connoisseurs for their spring wardrobe, Lisa spoke with great excitement.
“So much new! So much new!” she exclaimed.
“We have a lot of great colour coming. I think people are looking for something bright and something cheery to break us out of the past two years of sweatpants.”
Sunnyside Mall is more than just a place to get a good meal and shop for clothing, however. It is the type of mall where you can bring the entire family or a group of friends for an outing.
For video game and new tech lovers, you can check out Xen-Z Virtual Reality with solo play or full-body game play.
Or if you want hours of old school fun and an old school price, there is Silverball Games – an arcade with classics from the 70s, 80s and 90s, the golden eras of arcades.
No matter how old you are, it’s hard not to get addicted to trying to beat high scores on Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Tetris, and several classic beat-em-ups like Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons.
“And if you like shoot-em-ups we have zombies that need to be taken care of,” said the operator of Silverball, Darren Corning, who also owns Brain Candy Toys in Sunnyside.
Living up to its namesake, the arcade also has a selection of classic, mechanical pinball tables in pristine condition. There are Evel Knievel and Harlem Globetrotters-themed machines that may even predate the 1970s.
If you enjoy a more physical style of game, Silverball has “Dance Dance Revolution,” which once took malls by storm years ago.
“That’s really popular if you have any sort of rhythm in your feet. I do not, admittedly,” said Darren.
Perhaps the greatest attraction at Silverball is the large air hockey table. It is fast, smooth-playing, and will bring out your competitive spirit.
“If you have any differences, you can settle it over a game of air hockey,” said Darren.
Very few people played the arcades during the pandemic. Silverball would mainly open for private rentals. But the arcade survived because Sunnyside Mall management worked out a deal with Darren.
“They were understanding that the percentage part wasn’t going to be much,” laughed Darren. “The mall worked with us as much as they could. They knew that there wasn’t going to be a great deal of volume from the arcade.”
Lisa also complimented the mall for being patient and easy to work with during the worst parts of Covid. Lynn Chisholm says Sunnyside Mall values long-term tenants, which is why they tried being helpful over the last two years.
“We dealt with each tenant individually and their needs, and based on their sales,” said Lynn.
“If you’re a long-term landlord, you have to work with the tenants that you have. Taking a short-term approach for a long-term problem is going to leave you with vacancies. That is not the case at Sunnyside Mall. Working together kept vacancies low and there are new retailers coming soon!”