By Dr. Steven Webber and Dr. Tony Hernandez

Given the widespread development of power centres in North America it is surprising that there has been limited longitudinal analysis of the urban retail planning issues associated with big box and power centre development, particularly from a regional perspective. This CSCA Research Insight aims to redress the gap within a Canadian context by providing a data-centred analysis of big box and power centre development and planning issues within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in Southern Ontario from 1992 to 2017. This time period can be characterised as the 'wave of big box retail innovation'. In this report we provide a retrospective analysis of big box growth across the GTA during an era of unprecedented expansion, albeit with a marked slowdown in recent years - the breaking of the wave.