The O.C.

The O.C. always bugged me.

I’m talking about the television show, which ran from 2003 to 2007 on FOX. Not really my cup of tea to begin with, but ‘The O.C.’ is not some once-popular show about teenage angst in Orange County, it’s a mall in Oshawa, known to outsiders (and officially) as the Oshawa Centre.

As evidence that ‘The O.C.’ belongs to us, I give you Arrested Development, which was a quirky but well written show that ran from 2003 to 2006 (with a fourth season to be released via Netflix this May). There’s a running joke in the show which has characters referring to Orange County as “The O.C,” followed by a “Don’t call it that” response. Orange County residents, you see, don’t use the term, preferring to refer to their home as simply ‘O.C.’

Picky, I know, but the record had to be set straight.

I mention this only because the O.C. (the mall, that is) is in the news this week. Mall owners Ivanhoe Cambridge is spending $230 million or so to spruce up the place; adding some 60 stores (including a couple of anchor tenants) and giving the food court a major overhaul.

My snack bracket doesn’t allow me to shop there frequently, so I can’t say the place was in dire need, but with Zellers moving out (and Target not moving in) I figured something had to give.

Good on Ivanhoe Cambridge for spending the cash. The Oshawa Centre was already the biggest mall east of Toronto and the renovations – which will start this summer and wrap up in three years – will make it the parent company’s largest. That’s bigger than Vaughan Mills, and the sixth largest mall in Ontario.

The company is also taking a novel approach to its future tenants and is asking its Facebook fans to throw their two cents in on which stores they’d like to see move in. So far the leaders are Apple Store and Disney Store (tied); a new movie theatre; Hollister; and Forever 21.

A new theatre is not in the plans right now, however.

I will say the food court was getting a bit tired looking and I can tell you from experience it’s next to impossible to get a seat there in the busy periods, so that’s an aspect of this re-development that’s welcome. A thousand seats is a pretty good start.

The Oshawa Centre addition will start by subtraction, with Zellers and the former movie theatre being torn down. That will result in 185,000 square feet of new space, with an addition on the east side creating another 75.000 square feet more.

The project will also include new main entrances on the east side, updated entrances on the west side, upgraded seating area elements (including floor and ceiling treatment), and  fully renovated washrooms.

Maybe when it’s all done we can lure the Real Housewives of Orange County up here for a shopping trip. And we can ask Junior and Senior if they want to expand their Orange County Chopper feud to Oshawa as well.

Then we’d all know where the ‘The O.C.’ really is.