What does the future of malls look like in Toronto and the GTA?

At a panel celebrating Yorkdale's 60th anniversary outside the mall's soon-to-be-built Simon's department store, Holt Renfrew's CEO Sebastian Picardo marvelled at the malls breadth of offerings, reminding the audience that it is in fact a place "you can buy lipstick and a car," and not just any, but from luxury brands. 

Picardo, Simon's CEO Bernard Leblanc and Harry Rosen's president Ian Rosen came together Thursday before an audience to discuss Yorkdale's past, present and future. The two-million-square-foot property opened in 1964 and has become the most successful mall in Canada, with annual sales of more than $2 billion, according to the shopping centre.

During the panel, they all acknowledged what you might expect: in a successful retail environment, the customer is king and quality products will keep them coming back.

But something else the panellists all agreed on was that, in the era of e-commerce, where traditional brick and mortar businesses are competing with online giants, their best strategy as retailers was human connection.

"We actually consider community connection extremely strategic," Picardo said of his company. 

Retail analysts and business insiders say the role of retailers and malls is evolving. "It's certainly no secret that malls as a class of retail have been having a really difficult time, and it's not recent," retail analyst Doug Stephens, the founder and CEO of Retail Prophet, told CBC Toronto.

Several malls in Toronto and the GTA have already started or are planning redevelopment and reenvisioning in an effort to satisfy the needs of 21st century customers. "We're not in the commercial real estate business anymore," Stephens said.

Amid the housing crunch in Toronto, many shoppers need housing. 

Yorkdale's co-owner, Oxford Properties, has plans to turn the mall's parking lot into a new neighbourhood in the next two decades. 

City documents say the new neighbourhood will cover as much as 680,000 square metres, and include up to 1,500 residential units. 

Large-scale residential redevelopments are also planned for Scarborough Town Centre, and Square One in Mississauga where some completed buildings will open for occupancy in January, according to an email from Yorkdale's media manager Adrienne Simic.

She said 35,000 residents will be living in the multi-tower developments surrounding Square One. "We're very fortunate that the retail centres are going to act as the anchor to the communities," Sherif Masood, head of development and asset management at Oxford Properties, told CBC News in an interview. Masood said his company is keen on playing a meaningful part in creating more homes in and around Toronto. "On paper, we have the opportunity to build 50,000 residential units across the GTA," Masood said.

"There's a real opportunity to address the housing crisis in Canada… I think we have a big, big opportunity to play a part in that."

Farther east, developers are planning to build condominiums and a new urban district called Pickering City Centre beside the town's local mall.