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Certainly it’s true that this is a one-of-a-kind shopping centre. And yes, there is much that may be found nowhere else in Toronto. For instance, nowhere else will you find such desolation, such hopelessness, such gloom. At no other mall in the city, perhaps at no other mall in the world, will you find such an absence of people or places to shop.

To stroll through the Shops at Aura today is to enter a world of solitude and isolation. There is no bustle, no commotion or whirl; there’s no sense of life or activity at all, save the dreary peregrinations of the custodial staff, doubtless the only people on site who can be sure of a regular paycheque. Corridors go untravelled for hours at a time.

What businesses remain – what business cling to life in desperation, unremittingly drawing on reserves of life savings and rainy-day funds – go without customers, any customers at all, for days. This is Yonge Street – thriving main artery of the city! The daily route of thousands with disposable cash! But inside the mall: no one. It’s like one of those old Twilight Zone episodes in which everyone else has suddenly vanished from the face of the earth.

The complex was built to house 122 standalone retail units, most about 250 square feet, in simple glass and drywall. Of these units the Aura’s online floor plan lists just over 50 as presently occupied – but many of those, it becomes clear should one actually descend upon the Shops in person, have since been ditched or hurriedly fled. Some bear signs declaring overnight foreclosure: “rent owed,” “lease terminated,” things like that. Others that seem to be in business – hand-written sale signs in the window, reams of merchandise still on display – are revealed on closer inspection to be locked and deserted, a “for lease” notice posted to the door. The fortunate announce that they’ve moved to a new location. The less so have given up hope and just want out: “2 years free rent!!!” is a poster you’ll see in many windows.