“When people think about Vancouver, they think of the downtown, which has been very successful, and they think of everything around that downtown as dominated by single-family construction built in an era when the automobile was dominant,” said Ian Gillespie, Westbank’s chief executive.

Oakridge is a departure from that concept, Mr. Gillespie said. “It isn’t a shopping center anymore. It is a cultural hub.”

The first phase of the development, which is sold out, features 709 condominiums ranging from around 900,000 to 6 million Canadian dollars.

Built in 1956, the Oakridge mall has been one of the most successful in Canada based on sales per square foot, said Remco Daal, president of Canadian real estate at QuadReal, which bought the mall in 2017. Nevertheless, Mr. Daal said, the shopping center needs to shift its orientation as consumers turn to e-commerce.

“The transaction of retail may happen somewhere else, but experience is what people remember. That is the journey we are on,” Mr. Daal said. Other malls have responded to the changing shopping habits of consumers by adding residential units and reducing parking, but Oakridge is “truly city building,” he said.

QuadReal is behind another prominent mixed-use project: the renovation of the historic Canada Post building. The project, which will cost 900 million Canadian dollars, will feature 1.13 million square feet of office space and around 185,000 square feet of retail space and is expected to breathe new life into the eastern edge of downtown.