Last year, Eastgate completed the final phase of a $3-million renovation project, which included a completely renovated building entrance, the opening of a 7,200-square-foot Jack Astor's Bar and Grill, a new bus pad and traffic lights at the property entrance on Queenston Road.

Eastgate has also added a Beer Store, LCBO and Shoppers Drug Mart.

"Wal-Mart did some interior renovations, as well, just constant improvements," said Ms. Simpson. "It's really neat for people who haven't been here in a long time to drive by or to come in. There's always new tenants coming; a lot of our tenants who have renewed their leases are renovating, so that their stores look nicer and have more to offer."

New tenants include HMV, scheduled to arrive in late spring and Sears, which will replace the Bay and is slated to open in early fall.

"Sears should be open for back-to-school," said Ms. Simpson. "Obviously, a lot of the stores try be open for the major events like back to school and Christmas, but it's a pretty big construction project, so they're doing their best to move through it as quickly as they can and be open as soon as they can, so it's going to be a really great addition. They're going to carry a lot of items that the Bay we had currently didn't carry, so it will offer more selection for our customers."

Eastgate has seen its share of unique visitors as well.

About 1,200 hopefuls packed the mall earlier this month for Canadian Idol auditions. It was the first time the CTV television show held auditions in Hamilton and singers, songwriters, pianists and guitar players travelled from across Ontario to try their luck.

"Our doors opened at 6 a.m. and right when they opened, people started coming," said Ms. Simpson. "Most of our food court vendors doubled their sales and it was actually really good even just for this area, as a lot of the hotels were booked up.

"We also had Tourism Hamilton here and a booth set up to give out some information on Hamilton and kind of keep people in the area, so it worked out really well. It was amazing. I've never seen the mall so busy, but it was great."

Ms. Simpson says Eastgate's continued success can be attributed to its ability to identify shoppers and their needs.

"The area has changed, so it's keeping up with demand and knowing what people are looking for," she said. "We'll do market research and leasing has done a really good job of securing some tenants that, five or six years ago wouldn't have been interested in the property but because of the improvements, they have been. So I think that is one of the major things - just keeping up with the area and making sure you're serving your customers properly and offering good customer service."

Things are always changing at Eastgate, adds Ms. Simpson.

"I would say one of the most difficult parts of my job is to try to let people know we've got this open, we've got that open, this is renovated and so on," she said. "So it's always worth coming back and shopping because if you thought we were missing something before, let us know, we always do our best to try and bring in what the customers are looking for."