Lloyd D. Jackson Square

Despite protests against the design of the square, Jackson Square remained an economic success and an important centre of life in the city through the 1970s and into the mid-1980s. After years of dispute and confusion over the future of the Hamilton Farmer's Market, it was consolidated into a new indoor space in 1980,[4] coupled with a new, larger central library. Then in 1983, the Standard Life Centre office tower opened at the west end of the complex. And two years later, a 19-story Sheraton Hotel with a pool and overhead connection to the Hamilton Convention Centre opened up alongside a 19,000-seat sports arena called Copps Coliseum[4] (now FirstOntario Centre).

The general downturn of department stores and malls, combined with competition from Limeridge Mall which opened on the Hamilton escarpment in 1981, proved difficult for Jackson Square. In 1989 Yale Properties announced it would close the skating rink and replace it with a daycare centre for the office workers, an idea that never came to full fruition.[5] By 1994, as high-end chain clothing stores and smaller local boutiques left the mall in quick succession, Jackson Square became a haven for delinquent activity. In 1996, Le Château, Bianca Nygård, and two other stores left from the mall.[6] Unfortunately, two months later, in October 1996, the 25 non-profit groups that came to inhabit Jackson Square faced eviction,[7] and engaged in a battle with Yale Properties that ended abruptly on October 10, 1998, with their 30-day notice of eviction.[8] Likewise the office complexes saw a decline in occupation.[9] The final blow for Jackson Square came in 1997, when the Bank of Montreal announced that it would be leaving its commercial pavilion and moving to its own lot on the corner of Main and Bay Street. Then, two years later, the famous Eaton's department store collapsed and was annexed by The Bay which refused to take over space in the Eaton Centre.[4]

After the release of the Hamilton Spectator's Code Red study in the Spring of 2010 revealed that the downtown core was a food desert, significantly contributing to the poverty and ill-health of the city's poorest citizens, Manager of the Economic Development Department Glen Norton placed an offer of $650,000 in grants as an incentive for a private grocer to build in the core.[10] Jackson Square management announced that it would be the home of the new Nations Fresh Foods grocery store in the spring of 2013, which would take over the mall's western retail portion in the lobby of the Standard Life Centre, The store opened on July 13, 2013.[10] On March 25, 2015, a new LCBO was unveiled in the mall. The 5,530 square foot store was placed beside Nations Fresh Foods in the mall's west end and contains over 4,473 square feet of display space.[11]