Yorkdale Shopping Centre’s new $331 million, 300,000 square foot Nordstrom-anchored expansion wing opens to the public this week. The impressive space features soaring ceilings and a number of first-to-market retailers. We toured the space ahead of its public opening.
The wing features more than 20 new stores within about 100,000 square feet, including the world’s first Canada Goose location, other leading retailers and a five-level underground parkade. Later this week, MUJI, UNIQLO and a 199,000 square foot Nordstrom will open to the public. Other retailers opening this week in the new wing include Mackage, Arc’teryx, Maison Birks, Nadège, The Face Shop, Lululemon, Mendocino, NYX Cosmetics, Oak + Fort, Pandora, Reiss, Saje Natural Wellness, Samsung, Spareparts, Strellson, Williams Sonoma and Wolford. Later this year, Sandro and Warby Parker will open in the wing, as will several other retail tenants that Yorkdale will reveal when permitted.
Yorkdale’s MUJI (opening Tuesday, October 18) is Canada’s largest, with products and amenities unavailable at its other two Canadian stores. Sandro and Maje are both opening their first freestanding Canadian stores in the new wing as well. Uniqlo opens on Thursday, October 20, and might experience lineups similar to those at the CF Toronto Eaton Centre opening last month.
“This is the largest retail expansion in the Greater Toronto Area this year,” said Claire Santamaria, General Manager, Yorkdale Shopping Centre. “Canadian demand for world-class shopping is strong and Yorkdale is a leading centre of style. This new wing expands our assortment of brands in a way that will resonate with diverse consumers and attract shoppers from all over the world.”
*Attention: High Profile Sponsorship Opportunity: Retail Council of Canada will soon be launching its first annual research study on Canadian shopping centres, which will be distributed widely and promoted heavily. For information on Sponsorship opportunities, contact: cpatterson@retailcouncil.org*
The expansion wing also features a new concierge desk as well as a separate ‘Style Concierge’, with stylists available to assist shoppers one-on-one.
We had a peek inside Nordstrom over the weekend and will report more tomorrow. The new store is impressive, featuring a considerable amount of natural light through windows as well as a number of glamorous luxury boutiques for both apparel and accessories.
Yorkdale’s new five-level underground parking garage below the new Nordstrom wing adds about 2,000 spaces to the mall, which now has about 8,000 stalls on-site. The mall is accessible both by highway as well as TTC subway.
Also launching in the new wing this week is a 3,000 square foot pop-up space called FashionCAN — a partnership between Yorkdale and the Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards (CAFA), with leading and emerging brands such as Pink Tartan, Greta Constantine, Lucian Matis, Bustle and others.
Yorkdale kicked off the mall’s fashion offerings yesterday (Sunday, October 16) with a fashion show previewing several of the new wing’s retailers. Some of the photos in this article were taken during that time and, hence, some runway presentation fixtures can be seen in some of our shots. We’ll update this article with more photos as new store facades and interiors are completed by individual retailers.
See below for more photos.
Impressive looking addition. However, I do have my concerns.
I really question if Toronto and Canada can continue to support so much luxury expansion, with so many branches of each store operating in the same city. All this expansion may kill the high sales per square foot that Canadian malls and retail areas achieve. It seems many of these stores, particularly the American ones, do not understand the reason for weak sales south of the border is too much retail.
I think it is a real slap in the face to downtown Toronto retail that so many stores are opening their only Toronto store in a suburban mall. Or in the case of some stores, opening their largest Toronto location at Yorkdale instead of downtown. This would have been unheard of 10 years ago, and it is very American, where suburban malls start taking the luster away from downtown. Toronto was able to resist the decline in downtown retail during the post war era, and it would be sad for downtown to lose out now. But Yorkdale is really having a negative effect on the downtown retail.
It is kinda sad to see unique places like Nadège become just another chain you can find anywhere. It was unique when they were only found in one or two locations, and were a unique part of the neighborhoods they are in. Once places branch out like this, they no doubt lose their high quality product, as they work to just mass produce for the masses. And they just are not unique anymore, and just aids in making every neighborhood and mall look the same.
Interesting expansion, but continued expansion like this is going to have a negative effect on the core of the city, and is that really what we want to see happen?
I live in downtown core on Bloor St W and Bedford St. I regularly shop online and time to time visit Bloor and Yorkville boutiques for shopping. However, I prefer to travel to Yorkdale Centre over Eaton Centre.
Eaton Centre is pretty unpleasant place to shop with its pretty boring selection of retailers, except Saks Fifth Avenue. Eaton Centre is over crowded, poorly maintained (especially the washrooms) staff at most of the stores are over worked and due to that provide poor customer service. Food court stinky and most of the stool covers are ripped off, a lot of cracked tiles all over the place. Worst of the all is that Eaton Centre is full of panhandlers and homeless ppl. (This is just a single comparison of Yorkdale Centre to a downtown mall)
I’ve been to most renown malls around the globe and I can confidently say that Yorkdale mall is the most outstanding shopping centre of Canada!!!
To Mb:
Sorry but I don’t want to be travelling downtown all the time. It’s a huge time waster for me
to MB,
To be fair, Yorkdale is considered mid town now, and fairly urban due to condo and low rise expansion in the area, add to that being a transit hub and it makes sense for these retailers to be there.
Most of the wealth resides in the burbs! This is Canada…winter sucks the life out of outdoor retail, while malls will hum all year long! The most success will come from retailers that situate themselves near highways…easier access, and less commute time…takes forever to get downtown and good luck with parking (that is, unless you’re a condominium…developers have no issue finding a parking lot)!