Nordstrom Press Release Names First Four Canadian Locations

This morning Nordstrom and commercial real estate owner/manager Cadillac Fairview announced Canada’s first four Nordstrom locations. We previously reported these four locations, and we now have more information on opening dates and store sizes:

1) The Vancouver Pacific Centre location will be about 230,000 square feet and will occupy the ground, second and third floors of the current Sears location. The top four floors will be 280,000 square feet of office space, and the 48,000 sq ft basement level will be a retailed extension of Pacific Centre’s mall-level. It will open Spring 2015.

2) The Calgary Chinook Centre store will be about 140,000 square feet, occupying the Sears store at the North end of the mall. It will open Fall 2014.

3) The Ottawa Rideau Centre store will be about 157,000 square feet, occupying the two upper levels of of the three-level, 240,000 sq ft  current Sears store. It will open Spring 2015.

4) The Toronto Sherway Gardens store will be about 138,000 square feet, and will be a newly-built store at the south-end of the mall (currently occupied by Sporting life, as we previously reported). It will open Fall 2016.

And now for the information not provided in today’s press conference. Nordstrom and Cadillac Fairview are actively trying to take over Sears leases at The Toronto Eaton Centre and Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre. Part of the 800,000 square foot Toronto Eaton Centre store would be Nordstrom, part of the space would be sub-divided, and part might possibly go to La Maison Simons, the Quebec-based retailer seeking a Canadian expansion. The 190,000 square foot Yorkdale store would be entirely (or mostly) Nordstrom, going head-to-head with neighbouring Bay and Holt Renfrew stores.

Nordstrom is examining other retail locations across Canada. Many of these are currently occupied by Sears Canada. A few potential locations include:

-Edmonton: Sears Southgate Shopping Centre
-Richmond, BC: Sears Richmond Centre
-Burnaby BC: Metropolis at Metrotown
-Winnipeg MN: Sears Polo Park

Nordstrom’s president, Blake Nordstrom, says Canada has room for between six and nine full-sized Nordstrom stores.

Readers may note that some of the Nordstrom stores seem a bit ‘small’ and indeed are only slightly larger than a full-sized Holt Renfrew store. Canada’s Nordstrom’s will initially lack some services offered by some larger American Nordstroms, such as spas, multiple restaurants, and wedding dress salons. The Vancouver store, however, will likely have all of these.

Both Holt Renfrew and The Hudson’s Bay Company will be scrambling to secure designer labels and vendors. Holt Renfrew already has massive expansion plans as we previously reported, and The Hudson’s Bay Company will issue an IPO late October 2012 to raise much-needed funds (over $1billion) to renovate many of its Canadian locations.

We will consistently update this website with further Nordstrom Canada news, as well as Hudson’s Bay Company and Holt Renfrew efforts to modernize and expand their current locations in anticipation of retail competition previously unseen in Canada.

Nordstrom website: www.nordstrom.com

Cadillac Fairview website: www.cadillacfairview.com