Could Holt Renfrew Open at Mississauga’s Square One?

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March 18, 2013

Could Holt Renfrew Open at Mississauga's Square One? (Photo: CBC)

Holt Renfrew is in talks with Oxford Properties to open a store at Mississauga’s Square One Shopping Centre. Negotiations have been ongoing for several years, according to a source at Holt Renfrew head office. This store would replace Holt Renfrew’s current Sherway Gardens store.

Negotiations with landlord Cadillac Fairview for an enlarged Holt Renfrew store at Sherway Gardens have been unsuccessful and Oxford has jumped in to lure Holt’s away from Sherway into a newly renovated Square One Shopping Centre.

In July 2012 we reported on Holt Renfrew’s expanding its Sherway Gardens store to 102,000 square feet. It appears we may have published this information in haste, given the now-stalled negotiations.

The Globe & Mail reported Sunday evening on Holt’s potential Square One move. The link to this Globe & Mail article can be found [here].

While researching for this article, we found this online petition to add Holt Renfrew to Square One. So far it only appears to have seven signatures…
We will update readers as we learn more of Holt Renfrew’s possible relocation in the Western Greater Toronto Area.

Holt Renfrew website: www.HoltRenfrew.com
Square One Shopping Centre website: www.shopsquareone.com
Sherway Gardens website: www.sherwaygardens.ca

John Fluevog Opening Toronto Distillery District Store in May

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March 15, 2013

World-renowned Vancouver-based footwear designer/retailer John Fluevog will open its second Toronto store in the ‘Distillery District‘ in May. The store will include limited edition men’s and women’s shoes styles only available at this Fluevog store location. Toronto’s other John Fluevog store is located in Toronto’s trendy Queen Street West area.

This will be Fluevog’s seventh Canadian store and its 17th world-wide. Canadian Fluevog store locations include Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Quebec City and Vancouver (two stores). American Fluevog stores are located in New York City, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Portland, Washington DC and San Francisco (two stores). Toronto will be the third city in the world to have two Fluevog stores.

John Fluevog footwear started in 1969 with then-business partner Peter Fox. Fluevog ‘went it alone’ in 1980 and built the internationally popular shoe and accessories label to what it is today. Its headquarters are located in a stunning glass-clad flagship store in Vancouver’s Gastown area.

Fluevog joins several other upscale Distillery district retailers including Gotstyle, Euoko and Lileo, among others. Toronto’s Distillery District has seen several new upscale stores open in recent years. We previously reported on the opening of fashionable store ‘Gotstyle’. Internationally-renowned Toronto-based cosmetics manufacturer/retailer Euoko also has its world-flagship store in Toronto’s Distillery District.

It would appear that Toronto’s Distillery District is becoming a unique, popular shopping destination that could eventually attract substantial upscale retailers in the coming years. The Distillery District is the largest preserved collection of Victorian-era industrial architecture in the world which opened to the public as a shopping, drinking and dining destination in 2003. Prior to 2003, it was used for filming for countless movies, TV shows and music videos.

Sources: ACT7 of Urban Toronto and this Fluevog Press Release.
John Fluevog website: http://www.fluevog.com

Distillery District website: http://www.thedistillerydistrict.com

Lululemon May Build New Robson/Burrard Flagship in Vancouver

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March 14, 2013

Lululemon May Build New Robson/Burrard Flagship in Vancouver

Word has it that Vancouver BC-based Lululemon Athletica may open a flagship location at the south-east corner of Robson and Burrard Streets in Downtown Vancouver. The store would replace a Blenz coffee shop and other adjacent retail spaces at the base of the 800 Burrard Street Building. So far both Lululemon and potential broker sources won’t reveal further details.

We’ve been told that the store could take over a ‘substantial’ retail portion of 800 Burrard Street. A source informs us the project would involve a reconfiguration of the the building’s current retail podium, including a partial exterior renovation.

Lululemon would be relocating from its current store location at 1148 Robson Street.

The potential new store will be located across the street from the massive Victoria’s Secret store currently under construction in retail space formerly occupied by retailer HMV.

We’ve been informed that some other ‘big changes’ will be coming to Vancouver’s Robson Street. We’ll report on these periodically as we are granted permission to do so.

Lululemon was founded in Vancouver in 1998 as a yoga wear manufacturer and retailer. It has over 200 stores world-wide.

Lululemon website: http://shop.lululemon.com/home.jsp

Tiffany & Co. Coming to West Edmonton Mall

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March 11, 2013

Tiffany & Co. Coming to West Edmonton Mall

Tiffany & Co. will open an approximately 3,300 square foot store in West Edmonton Mall. The full-line store replaces a former Tiffany & Co. “corner” located in Edmonton’s Downtown Holt Renfrew store. We recently reported on Tiffany’s Holt Renfrew Edmonton closing.

The store will be located on the second-level in the mall’s “Phase III” between store Coach and SoftMoc, across the hall from J.Crew and Banana Republic (see mall map above).

We first made mention of a potential West Edmonton Mall Tiffany store in February 2013.

This will be Tiffany’s 12th Canadian store, and its first first full-line Edmonton store. Tiffany & Co.’s other Canadian locations are in Metro Toronto (3 locations), Vancouver (3 locations), Calgary (2 locations), Montreal (2 locations) and Ottawa.

Source: West Edmonton Mall

Tiffany & Co. website: www.tiffany.ca

West Edmonton Mall website: http://www.wem.ca

Tiger of Sweden Opens Second North American Store in Toronto

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March 11, 2013

Tiger of Sweden has just opened its 3650 square foot Toronto store at 56 Ossington Avenue. The store replaces an art gallery. This is the second Tiger store location in North America, following a Montreal store at 1130 bd de Maisonneuve.

Tiger is a Swedish fashion label, founded in 1903. In the 1990’s it became known for fashionable men’s suits. It has since become a popular label for men and women. The company currently only has European stores as well as its Montreal store.

The Toronto store is located in Ossington Village, a hip up-and-coming shopping area on Ossington Avenue near Queen Street West.

Thank you to retail insider Jason Ryle, the source of this article.

Tiger of Sweden website: tigerofsweden.com

Sandro Opens Concessions at Hudson’s Bay

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March 11, 2013

Popular French fashion label Sandro has opened dedicated men’s and women’s designer concessions inside of several Hudson’s Bay stores. The concessions do not include dedicated ‘hard-shop’ fixtures per se, but do include dedicated sales representatives for the well-edited collections.

Sandro has become a popular fashion label with prices in the ‘bridge‘ or ‘contemporary‘ range. A description of Sandro’s design background can be found here. The company has stores around the world and has a dedicated presence in American retailer Bloomingdale’s as per this Sandro store listing page.

Sandro concessions are located in the following Hudson’s Bay stores:

Women’s:
Toronto: 176 Yonge Street (“Queen Street Store”), Yorkdale Shopping Centre
Montreal: Downtown (585 Sainte-Catherine Street West)
Vancouver: Downtown (674 Granville Street)

Men’s:

Toronto: 176 Yonge Street (“Queen Street Store”)
Montreal: Downtown (585 Sainte-Catherine Street West)
Vancouver: Downtown (674 Granville Street)

Hudson’s Bay is in the process of securing distribution rights for several new upscale designers, and we look forward to bringing them to you as we learn them.

Sandro website (American version): http://us.sandro-paris.com

Hudson’s Bay website: www.TheBay.com

A Look Behind Password-Protected ‘Holts Access’ VIP Website

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March 8, 2013

A Look Behind Password-Protected 'Holts Access' VIP Website

In January we reported on Holt Renfrew’s new ‘VIP website‘, called ‘Holts Access’. The site is for Holt’s ‘VIP clients’, and requires a password. We have the password, and today we’ll show you what’s behind it. So far it hasn’t been much.

We were provided with the site’s password in February and so far these are the screen shots we’ve taken.

The Holts Access site starts with a screen with a profiled designer’s name (see image at the top of this article). For February 7, 2013, Dior was profiled.

Behind the Dior screen was the opportunity to purchase limited edition Dior sunglasses. That was the only product available on the site at that time.

A couple of weeks after, there were no products available on Holts Access.

On March 6th, 2013 we took this screenshot of Holts Access’s website. This time they’re marketing products by Emilio Pucci.

Included for sale are a $4,700 Pucci dress and a $21,750 fur-lined jacket. We found the return policy interesting, see below:

So far very few products have been available at ‘Holts Access’. We’ll update readers with new products and screenshots periodically.

Holt Renfrew ‘Holts Access’ website: http://www.holtrenfrew.com/en/holt/content/footer/vip/look-books

Holt Renfrew website: www.HoltRenfrew.com

Zadig & Voltaire Coming to Canada

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Retail Insider

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March 7, 2013

French clothing retailer Zadig & Voltaire will open men’s and women’s shop-in-store locations inside of Holt Renfrew stores in Toronto (50 Bloor Street West), Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal.

Zadig & Voltaire was started in 1997 by the grandson of the founder of Lacoste. The brand’s products are in the ‘contemporary’ or ‘bridge’ price ranges. The brand has become popular and is considered to be ‘fashion forward’.

Zadig & Voltaire has stores around the world, both free-standing and shop-in-store concessions. The company has five free-standing American stores, and has shop-in-store concessions at nine American Bloomingdale’s locations.

Zadig & Voltaire is currently advertising store supervisor employment positions for their Holt Renfrew-based stores. Some of these job postings are at this link.

We will keep you updated on this company, including if other Zadig & Voltaire stores will be opening in Canada.

Thank you to our insider sources, ACT7 of Urban Toronto and Marc Adams for providing us with this article’s information.

Zadig & Voltaire website: zadig-et-voltaire.com

Hudson’s Bay Finally, Formally Launches ‘New Logo’

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Retail Insider

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March 6, 2013

New Hudson's Bay department store logo, in English and French.

Today Hudson’s Bay formally launched its new logo and simplified name ‘Hudson’s Bay’, above. Retail Insider readers may have known this change was coming when we announced it back in October 2012. Last week we reported the name change to Hudson’s Bay’s website. ‘Mainstream media’ is now reporting these changes after Hudson’s Bay issued a press release providing all past and future Hudson’s Bay-font logos. We’ll show you the press releases’ provided images.

Above is the original Hudson’s Bay Company font/’logo’. It was used by the company for eons, and was augmented with the simplified name ‘The Bay’ and its logo, below, in 1965.

Below is the new English and French names and dedicated font of the department store now known as ‘Hudson’s Bay’.

The logo below is for ‘The Hudson’s Bay Company’, which includes department store Hudson’s Bay in Canada and Lord & Taylor in the United States. It also includes Canadian retailer Home Outfitters in its portfolio, as well as three Zellers stores which we previously mentioned.

We can expect Hudson’s Bay’s store re-branding to happen gradually over time, and there are no formal timelines in place for its completion. The company’s website and flyers have been re-branded, and Hudson’s Bay is now adding it to their stores. Their Downtown Vancouver store, for example, has had the new signage since October 2012.
Note: all images above are from this press release.
Hudson’s Bay website: www.TheBay.com
Hudson’s Bay Company website: www.hbc.com

Substantial Shopping Mall Part of MGM/Cadillac Fairview Toronto Casino Proposal

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Retail Insider

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March 6, 2013

[Image Source]

Today MGM Resorts and Cadillac Fairview presented plans for a new mega-complex at Toronto’s Exhibition Place. Plans include a ‘best-in-class’ shopping centre that will be between 750,000 and one million square feet.

Image adapted from Google Maps

News sources (Globe & Mail, Toronto Star etc) have quoted this as being ‘half the size of the Toronto Eaton Centre‘. This may be true, but readers should keep in mind that the Toronto Eaton Centre’s 1,566,093 square foot premises includes three anchors: an 816,070 square foot Sears store, a 34,356 square foot Best Buy and an 85,580 square foot Canadian Tire store. That leaves only 514,253 square feet of retail for the rest of the Toronto Eaton Centre. Excluding possible anchors, the proposed MGM/Cadillac Fairview shopping mall could therefore include more non-anchor mall space than the Toronto Eaton Centre.

[Image Source]

The entire MGM/Cadillac Fairview proposal would cost roughly $3 billion and would also include the following:

-A 240,000 square foot MGM casino facility,
-A 15-20 floor 1,200 room ‘luxury’ hotel,
-A 900 seat permanent Cirque du Soleil performance space,
-A massive parking facility,
-A ‘Canadian Music Hall of Fame’ and
-Expanded convention space

Three proposed Downtown Toronto Malls. Image adapted from Google Maps

Toronto’s central area has seen several shopping centre proposals in recent months. In October 2012 we reported on the proposed retail mall which would be part of Oxford Place, a massive development located near Toronto’s CN Tower. In November 2012 we reported on a proposed shopping complex on the site of Toronto’s current Globe & Mail headquarters. This MGM/Cadillac Fairview project would be the third substantial shopping centre announcement for Toronto’s central area in only half a year. We question which of these (if any) will actually be built.

A renovated Stanley Barracks would be part of this proposal. [Image Source]

Toronto City Council is expected to vote on proposed casino projects in April. We’ll keep you informed of these projects including their proposed retail components.

Toronto Eaton Centre information source: http://www.cfretail.com/EN/PropertySearch/Pages/TorontoEatonCentre.aspx

MGM/Cadillac Fairview project proposal website: http://mgmcf.com

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Could Holt Renfrew Open at Mississauga’s Square One?

John Fluevog Opening Toronto Distillery District Store in May

Lululemon May Build New Robson/Burrard Flagship in Vancouver

Tiffany & Co. Coming to West Edmonton Mall

Tiger of Sweden Opens Second North American Store in Toronto

Sandro Opens Concessions at Hudson’s Bay

A Look Behind Password-Protected ‘Holts Access’ VIP Website

Zadig & Voltaire Coming to Canada

Hudson’s Bay Finally, Formally Launches ‘New Logo’

Substantial Shopping Mall Part of MGM/Cadillac Fairview Toronto Casino Proposal

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