Upscale Mall Planned For Toronto’s Current Globe and Mail Headquarters

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November 9, 2012

Today we got word that a “unique and upscale” 500,000 square foot shopping centre is planned for the site currently occupied by Toronto’s Globe & Mail (newspaper) headquarters. The project would also include residential and office components, as well as a smaller hotel.

As we reported earlier, The Toronto Eaton Centre’s non-anchor square footage is 582,000 square feet (excluding Sears, Canadian Tire and Best Buy).

Toronto’s Globe & Mail will move into a newly-built building at the corner of Front Street West and Spadina Avenue. This will leave a large site to be redeveloped as described above.

We have been told that the developer will court a variety of retailers, both local and international. It will be targeted as being ‘upscale’, though we have been provided few details about possible retailers at this time.We received this information from a broker involved in a deal where Riocan Trust and Allied Properties REIT are finalizing a deal to purchase the current Globe & Mail site, shown on the map above. Once finalized, a development proposal will be presented to Toronto City Hall.

This is the second recently-announced shopping centre for Downtown Toronto. Earlier we reported on the proposed Oxford Place near Toronto’s CN Tower.

Keep watching Retail Insider for updates. We’ve got the inside scoop on this exciting development!

Van Cleef and Arpels Opening Toronto Boutique

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Retail Insider

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November 8, 2012

Birks at Toronto Manulife Centre, Bloor Street. Image: 80bloorstreetwest.com

*UPDATE: Van Cleef & Arpels at Birks is now open: March 3rd, 2013*

Van Cleef & Arpels will open a branded-boutique inside Toronto’s Manulife Centre Birks Jewellers at 55 Bloor Street West. Construction will start soon. Birks has carried Van Cleef & Arpels in Toronto since 2005 and has finally decided to open a properly-branded Toronto boutique.

The Toronto Van Cleef & Arpels will be a small ‘jewel box’ of a store and will include Van Cleef’s newly-initiated darker-look interior (see image below of the Galeries Lafayette shop-in-store). The shop will include both jewellery and time pieces.

The Toronto Van Cleef & Arpels will be located on the ground-floor within the current two-level, 15,620 square foot Birks store. Birks is located in space B2 (ground-floor, as well as below) of this Manulife Centre floorplan below:

Birks has had a small Van Cleef & Arpels-dedicated shop in its 20,221 square foot Vancouver store since 2005. Birks also opened a branded Roberto Coin inside of Vancouver’s Four Seasons Hotel in October of 2011 and may open a free-standing Van Cleef & Arpels in Downtown Vancouver mid-2013. We’ll announce the proposed location shortly.

Van Cleef & Arpels Shop-in-Store. Image: Galeries Lafayette Paris

Watch our website, as Birks Jewellers will be opening other small branded luxury jewelry/watch shops in Canada. We’ll be doing our homework and posting on Retail Insider’s website, Twitter and Facebook page.

Birks website: http://www.birksandmayors.com
Manulife Centre website: www.manulifecentre.com

Sears Canada Re-Brands

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Retail Insider

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November 8, 2012

Sears Canada president and CEO Calvin MacDonald describes his vision for merchandising. A store is a “stage for products.” Photo by Vicki Gilhula.

Yesterday Sears Canada presented its rebranding strategy. It includes a modified Sears logo and a new marketing campaign including the commercial above. We’re not sure if Sears will win-over Canadians but we applaud their efforts. We think Sears would do best by surrendering their ‘better mall’ leases for Nordstrom (with ample compensation) and we’ll leave that decision to their CEO who is busy overhauling the company.

We are posting text from The Toronto Star:

“Sears Canada launches dramatic new rebrand

TheStar.com
Francine Kopun
Business Reporter
7 November 2012

Sears Canada launched a bouncy new rebrand on Wednesday morning, aimed at wooing back old customers and winning new ones using a mix of nostalgia and emotion.

The new tag line is Make Every Day a Great Day, and plants Sears firmly in the space discount retailer Target hopes to occupy when it opens its first stores in Canada in the spring.

The new campaign uses humour and emotion to reach out to customers.

Sears is celebrating 60 years in Canada. The new commercial features snippets of home movies submitted by Sears associates and plays on the relationship Sears has enjoyed in Canada as a general merchandise department store, selling everything from lawnmowers to lingerie, hockey sticks, hula hoops and bar stools.

The Sears logo isn’t revealed until the end of the ad, after a question pops up on the screen: “Today is a gift. What will you do with it?”

“When we started thinking about how we were going to refresh our position and talk to our customers, we really started with looking at what we sell,” said CEO Calvin McDonald, who took over the faltering retailer in 2011.

“We sell more wants than needs. What wants deliver is inspiration and emotion, happiness, and that was really the emotion we focused on for our brand and tag line.

“A lawnmower isn’t about cutting grass, it’s about making a soccer field . . . a toaster isn’t just a toaster, it makes a great morning.”

McDonald said he wanted to make the tag line a rallying cry for associates for delivering great service to customers.

The Sears logo will remain basically the same, although the blue has been lightened and a new font, designed uniquely for the rebrand, will replace the older one.

McDonald rolled out the new brand to associates at the Sears Eaton Centre location on Wednesday morning before the store opened for business.

Target has built strong success in the U.S. by focusing on a bright and fun customer experience and great prices for unique goods.

“I think this is a very different campaign, and very different position and tone. The tag is different, the tone, humour and emotion is different. Our service model is different, I think our value proposition is different,” said McDonald.

The campaign was created by the Unitas Reputation Agency, which began working with Sears in May.”

Sears Canada website: www.sears.ca

Upscale Vancouver Airport Outlet Mall to be Located on Skytrain Line

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Retail Insider

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November 8, 2012

Initial rendering of the 'Town Square' at Richmond BC's proposed McArthurGlen outlet. Image: Vancouver Airport Authority

Today it was announced that the proposed McArthurGlen outlet mall near Vancouver International Airport would be located within close proximity of the Templeton Skytrain station. This is a location change from a previously proposed centre further south on the Airport’s island. The proposed centre’s design and size is expected to change somewhat as well.

We have yet to see the new McArthurGlen designs as we have been told that they are ‘still in the works’. A phone call to the McArthurGlen London (England) headquarters was not returned at press time. We spoke to a prominent Toronto retail analyst who speculates the mall will include both ‘larger format’ as well as traditional outlet boutiques.

A representative at the Vancouver Airport Authority notes that it is unclear at this time what size the centre will be. Initially the proposal was for about 350,000 square feet, and we have been told that this new site could include up to a half-million square feet of retail as a new proposal is made to the Airport Authority for approval.

We got curious about the possibility of McAurthurGlen having a Nordstrom Rack. We called our Nordstrom insider in Seattle and they told us “Nordstrom can’t confirm a location in the new airport centre at this time. Nordstrom Rack is always interested in new retail opportunities and is actively seeking Canadian locations. We will make Canadian Rack location announcements shortly, and none of these currently include the Vancouver airport location you have mentioned”.

Soon after we spoke to our Holt Renfrew insider in Toronto who said, speculatively, that their new hr2 concept could be considered for the site but that this was only speculative as they would need to see site plan and tenant proposals to determine if McArthurGlen would be an appropriate location for hr2. Our Holt’s insider says hr2 will expand into the Lower Mainland but that no definitive locations have been secured.

We spoke to our Toronto retail analyst a second time, and he tells us he expects the new centre will include some upscale architecture, so as to cater to an affluent (mostly) Asian and tourist clientele expected to visit the centre. He says we might expect retailers such as Hugo Boss and Armani and possibly even Prada and Bottega Veneta.

We will be provided plans of the McArthurGlen centre when finalized, and we’ll post and analyse them for readers. Keep watching Retail Insider for McArthurGlen Vancouver updates.

McArthurGlen website: http://www.mcarthurglengroup.com

UNIQLO Coming to Canada. Vancouver Lease Negotiations Underway

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Retail Insider

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November 6, 2012

We’ve gotten word that Japanese cheap n’ chic retailer Uniqlo is coming to Canada, and is negotiating a lease for part of the sub-basement space in Vancouver’s Downtown Hudson’s Bay building, directly below the recently opened TopShop. We are waiting to hear about the store’s potential size and how many Canadian locations Uniqlo wants.

We previously reported Uniqlo’s potential Canadian entry with few other details.

Uniqlo has five American stores with several more on the way. The chain wants to open 20-30 American stores per year and ultimately wants to be the world’s top apparel retailer by the year 2020.

Please note that these lease negotiation talks are for space located within the Hudson’s Bay building and that Hudson’s Bay is not the organization bringing Uniqlo to Canada like it did with TopShop. That means Uniqlo could chose not to occupy this space and/or could choose other free-standing retail locations across Canada.

We’ll keep you updated on Uniqlo’s Canadian expansion. Also check out their American website, posted below, to get an idea what their clothing is like. We’ll be shopping there, guaranteed.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook (links below). We provide clues and post things not on this website!

Uniqlo American website: http://www.uniqlo.com/us

Nordstrom Expects Vancouver Store to be Top Performer… Until Manhattan

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Retail Insider

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November 5, 2012

Nordstrom at Pacific Centre (Rendering: Cadillac Fairview)

Vancouver BC’s new Nordstrom store is forecasted to be the company’s top performing store by 2017. The 230,000 square foot store is forecasted to bring in about $200million+/year in revenues, expected to surpass top-performing Chicago (Michigan Avenue) and Seattle (Downtown) flagship stores.

In 2018 its 285,000 square foot Manhattan store will open and is forecasted to sell substantially more than the Vancouver store ($300million+/year). A yet-to-be determined Toronto flagship Nordstrom is also expected to do well, though of course they first have to find a location (likely either at the Toronto Eaton Centre or Oxford Place, as previously reported).

Rendering of Manhattan Nordstrom store. Image: http://massforma.com/arch/nordstrom-tower

Last week we spoke to a Nordstrom executive by telephone from Seattle. This insider (we won’t name names) informs us that the chain’s top performing stores are ‘doing well’ but that Nordstrom would like to see revenue increases especially at their larger flagship locations. The Nordstrom insider expressed frustration at the downturn in high-end sales at Nordstrom’s San Francisco store, for example, and how sales have decreased at its South Coast Plaza (Costa Mesa, California) store, formerly its top performer.

This week we’ll provide further insider information on Vancouver’s (and other Canadian) Nordstrom stores. This includes some new information on store interiors.

Nordstrom website: www.nordstrom.com

Nordstrom Manhattan project website: http://massforma.com/arch/nordstrom-tower

Ordning&Reda Opens Two Canadian Locations @ Hudson’s Bay

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Retail Insider

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November 5, 2012

Ordning&Reda is a Swedish stationary company. We hadn’t heard of them until yesterday when we were strolling the sub-basement level of Vancouver’s Hudson’s Bay department store. We stumbled upon their shop and made a mental note to return.

Now we’ve got an explanation what they’re about, from the Vancouver Sun:

*****
“Swedish stationery style lands in Vancouver
November 4, 2012. 10:13 am • Section: Fashion and Beauty, STAFF

Ordning&Reda, the Swedish stationery company known for its candy-coloured paper goods, has landed in Vancouver at The Hudson’s Bay Company.

The shop-in-shop marks the first retail location for the company in B.C., and the second in Canada, with another location at The Bay’s Toronto flagship. The Bay is also the first North American retailer to carry Ordning&Reda, which means “neat and tidy” in Swedish.

“The Bay is the natural location to introduce Ordning&Reda in the Canadian market,” said Thomas Perez, President of Bodum USA, Inc. in a release.“Hudson Bay Company is excellent at creating a custom retail experience for the consumer, and we felt this type of curation would be perfect for the brand.”Already a mainstay in European markets, the Vancouver Ordning&Reda shop, features a full range of products including an extensive collection of paper goods and office organizational products, including notebooks, agendas, tech and travel accessories and more.

“http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/11/04/swedish-stationery-style-lands-in-vancouver*****

Their prices are reasonable the their merchandise colourful. We checked their website and they have free-standing boutiques and department store concessions mainly in Europe. It appears the Canadian shops are the only two in North America.

Their website is below:

Ordning&Reda website: http://www.ordning-reda.comHudson’s Bay website: www.thebay.com

New Renderings of Toronto’s Proposed Oxford Place

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Retail Insider

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November 2, 2012

Today we received two renderings of the proposed Toronto Oxford Place. The project’s proposal includes a Caesar’s-branded casino, convention centre, two towers (office and residential) at over 1000 feet each, and two substantially tall hotel towers.

These would be located above an approximately 1million square foot retail destination.

Park: As leaders in developing integrated entertainment complexes in major urban centres in North America, an integral component of the group’s potential casino development in downtown Toronto would be the creation of an urban park edged by retail, dining and year-round entertainment. (CNW Group/Caesars Entertainment Corporation)

Interestingly, the project could also include a performance stage beside a public green space, as per the image above.

Below is another image of the proposed park. It would be built over a current set of commuter train tracks…

An Oxford insider will be sending us some draft retail floorplans next week. We have been told that these include two large anchor tenants and at least one smaller anchor tenant. The smaller anchor could be hr2 by Holt Renfrew, according to our Oxford Source (this is speculative and not confirmed).

Watch this site for floorplans and updates!

Oxford Properties website: www.oxfordproperties.com

Top Canadian Malls Court Top International Tenants

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Retail Insider

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November 2, 2012

Mall of the Emirates, Dubai. Image: F+A Architects

Today we spoke with a real estate broker who gave us the lowdown on what retailers are looking to expand stores across Canada, and what retailers top malls want. Top malls continue to develop and evolve under such landlords as Cadillac Fairview, Oxford and Ivanhoe Cambridge.

Some retailers looking for Canada-wide expansion include (in no particular order):

-Kate Spade
-Burberry
-Tiffany & Co.
Scotch & Soda
-Thomas Sabo
-Free People
-7 For All Mankind
-Ann Taylor
-Ted Baker
-Microsoft
-Apple
-Armani Exchange
–Superdry
-Scotch & Soda
-Kiehl’s
-Little Burgundy
-J. Crew
-Wilfred (by Aritzia)
-Tory Burch
-Tumi
-Massimo Dutti
-Henri Bendel
And others… this list was getting a bit long.

These retailers only want space in the ‘best’ malls. Best malls include such centres as Chinook Centre in Calgary, Vancouver’s Pacific Centre and (after renovations) Oakridge Centre, Toronto’s Eaton Centre, Yorkdale and Sherway Gardens, Winnipeg’s Polo Park, and a few others. Expect massive mall renovations/expansions with plenty of new tenants at these and other A-level malls.

Which leads us to another question: What will happen to the ‘lesser’ Canadian malls with a future of online shopping and increased international travel? Retail Darwinism might mean that only a few ‘supermalls’ survive.

Next week we will go more in-depth, exploring Canada’s top malls and why only the ‘fittest’ will survive while others may fail and ultimately be re-developed.

First Look at Edmonton’s New La Maison Simons

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Retail Insider

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November 1, 2012

Simons West Edmonton Mall. Image: West Edmonton Mall (blog http://styleblog.wem.ca)

Simons opened its Edmonton store yesterday. It is mostly complete except for a north-facing atrium area that will include art work and some more retail space. Almost $50million has been spent on the interior of the 118,000 square foot store, and impressively it is expected to turn a profit within the first year.

The store is expected to pull in sales of $60 million in the first year and to grow sales to about $100million by 2017. Impressive numbers for a store marketing a substantial amount of mid-priced, private label merchandise.

These are actually men’s dressing rooms! Simons West Edmonton Mall. Image: Edmonton Sun

The store’s private label merchandise, marketed under a variety of names, carry a high enough profit margin to keep the store growing. Various other designer brands are carried including some top-of-the-line designers like Jean Paul Gaultier.

Simons has spent a fortune on its store interiors and will continue to do so. Owner Peter Simons notes that they can do this because it’s a privately held company, not open to the scrutiny of shareholders. An insider informs us that the company is profitable and that their strategy of ‘spend more to make more’ is working.

More dressing rooms. Check out the knit-covered trophy heads. Simons West Edmonton Mall. Image: Edmonton Journal

Simons is looking to expand across Canada into cities including Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and possibly Winnipeg. The chain will have 9 Canadian stores by 2013 (8 in Quebec and one in Edmonton), and would like to grow to 20 or more by 2020.

Retractable dressing rooms. Simons West Edmonton Mall. Image: Edmonton Sun

In 2011 a deal fell through to open an 80-100,000 square foot Simons store at the then-proposed ‘The Elms’ retail complex in Winnipeg. Expect more Canadian locations to be announced in the next while.

La Maison Simons website: www.simons.ca

Retail InsiderCanada's Most-Read Online Retail Industry Publication.

Upscale Mall Planned For Toronto’s Current Globe and Mail Headquarters

Van Cleef and Arpels Opening Toronto Boutique

Sears Canada Re-Brands

Upscale Vancouver Airport Outlet Mall to be Located on Skytrain Line

UNIQLO Coming to Canada. Vancouver Lease Negotiations Underway

Nordstrom Expects Vancouver Store to be Top Performer… Until Manhattan

Ordning&Reda Opens Two Canadian Locations @ Hudson’s Bay

New Renderings of Toronto’s Proposed Oxford Place

Top Canadian Malls Court Top International Tenants

First Look at Edmonton’s New La Maison Simons

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