A Montblanc boutique will open towards the end of this month in Downtown Montreal. It will be the second Montblanc store in the Montreal area, as well as the fourth free-standing Montblanc location in Canada. It will be located on the north-east corner of Boulevard de Maisonneuve West and Rue de la Montagne.
Both of Montreal’s Montblanc shops are franchises operated by MSD Luxury Retail. MSD Luxury was created by Michael Delouya in 2010. His family’s jewelry business, Bijouterie Joël, has partnered with Montblanc for over 30 years.
Thank you ACT7 of Urban Toronto for providing details for this article.
Vancouver-based Boys’Co has completed renovations on its 1044 Robson Street store. The family-owned retailer revamped the store in anticipation of the company’s birthday celebrations later this year.Â
Following its renovation, the interior of the 2,000 square foot store enjoys a more modern, cleaner aesthetic. Sightlines are clearer, as displays have been lowered below eye level. The Robson Street store opened in 1997, replacing a former location at 1080 Robson Street that was demolished for a redevelopment. This former location opened in 1987, three years after its first store location at Vancouver’s Oakridge Centre.Â
For those unfamiliar, Boys’Co is a trendy, upscale multi-brand menswear retailer with four store locations. Three of those fall under the Boys’Co brand and they are located at Vancouver’s Oakridge Centre, Robson Street, and Burnaby’s Metropolis at Metrotown. Metropolis also houses the company’s only IVY ROOM store, which features ‘ivy league’ looks from upscale designers.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF BOYS’CO
The family-owned company was founded in 1946 and the Boys’Co division was founded in 1984. 30-year birthday celebrations will take place in October of this year. We’ll be publishing a lengthy feature article on the company closer to that date.
Dutch men’s suit retailer Suitsupply will open its second Canadian store location in Montreal. According to Suitsupply’s website, the Montreal store is expected to open in the fall or winter of 2014. It follows the retailer’s successful opening of its first Canadian store in Toronto.
For those unfamiliar, Suitsupply is a vertically integrated men’s suit retailer that was started in 2000 in Amsterdam. It has received many awards and was voted #1 men’s suit retailer by the Wall Street Journal. Prices start at under $500 and both quality and style are considered to be exceptional.
We’re unsure of the location of Montreal’s new Suitsupply, though its website’s map seems to indicate that it may open in Old Montreal. In February of this year, its Toronto store opened at 9-11 Hazelton Avenue in Toronto’s upscale Yorkville area. The 4,800 square foot Toronto store spans two floors.
Suitsupply has 10 American store locations and it expects to open three more shortly.
A source with the company informs us that Suitsupply intends to eventually open stores in Calgary and Vancouver.
Victoria’s Secret opened its second Ottawa-area store today at Rideau Centre. Two stores technically opened: a 9,600 square foot Victoria’s Secret store on the mall’s third level, and a 4,000 square foot Pink by Victoria’s Secret store on the mall’s second level.
Victoria’s Secret’s first Ottawa location opened in October of 2013 at the Bayshore Shopping Centre. At about 13,400 square feet, the Bayshore space is about the same size as the combined Victoria’s Secret stores at the Rideau Centre .
Quebec’s largest mall, Les Galeries de la Capitale, is expected to add about 150,000 square feet of retail space at a cost of about $150 million. An 11-screen Cineplex theatre will also be added, and construction could begin at the end of 2014.
La Press reports that negotiations are still underway for the proposed 150,000 square foot mall expansion. The expansion would be on the south side of the mall. Rumour has it that Victoria’s Secret could open a store within the mall expansion. If so, it would be Victoria’s Secret’s second location in the province of Quebec, following the 2012 opening of an 11,000 square foot Victoria’s Secret at Le Carrefour Laval in suburban Montreal.
This week, Montreal-based Browns Shoes launched an online version of its discounted footwear store, Browns Outlet. The new website features discounted footwear from its regular stores and website.
The ‘Outlet’ has its own tab on the company’s main website. Apart from men’s and women’s footwear, handbags are also featured.
The new website compliments the company’s two two bricks-and-mortar Browns Outlet store locations. One is at Vaughan Mills in suburban Toronto, and the other is at Place Vertu in suburban Montreal.
Harry Rosen will expand and renovate its Montreal flagship, adding approximately 11,000 square feet to the store. The expanded store will become the company’s second-largest, following its 54,000 square foot Toronto flagship. New features for the Montreal location will include multiple shops-in-store as well as the company’s largest shoe department.
According to CEO Larry Rosen, the ‘new’ Montreal Harry Rosen store will be state-of-the-art. Its current 22,000 square foot store will be enlarged by 50%, bringing it to an impressive 33,000 square feet. When completed in the fall of 2015, it will boast the company’s largest shoe department. Expanded areas for men’s accessories will be rolled out, including a shop-in-store for Robert Tateossian cufflinks and accessories. A fragrance bar will be launched. Boutiques for Brunello Cucinelli, Giorgio Armani Black Label, Ermenegildo Zegna, Canali, Tom Ford, Dolce & Gabbana and others will be featured. Valet parking will be provided and a new streetfront entrance will be created by annexing adjacent retail space.
Montreal’s Harry Rosen store, located at Les Cours Mont Royal, originally opened in 1999 and at the time, was the second-largest in the chain (following the then-32,000 square foot Bloor Street location in Toronto). Since its opening, Harry Rosen stores have become larger. In the fall of 2008, its Bloor Street flagship expanded from 32,000 to 54,000 square feet, making it one of North America’s largest upscale men’s stores. In 2010, its Calgary store expanded from about 18,000 square feet to just over 30,000 square feet. Its Yorkdale Shopping Centre location is completing an expansion that will see it grow to occupy almost 31,000 square feet. Given the increase in store sizes, Montreal’s Harry Rosen store expansion was to be expected.
LES COURS MONT ROYAL, HOME TO MONTREAL’S FLAGSHIP HARRY ROSEN STORE. IMAGE SOURCE
Les Cours Mount Royal is an upscale Downtown Montreal retail centre that was once a large hotel. Built in 1922, the then-Mount Royal Hotel was the largest in the British Empire, with 1,100 rooms. In 1988, about 200,000 square feet of the hotel’s lower portion was converted to retail. It now houses Canada’s largest DKNY store, and is home to one of Montreal’s most luxurious womenswear retailers, Ursula B.
INSIDE THE ELEGANT LES COURS MONT ROYAL. HARRY ROSEN’S EXPANSION WILL SEE THE STORE OCCUPY 33,000 SQUARE FEET OVER THREE FLOORS. IMAGE SOURCE
TOM FORD IS ONE OF SEVERAL SHOPS-IN-STORES THAT WILL FEATURE PROMINENTLY IN THE NEWLY EXPANDED HARRY ROSEN. OTHER SHOPS WILL INCLUDE GIORGIO ARMANI, BRUNELLO CUCINELLI, DOLCE & GABBANA, ZEGNA, CANALI AND OTHERS. IMAGE SOURCE
Thank you to Harry Rosen’s CEO, Larry Rosen, for providing us with an interview from which we gathered this information. In the coming weeks we’ll provide more exciting news on what’s happening with Harry Rosen as the company celebrates its 60th anniversary.
Retail Insider was started two years ago today. As we enter our third year, we want to thank our readers, sources, and our team who continue to make Retail Insider possible. We’re also looking to grow our business, possibly with your help.Â
On April 8th, 2012, we started Retail Insider with a blog post about Nordstrom’s struggles with its intended entry into Canada. We continued posting articles as we realized that there were readers interested in the Canadian retail industry.
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Yorkdale’s new Miu Miu store is similar in size to the Bloor Street location, which is about 450 square feet. As with Bloor Street’s Miu Miu, Yorkdale’s carries only accessories and handbags, and no women’s clothing.
There are currently 17 leased Miu Miu boutiques in the United States. Ten are free-standing shops that carry women’s ready-to-wear. The other seven are accessory boutiques like those in Canada, and six of those are within Saks Fifth Avenue stores while one is within Manhattan’s flagship Bloomingdale’s store. No word yet if Saks Fifth Avenue will attempt to secure Miu Miu leases when it opens in Canada.
St. John is an upscale American womenswear label with prices into the hundreds and even thousands. It’s carried in Canada at selected Holt Renfrew stores. Most Nordstrom stores also feature large in-store St. John departments, and we expect this to be the case for Nordstrom’s future Canadian stores as well.
The Hotel Vancouver’s retail component, owned by Ivanhoe Cambridge, will see significant changes as substantial renovations are about to commence. We’ll periodically announce new tenants slated to open in its newly configured, two-level retail spaces.
*Photo at the top of this article is by ‘dreambrother808’ of Vancouver Skyscraper Forum.
