Discount contact lense/eye glass retailer Clearly Contacts is opening a retail storefront at 1049-51 Robson Street in Downtown Vancouver. This is the first of what may become multiple store locations for the company.
Their parent company, Coastal.com was founded in Vancouver in the year 2000 and is one of North America’s largest glasses and contact lens retailers, with over $180million in sales in 2011.
We stumbled across the store’s future storefront while shopping on Vancouver’s Robson Street this weekend. A post-stroll google search produced a link to the Vancouver Skyscraper Forum, where poster VanK posted a link to job postings for the retail shop.
The retail space at 1049-51 Robson Street was formerly occupied by a Little Burgundy shoe store.
We’ll keep in touch with the company and monitor the success of their retail storefront (it will probably do well – we plan on buying glasses there). We’ll let readers know if more Clearly Contacts stores will be opening in Canada.
The world’s first ‘Canon Experience Store’ will open soon in Downtown Calgary. It will be followed by similar locations world-wide. The Calgary location will be about 6000 square feet and “will provide unprecedented customer interaction with Canon, its products and solutions, for both consumer and commercial clients” according to a job ad on Craigslist seeking staff for the store.
We are copying and pasting this content from Petapixel, describing the store:Â
“According to Canon Rumors, the first of the stores will open in Calgary, Canada; followed by more all around the globe. That piece of news seems to be all but fact. What’s less determined is what exactly these stores will look like.
Rumor has it they will be Apple store-eque: a simple, all white design with plenty of space to try different cameras and lenses. There should also be an educational section to the store, where you can take advantage of a set of iMacs and your local Canon professional.
(Underlining is ours) The coolest of the rumors is that customers will have to walk through an LED tunnel to enter into the store — fingers crossed on this one. Supposedly this will put you in a more creative mood by surrounding you in sights and sounds.
Whatever they end up looking like, the first store should be announced in the coming days, so Calgary residents keep an eye out for LED tunnels and camera equipment.”
This follows more recent trends towards ‘retail as entertainment’. Some retail analysts have speculated that in the age of online shopping, ‘bricks-and-mortar’ stores will become obselete. Canon and other retailers (be it Apple, Tesla Motors or Rolex) are building retail experiences with hopes that customers will attend and experience products rather than shopping online.Â
Thank you to a retail insider (who didn’t want their name used) for providing us with this tip and article link. If you have any retail related news, gossip or information, feel free to email us at: insider@retail-insider.com
Italian fashion label Miu Miu will open its first Canadian boutique inside of Toronto’s Holt Renfrew department store at 50 Bloor Street West. The company is leasing space on the ground floor of Holt’s and the accessories shop will include bags, jewelry and sunglasses. Toronto’s Miu Miu will open early February, 2013.
Miu Miu has recently opened many new stores worldwide, including numerous shops-in-store like the new Toronto location. More Canadian locations may follow.
Miu Miu was started in 1993 by Miuccia Prada, of Prada fame.
Upscale womenswear designer Ports1961 is closing its two free-standing Canadian stores: One at 717 Burrard Street in Vancouver (already closed at press date) and another at 151 Bloor Street West in Toronto. A Ports1961 shop-in-store at Montreal’s Ogilvy department store will stay open for now.
The women’s label will continue to be carried in Toronto in Vancouver, both within ‘The Room’ at Hudson’s Bay. Men’s Ports1961 will be carried at selected Harry Rosen stores.
The label started in Toronto in 1961 and was called ‘Newport Canada’. In 1994 the label left Canada and became a major fashion label in China, including, currently over 350 stores. In 2004, the label changed its name to Ports1961 and became headquartered in New York City.
The label includes menswear, but the Canadian boutiques in question only carried womenswear.
In 1988, Canadian twins Dan and Dean Caten started designing for Ports International. They are now now world-renowned for their Italy-based fashion label, DSquared2.
The Toronto Ports1961 retail space will be replaced by Stuart Weitzman. We are awaiting permission to reveal the tenant which has already leased the former Vancouver Ports space. No word yet on the fate of the company as a whole.
We’ve gotten word from Hudson’s Bay Company management that the company’s ‘original’ flagship location in Downtown Winnipeg may be closing soon. Our source tells us The Hudson’s Bay Company is seeking to transfer ownership the building to the Manitoba Government in exchange for tax benefits. Hudson’s Bay would like to sell the building but its value is limited due to the estimated $8million/per-floor renovation cost to convert it to offices.
The Downtown Winnipeg store was the ‘original’ Hudson’s Bay Company flagship store, with seven levels and a trading area of about 675,000 square feet. It opened in 1926 and cost $5million, an enormous sum at the time. It competed with the neighbouring 885,000 square foot Eaton’s Store. The Winnipeg Bay store lost its company flagship status when the then-Toronto flagship Hudson’s Bay store opened at The Hudson’s Bay Centre, 44 Bloor Street West, in 1974.
The current store has several unoccupied floors and uses only about 240,000 square feet of the building’s 656,000 square feet. The store had a 67,000 sq ft Zellers store located in its basement briefly, now closed. Today it was announced that the stores sixth-floor Paddlewheel Restaurant will not be renovated (it was supposed to be kept open), leading to our source contacting us by email.
Image: WpG Guy, Skyscraper Forum Winnipeg
We found this wonderful description of the store’s opening, as written by George Siamandas of the blog ‘Winnipeg Time Machine’ (we underlined parts we found interesting):
OPENING DAY The Hudson Bay store opened in Winnipeg on November 18 1926. People lined up for blocks around; one of the plate glass windows was broken and car loads of police were on hand to maintain decorum. Fifty thousand Winnipeggers went through the store that first day. But only the basement and first two floors were complete for opening but at least the store was ready for the Christmas trade. Two thousand staff were there to help the throng of opening day customers.
The first customer was Mayor Ralph Webb who bought a silk tie for $1.25. A Mrs Schultz of Pritchard Ave actually was the first customer in line. In the lower level was a supermarket: sirloin steak was 22 cents a pound, corn flakes a dime and sugar sold for 72 cents for a ten pound bag. The lower level also housed hardware, sporting goods. Clothing however was surprisingly expensive at prices of $15 to $150 for women’s dresses. There was even a 3,000 volume lending library on the second floor. The Bay would make 5 tons of Christmas cake for the Christmas season and was the biggest fuel dealer in Winnipeg delivering coal till 1960 when gas was introduced.
BUILDING THE NEW STORE A lot of men worked round the clock to dig the Bay’s foundations by shovel, horse drawn scrapers as well as the two steam shovels on the site. Most of the Bay was built with a “Made in Manitoba” philosophy where as many goods as possible were bought here in Manitoba. The Tyndall stone, 1 M bricks, plaster from Gypsumville, the steel frame from Selkirk’s Rolling Mills, 2 M board feet of lumber from Winnipegosis. And as a modern fire-proof building, it had 32 km sprinkler pipes and 8,000 heads.
At one time it had its one well which at 600 feet was the deepest in Canada. While not of drinking quality, it was used to flush toilets and to air condition the air. It was used until 1971 at which time it was capped off because the water had turned salty in efforts to dig deeper. Originally the Bay had twelve elevators. Half were removed in 1948 to install elevators. In the 1930s a beacon on top of the Bay helped guide airplanes to the city as air mail service was inaugurated.
WHY THE BAY WAS SO LONG IN COMING For a company that had owned a lot of North America (All the land that drained into Hudson Bay) and all of downtown Winnipeg till after 1870, it took the HBC a long time to build a modern store – 21 years after Eatons. WW1 delayed it at least ten years. And Winnipeg seemed to have headed into decline by the 1920s. The original store built in 1881 had been on Main St and York. But the Bay saw the reality of retailing lay on Portage Ave. The first real urban store was in Vancouver in 1887. Donald A Smith who ran the Bay then imported managers from Harrods to run these stores. The trading posts evolved into department stores as the west filled up with new settlers.
At one time the Bay owned everything in downtown Winnipeg and built on the western boundary of its reserve. Ironically it had to repurchase the land from a Col Pierce who made a bundle from advance knowledge of the store’s coming before the Bay’s own real estate people knew of the store’s construction. Hudson Bay did not become a Canadian company till 1970 when it became headquartered in Winnipeg. It had previously been London-based. In 1979 Ken Thompson bought 76% of Bay shares. They sold off the 178 northern stores in 1987 after losing money.
Canada’s Hudson’s Bay Company’s history is significant and the company is far older than Canada itself. From the Heritage Winnipeg Archives:
1935. Manitoba Archives
“The Hudson’s Bay Company is the oldest commercial corporation in North America, and is one of the oldest in the world.
It as once the de facto government in parts of North America before European-based colonies and nation states existed. It was at one time the largest landowner in the world, with Rupert’s Land being a large part of North America. From its longtime headquarters at York Factory on Hudson Bay, it controlled the fur trade throughout much of British-controlled North America for several centuries, undertaking early exploration. Its traders and trappers forged early relationship with many groups of First Nations/Native Americans and its network of trading posts formed the nucleus for later official authority in many areas of Western Canada and the United States.
In the late 19th century, its vast territory became the largest component in the newly formed Dominion of Canada, in which the company was the largest private landowner. With the decline of the fur trade, the company evolved into mercantile business selling vital goods to settlers in the Canadian West. Today the company is best known for its department stores throughout Canada.
The Hudson’s Bay Company Archives are located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. They also classify the Bay in downtown Winnipeg as the flagship store.”
Times change. Fortunately it sounds like at least the building will be salvaged and not torn down like Winnipeg’s Eaton’s store. For more on Winnipeg’s Eaton’s store, check out this wonderful blog called The Department Store Museum (and click HERE for their page on Winnipeg’s Bay flagship)
Zellers will keep three stores open in suburban Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. The modified store format will include multiple Hudson’s Bay Company banners. We have little other information at this time.
We’re not sure if these stores will be some sort of ‘liquidation outlet’ for Hudson’s Bay Company brands/stores, or if they will be a temporary situation for leases not taken by Target or Walmart.
The three Zellers locations to remain open include:
1) The Kipling Queensway Mall (1255 The Queensway, Toronto/Etobicoke) 2) Place Bourassa, 11211 Lacordaire, Montreal and 3) Semiamo Shopping Centre, 1715 152 Street, Surrey (White Rock) BC
We’re publishing this information after reading it on Canada.com, article by Marc Weisblott. We honestly didn’t know of this modified Zellers proposal until reading Marc’s article. Here’s a link to his article.
Holt Renfrew will be making significant changes to its men’s stores by 2015. Our Toronto-based Holt Renfrew insider has given us some info on what’s in store. The changes are HUGE.
All nine Holt Renfrew stores will get their own ‘Men’s Shop’ which will essentially be a ‘separate store’ similar to Harry Rosen, including its own separate store entrance. The separate entrance will eliminate the need for men to go through cosmetics/fragrances/handbags, for example, to shop for men’s items at Holt’s. Also, men can say goodbye to the magenta shopping bags… the Holt’s men’s store will get their own, in a more ‘masculine’ look, according to our insider. All of this is part of the Holt’s massive $300million expansion that we previously reported.
The Holt Renfrew men’s shops will include shoe shine stations (to compete with Nordstrom?), a ‘hot shave bar’, comfy leather couch seating areas, technological advances and gadgets, and will even serve alcohol where possible.
These changes are a response to a drastic increase by Canadian men on expensive suits (luxury suit sales @ Holts went up 300% last year), designer shoes and men’s accessories. Holt Renfrew’s mens’ department sales have done so well in the past two years that we’ll see these drastic changes ‘imminently’.
Holt Renfrew’s Yorkdale location has the first revamped men’s store, with the store’s entire renovations to be completed by late summer 2013. The men’s store will be expanded from 11,000 square feet to 18,000 square feet, including the bells-and-whistles mentioned above. Our insider qualified it to be ‘a stunning prototype for a Canada-wide roll-out’.
Holt Renfrew’s increased concentration on menswear is also a reaction to 1) women’s sales going down slightly (due to competition and market saturation) and 2) increased competition from Harry Rosen (which is expanding its stores), new changes for men’s floors at Hudson’s Bay (including a stunning new men’s floor in Vancouver) and Nordstrom’s Canadian arrival.
Our Holt’s insider is digging around for more information. We’ll publish it when ready. Stay tuned!
[Top image from The Art of Shaving. We are not confirming at this time that The Art of Shaving will have concessions at Holt Renfrew]
Nordstrom, Walnut Creek CA. Image: http://www.cei.com
Some readers express concern that Canada’s Nordstrom stores will be ‘smaller than American stores’ and that Canada’s Nordstrom will be a ‘poor cousin’ to American stores. Our Nordstrom insider says ‘not so’.
So far Nordstrom has signed leases for four Canadian locations. To recap, they will be the following sizes: 1) Downtown Vancouver: 228,000 square feet 2) Calgary Chinook Centre: 140,000 square feet 3) Toronto Sherway Gardens: 138,000 square feet and 4) Ottawa Rideau Centre: 157,000 square feet
Compared to the 350,000 square foot San Francisco Westfield location, 285,000 square foot Bellevue Square (Bellevue, Washington) location and the 282,000 square foot Paramus, New Jersey store, Canada’s stores might seem small. But these large American locations are all “older” Nordstrom stores (opened in the 80’s and 90’s), while newer Nordstrom stores are typically smaller and more ‘efficiently’ laid out, according to our insider.
We did some research and found Nordstrom store sizes for all (Non-Rack) stores opened since 2007. And here they are:
2011: Newark, Delaware: 127,000 sq ft St. Louis Galleria, Missouri: 149,000 sq ft Nashville, Tennessee: 145,000 sq ft
2010: Santa Monica, California: 132,000 sq ft Newport Beach (Fashion Island), California: 143,000 sq ft Braintree, Massachusetts: 155,000 sq ft
2009: Cherry Hill, New Jersey: 143,000 sq ft Peabody, Massachusetts: 143,000 sq ft Cincinnati, Ohio – 144,000 sq ft
2008: Thousand Oaks, California: 145,000 sq ft Aventura Mall, Florida: 172,000 sq ft Naples, Florida: 81,000 sq ft (resort store, statistical outlier) Ala Moana Honolulu, Hawaii: 211,000 sq ft Indianapolis, Indiana: 134,000 sq ft Burlington, Massachusetts: 143,000 sq ft Clinton, Michigan: 122,000 sq ft Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: 143,000 sq ft
2007: Denver (Cherry Creek Mall), Colorado: 142,000 sq ft Novi, Michigan: 172,000 sq ft Natick, Massachusetts: 154,000 sq ft
So from 2007 until now, Nordstrom has opened only one store over 200,000 square feet (in Honolulu). The Vancouver, BC store will therefore be the largest Nordstrom store to open in years, only to be size-trumped by the 2017-18 opening of the Manhattan Nordstrom (285,000 sq ft) and (likely) the opening of a Downtown Toronto flagship store, which would be ‘Nordstrom’s Canadian flagship location’ according to our insider.
Image: Nordstrom
Furthermore, proposed new Nordstrom store sizes include:
Glendale, California (replacement location, new-build): 135,000 sq ft (Opening 2013) Jacksonville, Florida: 124,000 sq ft (Opening 2013) San Juan, Puerto Rico: 138,000 sq ft (Opening 2014) Houston (Woodlands Mall), Texas: 138,000 sq ft (Opening 2014) Milwaukee (Wawasota), Wisconsin: 140,000 sq ft (Opening 2015)
Our insider says that Nordstrom is able to build smaller stores because it has mastered ‘efficiencies’. At the same time, smaller Nordstrom stores carry fewer departments and amenities as larger locations, including spas, multiple restaurants, wedding salons and other ‘extras’. Downtown Toronto and Vancouver Nordstrom stores may include all the bells and whistles found in, say, Nordstrom’s Chicago Michigan Avenue store, while our smaller locations will be less comprehensive but still ‘beautiful stores with superior customer service’ according to Nordstrom.
Despite their smaller sizes, Canada’s Nordstrom stores will include most American departments. In the coming weeks we’ll be profiling these departments so that you, the reader, are a Nordstrom insider by their Canadian arrival. Keep reading!
Queens Quay at Freeland Street in Downtown Toronto. Image: Hariri Pontarini Architects
Downtown Toronto will be getting another large retail development, this time at the base of an impressive multi-tower proposal a the foot of Yonge Street near Lake Ontario. Ground-floor retail is proposed for what will include four residential towers up to a whopping 98 floors in height.
We are told that one of the retail tenants may be a larger-format grocery store, while one retail analyst speculates that a large format fashion retailer could also move into the retail portion of the project. Vancouver-based Pinnacle International is building the project on a city-block bound by Yonge Street on the East, Queens Quay to the South, Freeland Street to the West and Lake Shore Boulevard to the North. (see diagram, below).
Urban grocery stores are being built quickly across the country. Downtown Toronto already has a substantial number of grocery food retailers, and will be opening many more (including a new Whole Foods West of Downtown Toronto and a few others we will reveal in the coming weeks). We previously wrote an article on similar downtown retailers opening in ‘Downtown Canada’.
Readers should note that this project is only a proposal but nevertheless, a substantial retail development is guaranteed for this site.
A commercial real estate broker has told us Target is looking for more than one Downtown Toronto location, and that this site could be desired but for the fact that retail on this site won’t be available for a few years. Nevertheless, the density and vibrancy of the ‘South of the Gardiner’ section of Downtown Toronto is ripe for retail development at a scale previously unheard of.
This retail project joins a growing number of other Downtown Toronto retail projects we’ve reported on, including Oxford Place and the new Globe & Mail Centre complex.
Nordstrom and La Maison Simons could open at Winnipeg’s Polo Park Shopping Centre. A Winnipeg-based retail insider (who is a commercial real estate broker) informs us that Polo Park landlord Cadillac Fairview, along with Winnipeg-based real estate company Shindico, are finalizing a deal to purchase real estate formerly occupied by a sports stadium North of the mall to build a multi-use commercial project including a two-level, 170,000 sq ft Target store.
This would free-up the current 97,200 square foot Zellers space, the right size for a Simons store. Our insider also says Cadillac Fairview wants to buy-out Sears’ 260,000 square foot lease at the South-End of Polo Park for redevelopment. Nordstrom could possibly take 120,000-140,000 square feet of the Sears space, while the rest would be redeveloped to house new retailers including, among others, Winnipeg’s first H&M store.
Winnipeg currently lacks an upscale large-format/department store. Holt Renfrew once had a smaller store in Downtown Winnipeg (roughly 20,000 square feet) which has since replaced with a tiny Holt Renfrew boutique carrying some cosmetics and a few accessories.
Floorplan: Cadillac Fairview.
Polo Park once had a Nordstrom-esq retailer called Bretton’s, partially located in the current Zellers space (see floorplan below – click on it to expand so it’s readable).
Image: Winnipeg Skyscraper Forum, trebor204. Floorplan from 1986. Also Notice Eaton’s where Hudson’s Bay is now located.
We’re excited to be reporting on a potential retail boom in Winnipeg. We’re expanding Retail Insider’s coverage across Canada. If you’ve got any retail insider information in your Canadian community, please feel free to email us: insider@retail-insider.com
