US-based luxury brand Tiffany & Co. is relocating its Canadian flagship on Bloor Street in Toronto to a corner location in a notable building nearby. The new two-level Tiffany store will feature 24-foot ceilings on its second level with the opportunity to rebrand the entire building.
The new Toronto Tiffany store will occupy much of the base of the 1200 Bay Street building, which includes a retail address of 66 Bloor Street West for the main-floor retail that once housed Davids Footwear. Tiffany & Co. will occupy about 6,000 square feet on the street level, leaving two existing foodservice tenants that will continue to occupy spaces in the building facing Bay Street.
Upstairs, Tiffany & Co. will occupy a dramatic 9,000 square foot retail space on the second floor with 24 foot ceilings, made possible by removing the third floor of the office building to create one retail level. Tiffany will also have the option in the future to possibly expand its Canadian offices to the fourth floor of 1200 Bay Street.
Tiffany & Co. will have naming rights to the building as part of the lease deal, including the potential to add branding to the top of the building’s south, east and north elevations. The building will be painted a new colour, while the lower level of the building will see new cladding for retail tenant Tiffany.
The 1200 Bay Street building is owned by ProWinko Canada and The Kroonenberg Groep, who bought the property in 2016. The 12-storey 100,000 square foot building was built in 1966, and had been proposed for demolition with a previous proposal for an 87-storey tower on the site prior to Tiffany’s lease deal.
The 1200 Bay building is currently occupied by multiple office and retail tenants. During the pandemic, Hakim Optical leased the former Davids Footwear space at 66 Bloor Street West, where it operated a store until its closure last month. An adjacent retail space facing Bloor Street was once occupied by Davids-owned Capezio, which subsequently became a pop-up store for a skincare brand. The main floor of 1200 Bay Street also houses Japanese pastry concept Hazukido and pizza concept Pi-Co, both of which will be staying.
The upper levels of 1200 Bay Street currently house office tenants, some of which have already relocated for Tiffany’s arrival in the building. That includes the Bloor-Yorkville BIA, which relocated its offices months ago across the street to 77 Bloor Street West.
The Tiffany announcement is an exciting one, marking the move of luxury retail to the prominent corner of Bloor Street West and Bay Street. In April of 2019, Birks CEO Jean Christophe Bedos said that the corner was “the best retail location in all of Canada”, with his company operating a Birks flagship store diagonally across the intersection at the Manulife Centre. The intersection also features Canada’s first Alo Yoga store that opened in September of 2022 at the northeast corner, as well as a TD Bank at the southwest corner at the base of the 77 Bloor Street W. office tower. Bloor Street is seeing an unprecedented number of luxury brands opening flagship store locations along a key stretch near Avenue Road.
Tiffany & Co. currently operates a 9,700 square foot store spanning two levels at 150 Bloor Street West. The store features a street-level of about 3,000 square feet and a second level spanning nearly 7,000 square feet. The store opened in September of 2013 in a building owned by Spain-based Pontegadea.
The 150 Bloor Tiffany store replaced a four-level 13,450 square foot Tiffany location that operated for about 22 years at 85 Bloor Street West. That store was the first for Tiffany & Co. in Canada when it opened in 1991. The retail space is currently occupied by a COS store, which will eventually be demolished for a tower redevelopment of the block.
In Canada, Tiffany & Co. also operates standalone stores in Vancouver at 723 Burrard Street as well as at West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, CF Chinook Centre in Calgary, Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto, CF Sherway Gardens in Toronto, CF Rideau Centre in Ottawa, and at the Ritz Carlton Hotel on Sherbrooke Street West in downtown Montreal. Tiffany also operates concessions in Holt Renfrew stores in Vancouver, Calgary, Mississauga and at Holt Renfrew Ogilvy in Montreal.
The Yorkdale Tiffany & Co. store is currently being overhauled with a major renovation and expansion. The 6,085 square foot store that opened in 2009 will grow by taking an additional 2,240 square feet previously occupied by luxury brand Jimmy Choo (which is relocating in the mall). Tiffany & Co. has relocated to a standalone pop-up space at Yorkdale, and it also recently opened a small concession space at Yorkdale’s Holt Renfrew store — both will operate until the newly renovated and larger Tiffany store reopens.
There was recently an announcement of a new Tiffany store at Royalmount opening in August. The brand will also return to the Oakridge Park development in Vancouver in 2025 when the overhauled Oakridge Centre reopens in a mixed-use format.
Vancouver was the second Canadian city that Tiffany & Co. expanded into in 1993 when it opened a 700 square foot boutique at Holt Renfrew. Tiffany subsequently expanded into Holt Renfrew’s Montreal and Calgary stores in the 1990s with shop-in-stores. The brand has since grown substantially with a mix of standalone locations and concessions — a similar mix seen globally in other countries where Tiffany & Co. has a presence. LVMH acquired Tiffany & Co. in early 2021 for USD $15.8 billion.
We’ll follow up on this article when Tiffany & Co. opens its new Bloor Street flagship store, and will update readers when we learn of what will replace its current storefront at 150 Bloor St. W.
