Former NYX Cosmetics at Yorkdale - Photo by Dustin Fuhs
Toronto-based cult-favourite Craig’s Cookies announced on Instagram Thursday that it would be opening its fifth retail location this fall at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre. The 1,200 square foot storefront will be located in a retail space vacated last year by NYX Cosmetics.
The location is prime being at the end of a hallway that leads to the mall’s TTC subway station. A Roots store is located immediately north and a busy Starbucks is located across the way.
It will be the fifth location for Craig’s Cookies which was founded in 2013. Founder Craig Pike has developed over 85 flavours of the over-the-top cookies which burst with chocolate and other sweet fillings. The brand’s first Toronto location opened in the city’s Parkdale area and was followed by locations on Church Street in Toronto’s Gay Village, on Bayview Avenue in Leaside, and most recently on Queen Street East in Leslieville.
Yorkdale has been adding various food and beverage offerings to the shopping centre since the beginning of the pandemic, including Danish Pastry House and a Chinese restaurant called Yu near the mall’s RH store. The centre continues to diversify its offerings which also includes the most comprehensive clustering of standalone luxury brand stores anywhere in Canada.
Craig’s Cookies on Church Street – Photo by Dustin FuhsCraig’s Cookies on Church Street – Photo by Dustin FuhsCraig’s Cookies on Church Street – Photo by Dustin FuhsCraig’s Cookies on Church Street – Photo by Dustin FuhsCraig’s Cookies on Queen Street – Photo by Dustin Fuhs
Metropolis at Metrotown rendering supplied by Samsung
Samsung will renovate two Canadian Samsung Experience Stores in two of Canada’s top shopping centres. The company’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre store in Toronto and its Metropolis at Metrotown store near Vancouver have been relocated temporarily while the locations see a ‘modern’ refresh. Both renovations will be completed by mid-November of this year.
“We want to connect with our customers and provide them with new and engaging physical spaces that they can visit to learn more about and experience our products,” said Dave McGregor, Director of Samsung Experience Stores. “We’re committed to creating dynamic and innovative retail spaces and we’re excited to unveil a fresh new look at two important locations in our retail network.”
The Yorkdale store will help Samsung continue to offer on-site repair services and to showcase the Galaxy lineup. The Metropolis at Metrotown upgrades will include a brand-new service centre for on-site Samsung device repairs.
Rendering of the Metrotown store via Samsung
Rendering of the Yorkdale location, image via SamsungYorkdale interior, rendering via Samsung
A temporary pop-up at Yorkdale across from the in-line Samsung Experience Store will serve clients until renovations are completed in a couple of months. A temporary store has also opened at Metropolis at Metrotown on the upper level of the shopping centre.
The Yorkdale Samsung Experience store opened in October of 2016 in a 3,400 retail space in the mall’s Nordstrom-anchored expansion wing. The Metropolis at Metrotown location was the first in Canada when it opened in 2012 in a 1,500 square foot space.
Samsung opened a 21,000 square foot showroom at CF Toronto Eaton Centre in Toronto in early 2018. The company also has Samsung Experience Stores at CF Richmond Centre near Vancouver, at Southgate Centre in Edmonton, at CF Sherway Gardens and Scarborough Town Centre in Toronto and at the Montreal Eaton Centre in downtown Montreal.
Montreal-based landlord Ivanhoé Cambridge has sold its ownership stake in the Mic Mac Mall in Dartmouth near Halifax to a local buyer. Halifax-based Rank Inc. and local developer Joe Ramia have taken ownership of the property along with a group of insteps, and a redevelopment is planned that could transform the asset in the coming years.
“Today is a great day for the future of Mic Mac Mall,” said Tamitha Oakley, General Manager. “We’re elated that our new ownership group shares our commitment to serving Atlantic Canada and ensuring we remain a vibrant economic hub for people to shop, gather, work and play,” she said.
As part of the move, Mic Mac Mall will be managed and leased by Cushman & Wakefield, which operates a portfolio of shopping centres across the country.
The new owners plan to intensify the 50-acre site with the potential addition of a business office campus, residential, restaurants and entertainment facilities. A redevelopment of the shopping centre property had been rumoured for several years under Ivanhoé Cambridge ownership. In March of this year, Ivanhoé Cambridge withdrew plans for housing on the site.
Click image for interactive Google mapPhoto: Ivanhoé Cambridge
“Mic Mac Mall is already a phenomenal property and we look forward to elevating the experience even further for our tenants, our guests, and our community,” said Joe Ramia, President of Rank Inc. “This property has been part of the fabric of Atlantic Canada for the last 50 years and we see incredible potential in its future,” he said.
Landlords across Canada have been looking to densify shopping centre sites to unlock value as some retailers struggle to pay high rents. The trend is particularly pronounced in the Vancouver and Toronto areas where the majority of major shopping centres have some sort of redevelopment proposal at play, including residential buildings with hundreds or even thousands of units.
In 2018, Ivanhoé Cambridge announced a $55 million investment in the centre which included renovations and new tenants. A new tenant, Linen Chest, would reveal its new store concept with an opening a year later. Linen Chest and other retailers moved into a repurposed 122,000 square foot space formerly occupied by a Target store.
The renovation announcement included new flooring and handrails throughout the mall property, renovated washrooms (including a new family washroom), a relocation and replacement of the existing ‘centre court’ escalators and the replacement and relocation of the ‘south court’ escalators which Ivanhoé Cambridge said at the time would be utilized to create additional retail offerings. A new entrance at the south-end of the property would be added as well while upgrades to the exterior entrances and lighting were also part of the plans. The mall’s third-floor food court was also announced to be renovated, including new seating and lighting.
Mic Mac Mall is the largest shopping centre in Atlantic Canada with about 160 retailers and 3,100 parking spaces in a centre spanning more than 665,000 square feet. Hudson’s Bay is the mall’s primary anchor with more than 150,000 square feet, as well as smaller anchors such as Winners/HomeSense, Decathlon, Old Navy, Linen Chest, Chapters and H&M. It’s also one of the most productive malls in the region according to Retail Council of Canada’s shopping centre studies that were authored by Retail Insider’s Craig Patterson.
The shopping centre was built in 1972 and opened in 1973. Original department store anchors included Eaton’s and Simpsons. Eaton’s shut in 1997 and Simpsons was converted to the Hudson’s Bay nameplate in 1986. Target, formerly a Zellers store, occupied the former Eaton’s space in the mall until early 2015 when Target exited Canada.
Ivanhoé Cambridge has sold numerous retail properties over the past several years as the landlord divests parts of its retail portfolio. Most recently the landlord sold its 50% interest in Ottawa’s Bayshore Centre to Kingsett Capital. Possibly its largest retail sale involved selling Vancouver’s Oakridge Centre to QuadReal in 2017 — the new owner is overhauling the centre with a completion date set for 2024.
Last year a report in Halifax Today noted that Ivanhoé Cambridge had been open to changing the name of Mic Mac Mall — the Indigenous Mi’kmaq tribe were among the first settlers in the region prior to the colonization that created Canada, and ‘Mic Mac’ is a deviation of that spelling considered by some to be ‘slang’.
All Eyes on Me, a luxury eyewear and optometry boutique, recently opened its new location on Cumberland Street in Toronto with a new concept in the Yorkville area.
Sim Bains
Sim Bains, owner and founder of the company, said the store was conceptualized as a jewelry box.
“What I wanted to basically bring to Toronto, I was figuring out how can I give a gift to the city. So what I wanted to do is not only hold the integrity of brand but also make sure that we’re servicing the right client base for Cartier which obviously is located in that community. We knew it would be a destination shopping area as the world opens up and tourists are coming back into Canada they have a place to visit as well as for the greater surrounding area,” he said.
“I had the idea of the store as a gift box, or jewelry box, because I wanted to elevate the level of service for a curated eyewear experience and at the same time we wanted to make sure that the space would be able to be used for multiple scenarios and partnerships. When you walk in, it’s supposed to feel like you’re in a jewelry box. There’s a curated selection of frames with partnership brands from Kering the fashion house as well as some other luxury brands on floating shelves and the centre is almost like a jewelry collection where we carry the Precious material and the Noble materials from Cartier and we do their rimless program.
Image: All Eyes On Me
“The space is dedicated for partnerships where we can showcase handbags and shoes, champagne, art. It’s a multi-functional space and that was all done in hopes in the future being able to build the partnerships to have a multi-faceted retail opportunity and even pop-ups on a particular day with a fashion brand, a large company like Kering where they can essentially show products in the centre and one day potentially show shoes, handbags or any other accessories from the floating shelves.”
Bains opened his first store at the age of 28 in Milton, Ontario and turned it into a destination store for eyewear. After seeing opportunities on the medical side, he opened a full-scale medical optometry clinic in 2019 in Oakville.
“That’s what the concept for what we just did in Yorkville came from. It kind of began in Oakville. I initiated the program with custom Cartier eyewear which was available in the United States at this particular time but wasn’t readily available in Canada because I saw a gap in the market and I understood the culture that comes behind it,” said Bains.
He came up with the idea of a private showroom to elevate the level of service and experience for Cartier. In Oakville, a private Cartier showroom was built in June 2019.
Bains said when the pandemic hit he started posting products on social media and “it exploded.”
Image: All Eyes On Me
“Over the pandemic, I turned into a top three retailer in North America because the world was standing still. I was progressing. I decided I wanted to raise the level of service and standard care for eyewear to something that hasn’t been readily done in Ontario or North America so far from what I’ve seen through my travels,” he said.
“It was really the integrity of the brands. Build an exclusive shopping experience with the partnership with Cartier and basically through the pandemic I was communicating with them and we turned it into the Cartier eyewear flagship for Canada as well as a full medical optometry clinic with full-scale medical care and personalized one-on-one care and service and private shopping.”
Bains said the retailer is currently planning its next five years.
“I don’t know exactly what the direction is. I don’t know which model I’m going to scale because I’ve had a lot of success with my medical optometry model that’s situated in Oakville which is also luxury shopping and medical optometry but made more for everyone to be comfortable whereas the flagship that we have on Cumberland is more of a premier destination for eyewear, a premier service that we offer. Based on what happens in the next two years in Yorkville, there’s potential for either of those concepts to scale. I haven’t decided which one,” he said.
“What I want to do is I would like to open stores in major cities across North America.”
Construction Hoarding of Judith & Charles at 493 Sussex Dr in Ottawa - Photo by Dustin Fuhs
Montreal-based women’s fashion brand Judith & Charles is embracing street-front retail again with a move of its Ottawa location from CF Rideau Centre to a nearby space at 493 Sussex Drive. The store is in a beautiful area that is a short walk from the popular Byward Market.
Prior to 2014, the retailer only operated in enclosed shopping centres. The move to open street front locations for Judith & Charles picked up in 2018 when stores opened on Rue de la Montagne in Montreal and on Granville Street in Vancouver. The first streetfront location for the brand was in Vancouver’s Kitsilano area on W. 4th Avenue in 2014.
Judith & Charles currently operates 10 Canadian store locations. Of those, two are in Vancouver, three are in Toronto, two are in Montreal, and the cities of Ottawa, Calgary and Halifax each have one store location. Stores are mixed in downtown cores and in suburban malls.
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Judith & Charles at 493 Sussex Dr in Ottawa (Image: Judith & Charles)
Judith & Charles at 493 Sussex Dr in Ottawa (Image: Judith & Charles)
Judith & Charles at 493 Sussex Dr in Ottawa (Image: Judith & Charles)
Judith & Charles at 493 Sussex Dr in Ottawa (Image: Judith & Charles)
Judith & Charles at 493 Sussex Dr in Ottawa (Image: Judith & Charles)
Judith & Charles at CF Rideau Centre - Photo by Dustin Fuhs
Judith & Charles at CF Rideau Centre
Construction Hoarding of Judith & Charles at 493 Sussex Dr in Ottawa - Photo by Dustin Fuhs
Construction Hoarding of Judith & Charles at 493 Sussex Dr in Ottawa
Founded in 1975 in Paris, the Judith & Charles brand was originally named Teenflo. In 1990, Judith Richardson and Charles Le Pierrès bought the brand, moving its headquarters to Montreal. In 2008, Teenflo was renamed ‘Judith & Charles’. Priced as a ‘contemporary’ brand, it is best known for its Italian yarns, exceptional fit and minimalistic styling, and locally-based craftsmanship.
Judith & Charles at CF Rideau Centre (August 2021)
Judith & Charles at CF Rideau Centre – Photo by Dustin FuhsJudith & Charles at CF Rideau Centre – Photo by Dustin FuhsJudith & Charles at CF Rideau Centre – Photo by Dustin FuhsJudith & Charles at CF Rideau Centre – Photo by Dustin FuhsJudith & Charles at CF Rideau Centre – Photo by Dustin FuhsJudith & Charles at CF Rideau Centre – Photo by Dustin Fuhs
Street Photos from the Pre-Opening Judith & Charles on Sussex Drive (August 2021)
Construction Hoarding of Judith & Charles at 493 Sussex Dr in Ottawa – Photo by Dustin FuhsConstruction Hoarding of Judith & Charles at 493 Sussex Dr in Ottawa – Photo by Dustin Fuhs
Toronto-based North Brands Group Ltd., parent company of boys fashion retailer NorthBoys, has launched its first female-focused storefront at the Lawrence Plaza in Toronto called NorthGirls.
The storefront carries girls dresses and everyday casual apparel for girls ranging from newborn to size 16. Luxury brands carried in the store include Chloé, Stella McCartney and Emporio Armani among others. The store’s dramatic upscale interior matches the brand selection.
“After 10-years of developing NorthBoys into Canada’s number one retailer of boys suits, dresswear and casual, we are extremely excited to open the first NorthGirls boutique store at Toronto’s Lawrence Plaza, and online at NorthGirls.ca,” said founders Cary and Robyn Ulster.
Greg Evans, President of The Behar Group, negotiated the lease deal on behalf of North Brands Group Ltd. and Lisa Gardner, Principal at Lisa Gardner Design, designed the store’s interior.
North Brands Group was founded in 2010 and has three NorthBoys stores in the Toronto area. Locations include the Lawrence Plaza and CF Shops at Don Mills in Toronto and at Smartcentres in Thornhill.
Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto, August 2021. Photo: Craig Patterson
San Francisco-based Gap Inc.-owned women’s and girls’ brand Athleta will open a storefront at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre this fall in a space most recently occupied by Nike prior to its recent relocation. Despite trends in the sneaker industry showing shoppers are moving to online commerce, Nike continues to buck this trend by opening flagship stores.
“International expansion is a key component of our growth strategy to reach two billion dollars in net sales by 2023, and we are very proud to introduce Athleta to customers in Canada,” said Mary Beth Laughton, President and CEO, Athleta. “As a purpose-driven brand, we are excited to expand our community of empowered and confident women and girls to Canada and bring them a differentiated and inclusive offering in the performance lifestyle category.”
Click image for interactive Yorkdale floor plan
Athleta says that it plans to open between 20 and 30 stores in North America annually. The brand already has over 200 stores across the United States which it says are profitable. Gap Inc. says that its Athleta stores remain a “top customer acquisition and brand awareness vehicles and are a key component of the growth and future of the brand.”
New wholesale partnerships and international expansion through franchise and company-operated stores are among Gap Inc.’s strategic steps towards growing the Athleta brand to USD $2 billion in net sales by 2023. Last year Athleta surpassed USD $1 billion in net sales with 16% annual sales growth.
Athleta was founded in San Francisco in 1998 and Athleta Girl was launched in 2016. The company says that its mission “comes to life through inclusive and sustainable product design, connecting with customers through unique experiences in stores, online and within local store communities.”
