Ren's Pets Interior in Liberty Village - Photo: Ren's Pets
Ontario-based Ren’s Pets will be launching its first Urban Concept store in Liberty Village when it opens this September in a 5,500 square foot location at 99 Atlantic Avenue. Their neighbours were announced last week, when Retail Insider shared that Impact Kitchen was opening their 5th location in the fall.
The 36th location of Ren’s will be a completely new style of store for the brand, as they are able to bring the lessons learned over the last 14-months of a pandemic customer base into a brick-and-mortar location.
“We’re really excited to open this new urban concept Ren’s store in Liberty Village. It’s something we’ve wanted to do for awhile now but were waiting for the perfect location,” said Scott Arsenault, President at Ren’s Pets. “Liberty Village has a really passionate pet community. Everywhere you go there are people out and about with their pets, so it’s a great choice for a new Ren’s store.”
Ren's Pets Liberty Village Rendering
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Ren's Pets Click & Collect Rendering
Ren's Pets Liberty Village Rendering
Ren's Pets Liberty Village Rendering
“This is just the beginning of our network of stores in Toronto,” said Arsenault. “Pet parents are looking for a strong pet bricks and mortar offering, a place they can come in with their pets and truly be serviced along with doing things like weighing their pet, trying samples, asking for advice from the knowledgeable staff, having fittings for harnesses, collars or clothing, and socializing with other passionate pet folks and their pups.”
Current market trends will be put to the forefront with the location. In addition to the top-selling products that will be curated for the in-store shopping experience, the company has integrated ecommerce into the floorplans.
“We know there are already a lot of Ren’s Rewards members from the Liberty Village area that shop with us now in our GTA stores or on the website,” shares Larissa Wasyliw, VP of Ecommerce & Marketing at Ren’s Pets. “These customers will use the store to shop in with their pets and also use it as a pick up destination for ecommerce orders, plus set up online services like autoship with us because they love the Ren’s brand. We can’t wait to show Liberty Village pet parents that Ren’s is here for your Pet’s Best Life with the best food, treats, and toys you can get, with so many easy and convenient in store and online shopping options available.”
Wasyliw shared with Retail Insider “We really want to fit the spirit and the tone of Liberty Village, to become part of the fabric of the neighbourhood and community of pets.”
Ren's Pets Interior in Liberty Village - Photos: Ren's Pets
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The Liberty Village Ren’s Pets location will bring an added level of interior design that will make this unique to the other stores in the chain. Brick walls, dark wood floors, barnwood accents and gunmetal grey shelving are all being used to elevate the feeling of a boutique store. When you visit the neighbourhood, many retail and grocery locations have adapted their designs to fit the existing structures.
The store will begin construction on July 5th and will be opening on September 11th, 2021.
99 Atlantic Avenue – Photo by Dustin FuhsFloor Plan – Courtesy Ren’s Pets
This summer, West Edmonton Mall will unveil North America’s largest virtual reality attraction called ‘Virtual Land’. The announcement was first made Friday evening on the Youtube channel of mall super-fan Matthew Dutczak of Best Edmonton Mall.
Virtual Land will move into part of the retail space formerly occupied by The Brick furniture store in the mall’s Phase 3 — The Brick relocated to the second level of the former Sears store in Phase 1 in the fall of 2019.
More than a dozen themed virtual reality experiences will be featured at Virtual Land, including a military-themed experience, one featuring zombies, and another that will be viking-themed. Virtual Land has gone to great lengths to create these experiences including retrofitting a former Canadian military vehicle as part of the attraction. More details will be unveiled closer to the opening date which is expected to be in August, according to Best Edmonton Mall.
Best Edmonton Mall had an opportunity to tour Virtual Land (which is still under construction) and showcased some of what is to come. Watch the announcement video by Best Edmonton Mall below:
All-day passes for Virtual Land means that visitors will get to try all of the themed virtual reality experiences at one price, creating another attraction for the largest shopping centre in North America. It’s part of an effort to bring in more people to West Edmonton Mall following pandemic lockdowns with consumers staying away from physical spaces. Various other attractions at West Edmonton Mall include the massive Galaxyland amusement park, World Waterpark, Professor WEM’s Adventure Golf, the Ice Palace skating rink, Ed’s Bowling, and many others. West Edmonton Mall is the largest shopping centre in North America and it recently added several luxury brands including Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent and Gucci. A massive Toyota dealership will also open this fall downstairs from The Brick in Phase 1 — Mayfield Toyota, which is relocating from a standalone location north of the mall, will be rebranded as ‘WEM Toyota’ to coincide with the move. Included will be car detailing and valet parking for the mall.
West Edmonton Mall also boasts a super-fan who’s efforts around promoting the centre’s past and present are unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Matthew Dutczak founded Best Edmonton Mall in 2016 with a Youtube channel and has been posting content since. Several months ago he launched a bi-weekly Youtube channel discussion segment that takes place biweekly on Friday evenings at 8pm Mountain Time/10pm Eastern where he showcases something to do with the mall, followed by an interactive discussion where other fans of the mall are able to converse and share thoughts about the mall and other topics.
The quality of the production of these bi-weekly segments is exceptional, with Dutczak producing and hosting every show from the basement of his home in Edmonton’s Millwoods area. His basement includes various arcade games as well as a mini West Edmonton Mall museum. The Youtube segments have something of a retro 80s theme including different opening segments with music from TV shows from years past, as well as prizes, contests and a humorous segment (including a catchy theme song) where Dutczak affixes either a button or pin to his ‘Vest Edmonton Mall’ — a name for a vest that he wears that was coined by Retail Insider’s Dustin Fuhs.
Dutczak is something of a historian and he also produced a very interesting segment on the history of Heritage Mall in Edmonton — an interesting watch for anyone curious about the history of shopping centre development in Edmonton and Western Canada. The film was named a finalist in the 2020 Edmonton Short Film Festival.
The Best Edmonton Mall Youtube page has over 100 videos so far showcasing various attractions as they are, as well as what the mall looked like in decades past. Dutczak has also launched a website showcasing West Edmonton Mall’s attractions and history as well as a chat forum via Reddit. He also has an email list where viewers can subscribe to be notified of his next video, some of which may happen during the week depending on any new developments. One recent segment on the Best Edmonton Mall Youtube channel featured a discussion of the closure of Disney stores in Canada.
James Perse home store under construction at 1070 Yonge Street in Toronto. Photo: Craig Patterson
Upscale Los Angeles-based fashion brand James Perse is opening two home furnishings stores in Canada in Former WANT Apothecary locations. The expansion is being spearheaded by Montreal-based Mark Edwards Group which has the rights to James Perse in Canada.
Both of the new James Perse home stores will replace WANT Apothecary locations that recently shut down over the course of the pandemic. In Toronto, the new James Perse home store will be located at 1070 Yonge Street in the city’s affluent Rosedale area. In Montreal, James Perse’s home store will replace WANT’s storefront at 4960 Sherbrooke Street West in affluent Westmount. The Westmount location is expected to open in August and the Toronto store will open likely this fall.
James Perse’s home collection includes a range of bedding, blankets, pillow shams, bath and beach towels, games, baskets, rugs, books and other items. Prices are steep — the James Perse website includes a jute basket costing $428, hand towels priced at $80, duvets priced at $725, bed sheets costing $435, and beach towels priced at $363. Jute runners (rugs) are priced between $2,030 and $3,190 and some blankets cost as much as $3,615.
The former WANT Apothecary in Westmount will become a James Perse home store. Image via Yelp
James Perse also operates four fashion stores in Canada in the Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver markets. In Toronto, James Perse has a storefront at 18 Hazelton Avenue in a heritage building adjacent to the Yorkville Village shopping complex. In Oakville, near Toronto, James Perse has a store at 179 Lakeshore Road East in the city’s downtown core. In Montreal, James Perse’s fashion store is at 4869 Sherbrooke Street West on a lovely stretch of commercial buildings in Westmount. In Vancouver, James Perse has a store at 2723 Granville Street in the upscale South Granville area, south of wealthy Shaughnessy.
An employee of James Perse said that the brand is not yet planning on opening a home store in the Vancouver market, which could change depending on the performance of the new Toronto and Westmount home stores. The James Perse store in Vancouver has a small selection of home goods.
Montreal-based Mark Edwards Group includes an apparel division that makes private and in-house brands as well as having the rights to distribute the James Perse brand in Canada.
A recent study by Visa Canada shows that 47% of Canadians think flexible payment options are preferential.
The survey fond specifically that women value flexible payment options more than men with 52% of women saying that it’s important versus 42% of men polled. The Prairie provinces had different findings with only 31% of women saying that it’s important versus 46% of men.
The study showed that 62% of Canadian millennials polled said that flexible payments are important — and of those aged 35-54, 45% said it was important while 38% of those over the age of 55 nationally want flexible payment options.
Atlantic Canada had the highest desire for flexible payments with 56% of respondents saying that it’s important, while only 38% of Prairie province residents expressed the sentiment.
The results indicate that there’s a demand on the part of Canadians on how they purchase and over the past year, there has been a 30% increase in Canadians adopting payment instalments.
To address changing consumer demands, Visa this week launched Visa Installments in Canada in partnership with Scotiabank and CIBC. More issuers will be added later in the year to provide flexibility during the checkout process as well as post-purchase.
For Scotiabank, the rollout is scheduled to begin in August 2021 and any eligible Scotiabank Visa credit card customer who chooses to take advantage of the new payment installment option (called Scotia SelectPay™) can split qualifying purchases they have already made on their card. In early 2022 CIBC will launch Visa Installments where clients can shop in person or online, and later convert eligible purchases of $100+ into installment plan payments through CIBC online banking or mobile banking.
Later this year, Visa is also planning to launch Visa Installments with Canadian issuers at participating merchants during the checkout process. This will provide those issuers’ customers making a qualifying purchase with their credit cards the choice to pay in installments during their transaction.
Installments are said to represent a growing portion of the payments market, accounting for over $1.7 trillion CAD of global payment volume. The Canadian market opportunity expected to be about $50 billion annually.
Like all other markets in Canada last year, Edmonton’s retail sector faced many challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic but lately activity in the commercial real estate scene is on fire.
Paul Raimundo, Vice President, Retail Leasing & Sales for JLL, said Edmonton and Alberta in general started 2020 strong with a number of transactions but when COVID hit “essentially the deal flow part of the process shut down for four months.”
Paul Raimundo
“And nobody did anything. Everybody sat still, had a little bit of opening back June and July (2020), people started thinking that maybe this was over and then we got to the second/third wave. Everybody thought okay it’s not over and so they paused again,” said Raimundo.
“The uncertainty was the biggest issue with the pandemic. It was when is this going to move along. But we saw a big push in the fall from August to the end of December. We saw a lot of activity. Lots of transactions happened. Lots of pent up stuff. We were opened kind of and then we got shut down again in December. We did see a good amount of transaction volume in the back half of the year. It didn’t make up for what we had lost during the timelines just because the world stopped in the third week of March and didn’t really pick up until August.
Exterior of new WEM Gucci storefront. Photo: Gucci
“When we look at the beginning of this year, we started seeing good velocity in inquiries, good velocity in transactions. Even to start 2021, even with the little close down we had. There were deals in the queue. Everybody could kind of see the end of the tunnel. The last six weeks in my opinion has been extraordinary. The velocity is through the roof on inquiries, franchises, people looking to replace restaurants that couldn’t make it. Not everybody is transacting yet, but the level of activity and discussion around trying to do deals has dramatically picked up.”
According to a JLL report, leasing activity in 2020 was down 20 per cent compared with 2019. Percentage of available space advanced by 1.4 per cent during 2020 to 5.9 per cent. About one million square feet of new retail space entered the market last year.
In the second half of 2020, Edmonton asking rents for available space went sideways, while Alberta effective rents for occupied space decreased by nine per cent, said the report.
“The 2021 outlook is of market adjustment. In Q1 2021, the amount of available space continues to increase. Consistent lower levels of construction and new supply will eventually provide a rebalancing of supply and demand. Asking rents should remain stable,” said JLL.
“Edmonton’s retail sales decreased by two per cent in 2020 – the best performance in the West after Vancouver . . . Pedestrian traffic along downtown’s retail corridors remains lower as transit stations see traffic cut by almost half. With workplace traffic significantly down, the commercial district has lacked office workers.”
Exterior of new Costco Business Centre in Edmonton. Photo: Costco
After the closure of Holt Renfrew in January 2020 and consequent shuttering of Gucci’s in-store boutique, JLL said Gucci recently opened a standalone location at West Edmonton Mall. Denmark-based LEGO opened an experiential store in the West Edmonton Mall last fall. That’s the second LEGO store in Edmonton, as in 2013 the retailer opened a location at Southgate Centre. Costco opened its first business centre concept in the west in west Edmonton, geared towards small businesses such as restaurants and convenience stores.
Set to be Canada’s largest mixed-use sports and entertainment district, ICE District plans this year to open the second floor of the food hall in Stantec Tower and ICE District Plaza. In 2022, developer One Properties will open 98,000 square feet of retail in Block B/G including Loblaws CityMarket, The CANADIAN ICEhouse, and The Banquet, said the JLL report.
It added that Southgate Centre is expanding its offering by partially demolishing and expanding the site of the former Sears department store. Approximately 260,000 square feet will be added or modernized. Sporting Life is said to be among the new tenants.
Raimundo said when the deals were stopped in 2020 the conversation continued. Not about transactions but what did businesses and landlords need help with.
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Ice District - Image: ONE Properties
Ice District - Image: ONE Properties
Ice District - Image: ONE Properties
Ice District - Image: ONE Properties
“Not really focusing on the deal but focusing on the relationship between us and the retailer, us and the landlord, and us, the landlord and the retailer all together,” he said. “You’ve seen a great amount of innovation between retailers and landlords. You’ve seen a change in the hard and fast line ‘no this is what the lease says too bad’. Either the tenant or the landlord. ‘We both need to survive here. How do we survive together?’
“The innovation that happened and the entrepreneurial spirit between landlords and tenants over the last 12 months has been fantastic and it’s actually started to redefine a little bit I think this hard and fast that’s my side that’s your side and little more transparency continues on. It’s all about working together.
“I don’t know how sustainable the current pace is today but it feels like it used to feel when Spring kicks in.”
Raimundo said the downtown retail will likely continue to struggle though until people return to offices. That will be a typical response across the country.
For example, Edmonton City Centre Mall has been decimated through the pandemic. Many for lease signs are visible.
“It’s just going to take time for the consumer to come back downtown,” added Raimundo.
Toronto-based luxury multi-brand retailer Holt Renfrew is the first retailer in Canada to set approved science-based targets for carbon reduction. It’s part of a larger initiative by Holts to make its store operations more sustainable.
In a released statement, Holt Renfrew said that its announcement “places sustainability at the heart of Holt Renfrew” and that the company is “committed to reinventing retail for a better future, alongside the global Selfridges Group of stores.”
As part of the initiative, Holts is aiming to reduce its emissions with levels required to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. These targets include reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the retailer’s operations (Scope 1 and 2), as well as Scope 3 which is consistent with reductions required to keep global warming to 1.5°C.
Holt Renfrew at Yorkdale Shopping Centre – Photo by Dustin Fuhs (July 31st, 2021)
The specific targets include:
A reduction in absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 65% by 2030 (from a 2019 base year),
A reduction in absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions by 28% by 2030 (from a 2019 base year), and
a move where 67% of Holt Renfrew’s suppliers, as well upstream and downstream transportation, will have science-based targets by 2025.
Sebastian Picardo
Holt Renfrew’s President and CEO Sebastian Picardo said, “Since joining Holt Renfrew last year, the team and I have been listening to our customers, our employees, and our communities across the country to better understand what they want from Holts. Our customers are at the centre of our business, and we want to ensure that sustainability and innovation are at the forefront of their experience at Holts.”
Picardo went on to say, “Retail can be a force for good, and we know that our customers want to make trusted, responsible purchases. Our 360-degree commitment to sustainability removes the barriers for them, allowing them to shop with confidence, in a responsible way.”
Adding to this week’s announcement are other sustainability commitments on the part of the retailer. Holt Renfrew says that the most environmentally impactful materials across its business will come from certified/verified sustainable sources by the end of 2025 which will include a focus on cotton, leather, down and feathers, plastic packaging, palm oil, and forest-derived fibres such as paper, wood and cellulosic.
By the end of this year, Holt Renfrew will stop selling all animal fur and exotic skins in a partnership with the Humane Society International/Canada. Holts will also stop selling cosmetic products that contain plastic glitter.
By the end of 2024, Holt Renfrew will improve waste diversion rates in all of its stores by 85% and by the end of 2025, denim sold at Holts will come from certified/verified sustainable sources.
Holt Renfrew 2nd Level entrance at “The Core” in Calgary. Photo: Jessica Finch.
Construction is commonplace in Holt Renfrew stores as the company has been investing heavily in its fleet. In an effort to be more sustainable, the retailer says that it has developed Green Build Guidelines for design, visual and construction teams that outline requirements for sustainable building materials and products that benefit the planet and also cultivate heathy indoor air quality.
A recently announced partnership with TerraCycle has allowed Holt Renfrew to facilitate recycling beauty products and packaging collected in Holt Renfrew stores across the country. It’s an initiative seen in other retailers such as Sephora.
Holt Renfrew operates six large stores in the Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal markets. That includes stores at CF Pacific Centre in downtown Vancouver, The CORE in downtown Calgary, 50 Bloor Street West in Toronto, Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto, Square One in Mississauga, and a massive Holt Renfrew Ogilvy store in downtown Montreal. Holts also operates a standalone men’s store at 100 Bloor Street West in Toronto as well as an expanding e-commerce site with thousands of designer products for women and men.
Retail Insider interviewed Antony Karabus, CEO and Farla Efros, President respectively of HRC Retail Advisory on the top priorities for Retailers following the COVID pandemic.
The following is the Q&A interview:
Retail Insider: It seems that COVID-19 had a very different impact on retailers, depending on their sector.
HRC Advisory: Yes, that is correct. Some retailers had their best years ever, including food retail, home improvement, drug, pet, auto parts and outdoor fitness and fitness apparel. Others had been severely challenged, including department stores, specialty apparel, luxury and most stores that were based in enclosed malls.
Retail Insider: Many retailers filed for creditor protection. Can you describe the key causes that led to that situation and whether it turned out to be a good thing for some retailers?
HRC Advisory: While the pandemic was not the primary cause of most retailers that filed for credit protection, it was a major contributor. Many retailers that filed had significant balance sheet/debt challenges and could not manage their debt service when they lost their brick & mortar sales. Others had not transformed their businesses from brick and mortar-dominated to creating strong digital capabilities. In both situations, benefits of creditor protection gave the retailer the runway to transform their businesses and shed their unproductive locations and very high-cost leases. Some of our clients finally had the opportunity to exit leases in malls that were costing them rent of $ 250-300 per square foot, while their sales were well under $ 600 per square foot, effectively resulting in the avoidance of the recurring large annual losses in those stores. For numerous retailers, the transfer of sales from stores to online has been transformative with online sales often increasing from under 20% of total sales to as much as 40-50%. The cannibalization effect further eroded profits due to the high fulfilment, handling and returns cost of online sales.
Retail Insider: That is interesting, how does that impact retailers’ priorities for managing in 2021 and beyond?
HRC Advisory: The absolute top priority for retailers is to strengthen their balance sheets so that they have the runway to successfully operate and transform their businesses to profitably operate and serve their customers. Many well-known, debt-laden retailers that filed for credit protection have emerged from creditor protection with much stronger balance sheets and new shareholders and are now investing in technologies that will enable more effective omni-channel selling to and communication with customers in the way they want to engage. Fortifying liquidity/balance sheets was the single most crucial priority in 2020. It remains important for the numerous retailers that took on more debt during the pandemic.
Retail Insider: Where do retailers go after they have strengthened their balance sheet?
HRC Advisory: The rapid transformation of the customer from a primarily brick and mortar customer to an omni-channel customer has created the need for substantial capital spending to enable digital capabilities, and has also exposed the reality that numerous retailers have very old technology capabilities that need to be modernized. As well, retailers need to invest in their stores to create an improved, modern experience to reflect their brands and investment into the customer. The customer is even more key now, given their willingness to move to digital and their acceptance of digital as an engagement and shopping channel. The balance of power has increasingly shifted to the customer. This will maintain additional pressure on retailers to ensure they effectively and consistently meet customer needs.
Retail Insider: How are retailers going to allocate their capital spending?
HRC Advisory: The Retail CFO is best positioned to ensure capital is directed, allocated and prioritized towards the most important strategic and operational value-drivers to ensure the most important new and improved capabilities receive funding. Additionally, the business cases must be tracked by someone in the CFO’s organization so that the anticipated benefits are produced. To do this, retailers must develop and install a rigorous capital allocation policy to ensure the capital is spent in the right places to get the best payback and the benefits are obtained.
Retail Insider: What other steps do retailers need to take for the future?
HRC Advisory: “First and foremost, retailers need to develop a new business operating model to profitably compete over the next few years.
The business operating model will involve making key decisions around issues such as:
“Is your inventory placed in the right spot? Forecasting is going to be important in terms of how much is going to be online, how much demand is going to be in what stores?”
“Do you have the liquidity/cash flow to sustain your business with sufficient runway as you transition to a more relevant business operating model to profitably serve the omni-channel customer and to reduce risk.
“What should your new store fleet size be, what stores are no longer located in the right places and what decisions need to be made to maintain profitability at a time of seamless integration between stores and digital channels?”
“Which application systems need to be modernized to enable the digital and fulfilment capabilities to effectively serve the omni-channel customer?”
“Who is your customer? Where are they in their lifecycle? How do we best service them?”
“Last but not least, is your supply chain properly configured for the new digital environment?”
“How do you still make acceptable profits given the higher cost of fulfilling online orders?”
The combination of more office people and students working from home, store closures and a decline in tourism took its toll last year on the downtown Montreal retail market as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the province.
But there were some positive signs in the sector and now with vaccinations rising and COVID cases falling there is hope a buzz of activity will return to the core of the city.
Manon Larose, Senior Vice President, Retail with JLL, said an important element of the retail industry in the Quebec city during the pandemic was the collaboration that took place between the landlords and their retailers.
MONTREAL SHOPPING STRIP. PHOTO: DEPARTURES
“Everybody was in the same boat. Some landlords really jumped in to help and to help the retailers to go through that period. I also have a lot of sympathy for the landlords because nobody gave them some free mortgage period. It was pretty challenging,” said Larose.
“What I see is a lot of dynamism and a lot of people who are interested to come back to business. Whenever there is a disaster there are opportunities as well. But downtown Montreal suffered the most because of the lack of the office workers, the tourists, the students. We had the strictest measures in Montreal. So everybody really suffered.
“But now one thing I’m really seeing talking to a lot of people is that the honeymoon of working from home is over and people want to come back to a real life as quickly as possible.”
She said annual retail sales in 2020 fell by five per cent.
According to a JLL retail market report, the Montreal retail market environment remains challenging, as Quebec has now experienced several lockdowns. Although Toronto implemented one of the longest lockdowns in the country, Montreal has implemented probably the strictest lockdown measures, it said.
“Effective rents for occupied space fell by three per cent in the second half of 2020 as the result of rent concessions and discounts by landlords. In addition, lower retail sales in Q4 reduced rents in sales-based lease agreements,” said JLL.
“A recent report showed that 28 per cent of downtown Montreal stores were vacant or temporarily closed in Q4. The same study also revealed that the retail vacancy/temporary closure rate on Sainte Catherine Street increased from 18 per cent in Q2 to 23 per cent in Q4, and in shopping malls from 18 to 20 per cent.
“The redesign of Sainte Catherine Street continues to progress, and work is currently taking place in Phillips Square and the section between Robert-Bourassa and Mansfield.”
Larose said retail categories that were on the rise during the pandemic included cannabis, wine and beer, building materials, everything related to groceries, electronics and appliances, sports and fitness.
“The top performing brands in 2020 were Amazon, Apple, Wayfair, lululemon, Peloton and Restoration Hardware as well as Shopify,” she said.
The WANT Apothecary Montreal. Photo by THE WANT Apothecary.
The JLL report said Montreal-born fashion boutique WANT Apothecary surprised everyone in March when it announced that it was closing all brick-and-mortar locations to focus on its online brand WANT Les Essentiels. The retailer closed its flagship store on Sherbrooke Street West in Westmount, adding another empty storefront to the noticeable vacancy on the street.
“As in several Canadian cities, retailers in Montreal have been concerned that downtown could become a permanent ghost town. Office workers, tourists, and students haven’t traveled to the area since COVID broke out. Montreal downtown workers have adapted well to working from home, which raised the question of whether most of these 300,000 employees will ever go back to the office. In Q4, more than half of businesses based in office towers were vacant or temporarily closed,” added the report.
“Famous for a tourism market that helps propel retail, and especially luxury, downtown Montreal’s hotels have suffered. While 2019 occupancy rates were an average 74 per cent, in 2020 occupancy rates never rose above the 20 per cent mark set in April of 2020.”
The report said Montreal City Hall is lining up a series of summer initiatives in partnership with local organizations, setting aside more than $30 million in investments. These include support for bars and restaurants to reopen, greater flexibility for patios, and free-street parking on weekends.
“Robust pre-COVID fundamentals are indicative that downtown Montreal can recoup its daytime population quickly once tourists return and students shift back to in-person classes, which includes 120,000 students from local universities,” said the report.
Image: Ivanhoé Cambridge
Larose said the impact on downtown Montreal in the past year “was terrible in a way.”
But there were positive notes, she added.
For example, Japanese fashion brand Uniqlo opened its largest store in Canada at the Eaton Centre. The two-storey downtown store is streetfront and carries a selection of home goods, which other locations don’t.
The Montreal Eaton Centre has seen several notable openings, including Time Out food hall, Decathlon, and Sephora. Samsung Canada, and Pandora also opened locations. The Samsung store was its first in Quebec and sixth Samsung Canada Experience Store.
French fashion brand ba&sh, whose global expansion is backed by LVMH, opened its second standalone Canadian store in Montreal’s affluent Westmount area last summer. The retailer opened its first store in Toronto’s Yorkville in early 2020.
“There were some openings and some good stories,” said Larose. “And from what I hear Uniqlo’s sales are extremely good. So you can just imagine what it will be when the students and everybody will be back downtown.
“I think creativity is the word of today and that goes for everybody. For the landlords as well as for the retailers. You have to reinvent yourself. I see a bright future. I know the physical stores are there to remain especially when you see an Amazon of this world opening some physical point of sales. I think it says it all.”
Hudson’s Bay Flagship Store – Downtown Montreal Ste Catherine Street. Rendering: Hudson’s Bay Company
Larose said the pandemic accelerated some of the trends the retail world was already experiencing such as ecommerce and online shopping.
The JLL report said HBC and RioCan will pursue the redevelopment of HBC’s downtown Montreal property into a 25-storey office tower and the downsizing of the existing Hudson’s Bay retail space. The Sainte-Catherine Street store will continue to operate throughout the construction process.
The opening of the Royalmount complex near the intersection of highways 15 and 40 has been postponed to the summer of 2023 due to the pandemic. In February of 2020, developer Carbonleo unveiled a second version of the project with less retail, entertainment and office space and more residential and green space, added JLL.
