Craig and Lee have a conversation about what’s happening on Yorkville Avenue in Toronto, which has seen several high-end brands lease space on the street in recent weeks. The area is changing rapidly as the population grows and Yorkville Avenue finds its place as a luxury address.
The Weekly podcast by Retail Insider Canada is available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. Also check out our The Interview Series podcast where Craig interviews guests from across the Canadian retail landscape as part of the The Retail Insider Podcast Network.
Retail Insider content discussed this episode:
- Christian Louboutin Opens Canadian Flagship, Plans Concession Expansion [Photos] (2016)
- CHANEL Opens Impressive Canadian Flagship [Photos] (2017)
- Brunello Cucinelli To Open Yorkville Flagship (2017)
- Versace Opens Impressive Canadian Flagship on Yorkville Avenue [Photos] (2019)
- Upscale Sportswear Brand ‘Stone Island’ Opens 1st Canadian Flagship [Photos] (2019)
- Balenciaga Opens Large 2-Level Flagship Store on Yorkville Avenue in Toronto [Photos] (2022)
- Italian Luxury Brand Isaia Opens First Canadian Storefront in Toronto with Plans for a Second in Vancouver: Interview with CEO Gianluca Isaia (2021)
- Reformation to Open 1st Tech-Heavy Canadian Flagship Store in Toronto (2022)
Transcript
Announcer 0:00
This is a Retail Insider Podcast. You’re listening to “The Weekly”.
Lee Rivett 0:08
Welcome to this week’s episode of “The Weekly” by Retail Insider. I’m Lee Rivett and I’m joined with the owner and publisher of Retail Insider Media, Craig Patterson, to discuss this week’s most read articles on retail-insider.com. So thanks for joining me, Craig.
Craig Patterson 0:22
Hello, everyone.
Lee Rivett 0:23
For this podcast, we wanted to touch upon a couple of changes that were happening in downtown Toronto in your neck of the woods, Craig. And this is Yorkville, right? So for our listeners that may not be familiar, could you share a little bit about Yorkville and the changes?
Craig Patterson 0:39
I want to talk a little bit about Yorkville Avenue, mainly the stretch, which has luxury stores. It’s not even that long the avenue generally but we’ll just talk about an area that’s really just a few hundred feet long. There’s some new developments coming and I wanted to talk about them because I’m excited. I think it’s really developing as a luxury street. It’s kind of got this bit of I don’t wanna say Rodeo Drive II feel to it, but it’s sort of along those lines but Yorkville Avenue is also a gathering place there’s there’s places we can get ice cream, people sit out there on a warm evening or during the day and just enjoy themselves. So it’s, it’s got a really great feel to it, but it’s also got some great luxury stores. So let’s talk a little bit about that.
Lee Rivett 1:14
The Yorkville neighborhood has seen a lot of luxury developments over the last couple of years which is right in your wheelhouse Craig. As far as I can remember, you’ve been reporting on these luxury openings in Yorkville for years. But how long have you been living on in Yorkville, by the way,
Craig Patterson 1:29
So I came back to Toronto in 2016. Not too long afterwards, we saw the first luxury store opening on Yorkville avenue that I guess was in more recent memory. This was the Christian Louboutin store which is in an old house basically very, very cool building. Now Kiton had been there before as part of the V Hazleton retail operations, but really, I think Christian Louboutin is what kicked things off with these corporate stores that we saw opening on Yorkville Avenue.
Lee Rivett 1:58
Christian Louboutin was the first. Who were the others?
Craig Patterson 2:01
Things really kicked off when Chanel came in Chanel left Bloor Street and in 2017 opened its flagship store at 100 Yorkville Avenue. I think the address might be 98 Technically, but the facade is an old Mount Sinai Hospital. And really, I think Chanel was that link or that crux which brought in a bunch of other brands. So we saw Brunello Cucinelli open, Versace, Stone Island (we’ve reported on all of these in Retail Insider). A bit more recently, we saw Isaia open in the old Pink Tartan space at Yorkville Avenue on Bellair Street in an old heritage building. Balenciaga opened last year, in a spot. Right at at the end of last year, just a few months ago, we saw Reformation, Los Angeles based brand open its first flagship concept in Canada, it’s got the dressing rooms that are interactive, and that’s also opened on the street. So the street has really come along. And now we’ve got some new announcements to make here, which are quite exciting as well for Yorkville Avenue. So again, I said, I’m excited. I like what’s happening. And let’s talk about some of those brands.
Lee Rivett 3:03
Totally. I think the first one was a home goods brand that’s coming into the neighborhood, right?
Craig Patterson 3:08
The first one we’re announcing here is Diptique. It’s a French fragrance brand. They’re they’re known for their candles and for their perfumes, home fragrances, stuff like that. And there’s already the first Canadian store it opened while back I think was about a year and a half ago at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Center. And now a second one is opening at 101 Yorkville Avenue in Yorkville, so it’s gonna be a great addition to the street. There’s also some businesses nearby that I think are some good co-tenants on Hazleton Avenue. You’ve got the Caudalie Spa. You’ve got Le Labo over on Bellair street. You’ve got Aesop. So you’ve got a bit of a beauty offering that’s developing here in Yorkville, and I think Diptique is going to be a great tenant. So it isn’t a building which eventually will be demolished. So the lease is not necessarily long term but it’d be a great little spot. And it’ll be joined, I think by some other great retailers as well. But nothing has been confirmed yet in terms of lease specifically for that building.
Lee Rivett 4:04
And I think down the street, you’re talking about a denim brand as well, right?
Craig Patterson 4:08
That’s right now John Elliott, it’s an American fashion brand is pretty expensive. It’s kind of almost in the luxury category. I think the jeans were about $650 to $700. It’s going to be opening a store, actually, where the Off White location had been as well as a little, I guess, the entire building. It’s about 5000 square feet. So not nearly as small as the old Off White at 83 Yorkville Avenue. And this will be the first location in Canada. Arlen Markowitz, I know was involved in the deal because we were chatting about it and from CBRE and this is another exciting retailer so I haven’t connected with them yet in terms of doing a full article on Retail Insider about it. But nevertheless, the construction has started on this store and this is going to bring a younger demographic onto the street. And I will say right now that there also will be a another very, very exciting retailer opening on the street that I’m not allowed to talk about the ad unfortunately, but that will be opening nearby. What I can say generally is I’ve been told that this will bring many new young people to the street, many people that are quite hip, maybe even some that might go to Yorkdale typically, but that this should be another good tenants along with John Elliott that will both really bring in a moneyed, youthful population to Yorkville, which I think is going to be important for the neighborhood’s overall survival in years to come as being a commercial center, especially when it is competing against Yorkdale.
Lee Rivett 5:32
Fair enough. And we recently did an article on a jeweler called VRAI coming into the Yorkville area, right.
Craig Patterson 5:39
That’s right, VRAI. So this is actually a bit of a confusing one for me, I’ll tell a bit of a backstory. So we do know that VRAI is going up at 111 Yorkville Avenue, it’s going to be above the Veronica Beard store, which we did also report on. So that’s a great new tenant based in New York City women’s fashion brand, but with VRAI again, moving up to the second floor. We knew about it beforehand, and we knew the address. Well actually, we didn’t know the address. We thought it we were told 118 Yorkville Avenue which is the Hazelton Hotel. So of course me being detective in retail are doing my investigative journalism, you know, putting on my investigative journalist hat. We were wandering around trying to figure out where in the hotel it was going. And the answer was it wasn’t I even spoke to a concierge. They’re really nice people there by the way, they were so helpful, even though we had no answers because that wasn’t where it was going. And then I figured it was actually going in the basement of the 111 building because I thought the entire second floor was going to be a spa but we were wrong because some signs went up and then I spoke to the founder of VRAI and it’s going upstairs. So anyways, it’s a bit of a funny story about how we didn’t know necessarily where it was going to be going exactly on the avenue but we knew that it was going on Yorkville Avenue and and now it’s confirmed because they’ve got signs that are going above the Veronica Beard store in this building, which used to be I think, two townhouses. In many decades past when when Yorkville was it was a residential neighborhood with houses and not so many stores. So yeah, no, I think VRAI which is lab grown diamonds will be another welcome addition to the neighborhood. It’s creating a clustering of businesses which I think is going to be terrific for for Yorkville.
Lee Rivett 7:18
Yeah. And now this next retailer coming to Yorkville has a special place in my heart. They’re originally from Vancouver and I’m a regular at their Davie Street location. I even currently have my eye on at least four items in their store right now. So if you’re looking for any Christmas in July gifts for me they got you covered, Craig. But do tell us about the retailer. There darling and amazing and I’m excited to see that they’re expanding into your neck of the woods.
Craig Patterson 7:43
That’s right people love luxury resale. You’ve got Gucci, Prada, Fendi, everything you can imagine, Dior. It’s called “Mine and Yours” and it’s going to be taking the former Free People’s space on Yorkville Avenue. So I think this is going to be quite an exciting thing. There’s already another luxury reseller on the street, Oliver’s Jewelers, which you know, Russell’s “Oh, yeah”, I can’t really do that so well. But now we’re going to be getting a second store across the street at 79 Yorkville Avenue, call “Mine and Yours” and Courtney is the owner. She’s really fun. I’m sure the opening party is going to be an absolute blast just because they seem to have a lot of events. And I think that’s going to be part of the retail experience, it’s actually going to be various in-person events, because it’s something that’s done in Vancouver and I think Toronto very much embraces such things. So I would be surprised if Courtney didn’t have some pretty great, you know, bang up events there that will involve drinks and food and shopping, of course, so I think that this is actually going to be a very fun addition to the street. We don’t know how long the store is going to be there yet. I don’t think it’s necessarily a long term lease, but I don’t think it’s quite as short term as we expected, so we’ll be getting some more information. I’ll be interviewing Courtney, I believe on a podcast and we’ll be doing an article right around the time the store opens which is going to be in a couple of weeks. So another great addition to Yorkville Avenue is not necessarily a luxury retailer like one of these big names like you know Chanel, Gucci, Prada, but it does have those brands that’s just resale. So it is an interesting mix of having that resale with the luxury brands being very, very, very close by
Lee Rivett 9:23
Unfortunately there’s a brand that’s also closing in Yorkville, if you wanted to tell us about.
Craig Patterson 9:28
There’s a multi brand retailer called Kimina which has operated on Yorkville Avenue since 1986. And we I just saw some signs on the window saying that it’s going to be shutting down which is too bad. It is a bit unfortunate that the retailer is going to be closing it’s at 112 Yorkville Avenue. I haven’t spoken to The owner yet in terms of the rationale around closing, it could just be a retirement. I mean, that’s a long time to have a store on the street and to be a family owned business. But it definitely sold high end products over the years and hopefully a new tenant comes in. There’s an optical store located next to it right now call Outlook I believe is what it’s called an optical store. But it’s it’s in an older building on Yorkville Avenue with steps that go up to it next to the Kiton store. So some new tenant will be coming in there. I don’t know if it will be a luxury store. It’s just because the building is quite old and luxury brands don’t necessarily like to locate in old houses and the way that it’s configured but who knows what’s going to happen there. There could be a redevelopment of the building. I think Whittington investments owns half of the building. I’m not sure which half actually to be honest, I think it’s the other half but we’ll see where that goes. So that’s that’s a bit of a change for the street as well.
Lee Rivett 10:54
Heading towards Avenue Road. There’s some changes that are happening in that neck of the woods to do you want to elaborate on that as we start wrapping up the podcast?
Craig Patterson 11:02
Yeah, so First Capital Realty owns the old Hazleton Lane shopping center, which has been rebranded Yorkville Village. Well, they’re a REIT. There’s a development happening right on Yorkville Avenue that’s going to involve a condominium tower with some very, very expensive units. By the way, I’m curious about the pricing, I’ve heard they’re going to be in the many millions of dollars, so we’ll find out soon. But 138 Avenue Road, I think is that building. But First Capital Realty is going to be doing a bit of a reconfiguration of its entrance into the Yorkville Village shopping center from Yorkville Avenue. I’ve seen some renderings, but I don’t know if they’re finalized. But my understanding is that this will involve a ramp going up instead of down into the shopping center and that there’s going to be more opportunities for actual full blown luxury brands to be opening on Yorkville Avenue. So this will be across from the CNTRBND store, basically, on Yorkville Avenue. This is towards Avenue Road. We don’t know, of course, who these luxury brands are going to be yet this is a while in development in terms of this a hole in the ground type of situation leasing probably has not started for these retail spaces that will be there. But I think there are some grand plans in the works for the future here as this development progresses. So I’ll have to figure out what the timeline is going to be there. I mean, it’s not going to be months, but it’s not going to be many, many years either just because it’s involving a condominium tower development, it’s going to have commercial at the base. But nevertheless, just the renderings that we’ve seen which are public (on Urban Toronto and whatnot) look quite glamorous and fun and interesting and again, are going to be a really great addition to Yorkville Avenue towards Avenue Road. So something to watch as well. So we’ll be following that closely here as it develops. And me being in Yorkville, it is easier for me to go and look around and see what’s happening. So it’s it’s really neat to see this neighborhood growing up and, and Yorkville again, throughout. There’s about what 10,000 housing units that are proposed are in development right now in the neighborhood. So it’s going to add 1000s and 1000s of new people to the area. It’s growing probably faster than any other high density luxury node possibly in the world. And the number of wealthy people that will be moving into Yorkville over the next few years it’s going to be substantial. Looking at the number of residential units they’re proposing with prices at over $5 million. It’s a lot, probably more than we’ve ever seen. So I think that given that we’re gonna see more rich people moving into Yorkville, there’s going to be more opportunities for retailers, I think in the area to actually cater to a local population and not necessarily just people from Forest Hill and Rosedale and and you know, wealthy neighborhoods nearby, you’re gonna have people living upstairs and living across the street that are going to be shopping in these stores like Gucci and Prada and Chanel. So this is a good place for retailers to be in Yorkville, just given that you’re gonna have rich people living on top or across the street or nearby.
Lee Rivett 13:45
One just to wrap up Is there anything next steps that you’re planning on doing in order to get more details for the Yorkville area and news for our listeners?
Craig Patterson 13:54
What I probably should do is I’ll speak to some brokers and see if I can even introduce some of them on Retail Insider in the next few weeks. And we’ll talk a little bit more about what’s happening in Yorkville as well as around the country. I’d like to speak to brokers a bit more on camera or on podcast, whatever they’re comfortable with, about what’s happening. So but I am excited to see what’s happening in Yorkville as well those as well as other neighborhoods across the country as we see new retailers opening, even though I know we’re in a situation where consumers are in. Many demographics are struggling and we’ve got you know, situation of inflation and whatnot. There are still consumers out there spending. So with that we’re seeing retailers, restaurants and other businesses also growing so we’ll continue to follow that. I tried to remain optimistic despite everything that’s happening right now. And I think the future is going to be bright.
Lee Rivett 14:42
Thanks for going through some of the latest updates from Yorkville. I’m sure a lot of our listeners wanted a lot of these details. It’s really exciting and unfortunate some of the closures but other than that, thank you again and chat with you next week.
Craig Patterson 14:53
Thank you so much, Lee and thank you so much everyone for listening today. Take care and bye for now.
Subscribe, Rate, and Review our Retail Insider Podcast!
Follow Craig:
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/CraigPattersonToronto
- Instagram: @craig_patterson_toronto
- Twitter: @RI_EIC
Follow Retail Insider:
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/Retail-Insider
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RetailInsider/
- Twitter: @RetailInsider_
- Instagram: @Retail_Insider_Canada
Listen & Subscribe:
Share your thoughts!
Drop us a line at Craig@Retail-Insider.com. You can also rate us in Apple Podcasts or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show!
Background Music Credit: Hard Boiled Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
