Oakridge Shopping Centre is getting three newly-built anchor stores, as well as a new Safeway grocery store. We recently reported on Oakridge’s substantial renovation that will double its retail square footage.
These floorplans are only initial renderings and anchor tenant sizes and shapes may change to suit tenants. We have done some measurements to determine the size of the three department store anchors on the floorplan, below. These will include:
1) a 175-180,000 square foot Hudson’s Bay store,
2) a 125,000 square foot Target store and
3) a 145,000 square foot ‘mystery anchor’ store.
We previously speculated that the ‘mystery anchor store’ might be La Maison Simons. We’re wondering if this will no longer be the case. 145,000 square feet is larger than what Simons wants. Granted, as we mentioned, this anchor store’s size could change to suit a prospective tenant.
145,000 square feet could be about the right size for either a Nordstrom or Holt Renfrew. Could it be either of these? Our initial answer is “no”… Holt Renfrew likes to maintain a ‘radius’ around each of their stores, and Oakridge is much too close of a drive or by transit from its Pacific Centre store. The same goes for Nordstrom, which will occupy the former Sears store at Pacific Centre. Nordstrom prefers to space-out stores where possible to prevent canibalizing sales from their own stores.
We have been made aware that several potential large format retailers are interested in an Oakridge anchor space. We will not speculate until we receive some confirmation of what retailers may be interested (re-word this). We will keep you updated when we find out what will occupy the department store space at the South-end of Oakridge Centre.
Oakridge Centre website: www.oakridgecentre.com
