Quebec City-based large format fashion retailer La Maison Simons has partnered with Cadillac Fairview to expand its store at CF Promenades St-Bruno, on Montreal’s south shore. Construction will begin in the summer of 2018, and is expected to be completed in the spring of 2020.
As part of the arrangement, Cadillac Fairview is investing $20.5 million into the expanded store, which will see the existing 65,600 square foot Simons expanded to about 93,000 square feet of total space. Simons will take over second-level retail space currently occupied by the 42,700 square foot Sports Experts/Atmosphere, which is relocating into the mall’s former Target space. Interestingly, about 11,000 square feet of Simons’ existing ground floor will be converted to multiple CRU spaces as part of the redevelopment. Simons will remain open during construction, and the existing store will also see a full renovation as part of the expansion.
The new store will be Simons’ only location on Montreal’s south shore, and the fourth for the Montreal region. Other Montreal-area stores include a downtown Montreal flagship, as well as stores at CF Galeries d’Anjou and CF Carrefour Laval. As it stands, all three suburban Simons stores are in Cadillac Fairview-owned properties. Sources say that at one time, Simons was considering relocating its Montreal south-shore store to nearby Quartier DIX30 in Brossard, though that’s now unlikely given Cadillac Fairview’s investment into Simons’ St-Bruno expansion.
Simons opened at CF Promenades St-Bruno in 2001. The enclosed shopping centre boasts about a million square feet of retail space and according to a recent Retail Council of Canada Shopping Centre Study, is one of the largest and most productive malls in the region. Hudson’s Bay and Sears are major anchors in the centre, along with Simons. In 2015, landlord Cadillac Fairview completed a $50 million redevelopment of CF Promenades St. Bruno, which included interior modernizations, the revitalization of the centre court, exterior enhancements, and the transformation of its food court into ‘Le District Gourmand’. Several best-in-class retailers were also added to the centre that year, with names such as Aritzia, H&M, Michael Kors and Victoria’s Secret.
Simons currently operates 13 stores in Canada, with plans to open two new ones this year. Besides its four Montreal-area stores discussed above, Simons operates three stores in Quebec City (Old Quebec, Place Ste-Foy and Galeries de la Capitale), one in Sherbrooke, two in the Ottawa/Capital Region (CF Rideau Centre and Les Promenades Gatineau), West Vancouver (Park Royal), Edmonton (West Edmonton Mall) and at Square One in Mississauga, west of Toronto. On March 16 of this year, Simons will open a multi-level store in downtown Calgary, and on August 24 of this year it will open a second location in Edmonton, at the overhauled Londonderry Shopping Centre in the city’s north-east. In 2018, Simons will relocate its Quebec City/Galeries de la Capitale store into the mall’s 80,000 square foot former Target space. The West Edmonton Mall store was Simons’ first location outside of the province of Quebec when it opened in October of 2012.
