1NYX Cosmetics Exiting Canadian Stores
L’Oréal-owned NYX Cosmetics is shutting all of its Canadian stores after entering the market in 2015. It will result in more vacancies at a challenging time for the retail industry.
NYX Cosmetics opened its first Canadian store in 2015 at Square One in Mississauga. A second store opened at 363 Queen Street West in Toronto which was followed by a storefront at CF Toronto Eaton Centre in Toronto. In 2016, NYX opened stores at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto as well as at CF Rideau Centre in Ottawa. In May of 2017, NYX opened its first Vancouver store on Robson Street which it shut earlier this year. The expansion continued with a store at West Edmonton Mall in June of 2017 and more stores opened after. NYX already closed several of its Canadian stores permanently prior to the announcement and as of today the company operates 10 stores in the Greater Toronto Area, Ottawa, London, and Vancouver.
NYX (Named after the Greek goddess of the night, pronounced ‘Nix’) was founded by Toni Ko in 1999, and is headquartered in Los Angeles. The brand is known for its high quality, affordably priced rich-pigment cosmetics, which have gained a loyal following both with makeup artists as well as the general public. L’Oréal bought NYX in 2014, and has expanded the brand significantly to include product lines in retailers selling cosmetics such as Canadian retailers Shoppers Drug Mart, Rexall, and London Drugs.
NYX stores measured in the 800-to-1,200-square-foot range. Landlords may have less difficulty securing new tenants given the small size of the spaces which are in premium locations. At the same time, thousands of retail spaces in Canada are being vacated due to retailers struggling financially which has been amplified with COVID-19 store closures and a change in consumer shopping behaviour.
2Second City Comedy Moving to the Danforth
The Toronto contingent of the Second City comedy troupe will be relocating temporarily to a building at 2800 Danforth Avenue in Toronto. Second City will move there temporarily until its new permanent Toronto location opens next year.
According to a listing, the 2800 Danforth Avenue building, formerly occupied by a furniture retailer, spans 6667 square feet on the main floor with an additional 4,640 square feet on the lower level. The building has a loading area with a truck level door and there are several parking spaces at the back of the building.
Second City will eventually move into a new space at One York Street near Toronto’s waterfront. It will occupy 28,700 square feet on the third floor of the 170,000-square-foot retail podium at One York Street, which is owned by Menkes Developments Ltd. in partnership with Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) and Sun Life Financial. One York is connected to Toronto’s PATH network and also includes a 35-storey office tower as well as two condominium towers spanning 70 and 66 stories that are branded as the ‘Harbour Plaza Residences’.
The new downtown Second City space will feature several comedy theatres for live performances, along with an improvisation-based arts school, and a games-driven bar and restaurant. Second City is vacating its 51 Mercer Street building located in Toronto’s Entertainment District. Second City’s first Toronto location was on Adelaide Street East prior to moving into 110 Lombard Street in 1974. In 1997, Second City moved into 56 Blue Jays Way and remained there until 2005 when it was announced that the Blue Jays Way property would be demolished with a facade to be integrated into the now-standing Bisha Hotel. Second City moved into 51 Mercer Street in 2005 and once again, Toronto’s condo boom saw Second City having to relocate.
3Canadian Duo Introduce the Sleekest Automatic Watch Yet
Introducing VIEREN, a line of luxury, Swiss Made watches created to introduce the sophisticated craft of automatic watchmaking to a new generation.
VIEREN is founded by renowned Canadian fashion designer and Project Runway All Star, Sunny Fong (founder of fashion brand VAWK), and CEO Jessica Chow. The duo, inspired by how automatic watches are powered by momentum (if you stop wearing an automatic watch, it temporarily stops telling time), set out to create a line that celebrates the century-old craft with contemporary, timeless designs.
Each of the 4 watches in the inaugural collection are hand-crafted over a 6-month period, using over 200 microscopic components, certified Swiss Made, and start at $2,350 CAD. They’re built to tell time forever, no battery required.
Automatic watches are powered by you – harnessing the energy from the motion of your wrist. As you wear it, the rotor (weighted semi-circular disc) on the back of the watch movement swings back and forth, collecting energy to power the watch. If worn everyday, an automatic watch can tell time for a lifetime.
4Bayview Goes Virtual This Holiday Season
As Toronto moves into another lockdown, Bayview Village continues to offer shoppers festive virtual experiences to celebrate the ‘haute’ holidays from the comfort of home.
Experiences include complimentary one-on-one virtual visits with Santa via Zoom up until Thursday, December 24 at 4pm (to book an appointment click here), virtual photos with Santa, and virtual kids cooking classes hosted by BV chefs every Saturday from December 5 -19.
BV Dance Academy, Goh Ballet will carry on its tradition with a limited time film release of the Nutcracker: Beyond the Stage from December 18, 2020 to January 2, 2021. To register for the online experience, please visit here.
Pusateri’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil & Balsamic Gift Set. Photo: GASTRONOMER 
Pusateri’s Italian Dinner Kit for Two. Photo: GASTRONOMER
While in-person shopping isn’t available at this time, shoppers can still support BV retailers through its virtual marketplace, GASTRONOMER. Featuring a curated selection of culinary delights from BV’s food and restaurant tenants, GASTRONOMER purchases are available for curbside pickup.
Some product highlights include:
- BV Brunch ($75) and Local ($105) Gift Baskets from Fruit of the Land.
- Charcuterie + Cheese ($80) and Artisanal Cheese Platters ($75) from Pusateri’s Fine Foods.
- Bayview Village $50 and $100 gift cards that can be used anywhere in the shopping centre.
250 Bayview Village gift cards are now available through GASTRONOMER along with $50 and $100. Two newer GASTRONOMER offerings include the Pusateri’s Fine Foods Charcuterie & Cheese Platter ($80), Fruit of the Land Local Basket ($105), or the GOA Indian Farm Kitchen Fiery Goan Curry Kit ($14.95).
See here for retailers offering curbside pickup.
Image: Dust of Gods 
Image: Dust of Gods
5Bayview Launches Dust of Gods Pop-Up — and Promptly Has to Close
Bayview Village announced the addition of internationally-renowned, sustainable fashion movement Dust of Gods which launched a pop-up for the second time. The edgy popup is helmed by Toronto-based architect Antonio Tadrissi, and would have been available at the shopping centre from November 15 to December 31 except now stores have been mandated to close in Toronto until at least December 20.
Dust of Gods is a lifestyle brand that aims to transform pre-loved clothing into luxurious, ‘one-of-one’ pieces of wearable art. Sustainability is at the forefront of the brand with the belief that this can only be achieved in the fashion industry through repurposing.
6Canadian Brand Arc’teryx Launches its First Icon Store in California
The global design company, specializing in technical high-performance apparel and equipment, is offering consumers an accessible and approachable way to shop with the launch of its new Arc’teryx Icon stores.
The first Arc’teryx Icon store opened in Walnut Creek, CA this past weekend, and is designed to streamline the shopping experience by showcasing a narrow range of products to choose from, and offering flexible options to select and purchase the brand’s most acclaimed items.
In total, five Arc’teryx Icon stores are scheduled to open in the United States this year: three in New York City, and two in the San Francisco Bay Area. In each store, guests can browse through a curated assortment of the brand’s most sought-after designs — such as the Alpha SV and Atom LT —in a space inspired by wood-frame backcountry huts. Additionally, a variety of direct-to-consumer retail services such as Virtual Advisor, Virtual Waitlist, Endless Aisle, Same-Day Courier, Curbside Pick-Up, and Click & Collect, are available, enabling guests to shop for and receive their products within 24-48 hours.
The Arc’teryx Icon stores also feature a smaller retail footprint, and are constructed through a virtual design process using three-dimensional modeling technology. With the evolved store size, the brand can maximize real estate opportunities, keep operational overhead costs at a minimum, and expedite the store opening lead time to 3-5 months instead of the usual 9-12 months for an Arc’teryx store.
Similar Canadian locations are expected to follow.
7Bluebird Self Storage Opens 3 Ontario Locations
Bluebird Self Storage has officially opened three new stores in Ontario — one in Toronto, one in Whitby, and one in Burlington.
Since the company’s inception in 1983, Bluebird has developed and managed almost 100 institutional Class ‘A’ storage facilities across North America. The company has been the preferred developer and vendor to the self-storage industries developing real estate investment trusts (REITS) in the United States and Canada. Adopting the name ‘Bluebird Self Storage’ to encompass Canadian operations, the company is expected to double the size of its current 11 store chain within the next 6 months.
The new Bluebird Self Storage store in Toronto is located at1450 Don Mills Road, and is a 151,000 net rentable square feet (NRSF) facility. The new Bluebird Self Storage store in Burlington is located at 1770 Appleby Line and offers 116,200 NRSF. The new Bluebird Self Storage store in Whitby is located at 1580 St. E. with 100,688 NRSF available.
To further protect clientele during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bluebird has implemented precautions including the closing of any store office exposed to a confirmed case of COVID and having it cleaned and sanitized for reopening.
