The real estate development arm of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Streetworks Developments, plans to redevelop the historic Hudson’s Bay department store building in downtown Vancouver. This follows plans announced last year to redevelop the downtown Montreal Hudson’s Bay flagship which will include the addition of an office tower and the reduction of the store’s overall retail footprint.
Retail Insider was first notified of the news by Vancouver-based urban planning news site UrbanYVR.
“A rezoning application for a proposed redevelopment will be submitted to the City of Vancouver in the coming weeks,” says a new dedicated website from New York City-based Streetworks Developments.
“Public information meetings will be held in-person on February 23rd and 26th and virtually on February 24th, and an exhibit about the proposed redevelopment will be on display at the downtown Hudson’s Bay store from February 23rd to 27th inclusive.”
“We are exploring ways to reconfigure the Bay Building by engaging with local First Nations and other partners and communities,” the website goes on to say, with few other details.
The historic 636,828 square foot department store was built in phases between 1913 and 1949. The current building spans nine levels with six of those being large above-ground floor plates spanning more than 70,000 square feet each.
One expects that, as with the proposed redevelopment of the historic downtown Montreal Hudson’s Bay store, the Vancouver project will involve the current Hudson’s Bay department store remaining on site but with a smaller retail square footage. In Montreal, Streetworks and HBC revealed plans for a store of 295,000 square feet with the remainder of the building to be developed for offices along with the addition of a multi-level office tower.
This follows a trend for Hudson’s Bay and its downtown flagship stores. We reported last year that the company had downsized its historic downtown Calgary flagship store to just three retail levels from six.
Last year the Hudson’s Bay Company shut its Hudson’s Bay department stores in downtown Winnipeg and Edmonton. The closure of both stores marked the beginning of an era where both downtowns became completely devoid of department stores for the first time in over a century.
In October of 2020 the Hudson’s Bay Company announced a new division called HBC Properties and Investments with Streetworks Development reconceptualizing the downtown flagships as mixed-use buildings. The goal according to HBC is on creating multi-use spaces that feature a range of services and experiences across the workplace, retail, residential and entertainment categories.
The fate off the downtown Ottawa Hudson’s Bay flagship store is currently unknown — the store could see redevelopment as it is also jointly owned in partnership with Toronto-based RioCan. And downtown Toronto is home to two Hudson’s Bay stores. The flagship store at the corner of Yonge and Queen Streets is owned by Cadillac Fairview (housing both a Hudson’s Bay and Saks Fifth Avenue store), and at press time renovations were being completed to an adjacent office tower. The Hudson’s Bay store at the northeast corner of Bloor and Yonge Streets in Toronto is expected to eventually close for a new development currently in talks with landlord Brookfield in partnership with a new W Hotel set to open soon on the site. The City of Toronto is also earmarking over a billion dollars to reconfigure the subway stations directly below it.
I hope the Bay’s future iteration still retains the flagship departments and brands that set this store apart from more main-line locations. The Room is nice along with the entire second level designer departments. The first floor cosmetics hall is the largest around with unmatched selection. The 6th floor men’s department is nice as well. I could see the Bay consolidating floors 3-5 along with the basement levels to a more modest collection on women’s wear, athleisure and home furnishings. Currently the first four floors are all solely for women except a few luxury men’s pieces in the Room.