Italian luxury brand Salvatore Ferragamo will open a first-in-the-world concept store in Toronto’s Bloor-Yorkville area. The store will occupy two retail spaces at The Colonnade at 131 Bloor Street West, and will be the fourth standalone Ferragamo store in Canada.
Ferragamo will occupy about 5,300 square feet on the street-level of The Colonnade between a large Prada store bookending one end and a massive Dior flagship on the other. The Ferragamo lease involved joining two retail spaces including a 3,000 square foot storefront currently occupied by Coach as well as a 2,225 square foot space vacated in the spring of 2020 by UK luxury brand Mulberry which shut both of its Canadian stores and exited the market at the time. A pop-up for a sneaker retailer currently occupies the former Mulberry space.
Employees at the Coach store have been informed that the Bloor Street store will be closing. Coach also has several stores in the Greater Toronto Area including downtown at the CF Toronto Eaton Centre.
The Bloor Street Ferragamo store will feature a new design concept that will be a first in the world for the company, which has new CEOs in Europe and in North America as well as a new creative director. We’ll discuss the design more when details become available. What we do know is Former Burberry CEO Marco Gobbetti, now head of Ferragamo, says the Ferragamo brand will endeavour to rapidly refresh its products and image in an effort to attract Gen-Z clients.
Jordan Karp and the team at Savills Canada negotiated the lease on behalf of Ferragamo. Morguard owns and manages The Colonnade which includes a retail podium as well as offices and a residential apartment building above. The Colonnade is a circa 1963 heritage-protected property that is recognized as being the first mixed-use building in Canada. The Colonnade is also home to global luxury brands including Dior, Prada, Cartier, Escada and Moncler, as well as upscale retail brands Black Goat Cashmere and William Ashley/Teuscher of Switzerland chocolates.
In Canada, Ferragamo operates stores in the Vancouver and Greater Toronto markets. Since the 1980s Ferragamo has had a store at 918 Robson Street in Vancouver which, because of an eventual building demolition, is said to be looking to relocate to the city’s Alberni Street ‘Luxury Zone’ nearby (no new lease has been signed as of press time). Ferragamo also operates two standalone stores in the Greater Toronto Area. In the summer of 2013 Ferragamo opened a 3,800 square foot store at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre and in the summer of 2016 it opened a 4,425 square foot storefront at Square One in Mississauga. The brand has outlet stores at Toronto Premium Outlets as well as at Montreal Premium Outlet, being the only place in Quebec to buy Ferragamo ready-to-wear.
Ferragamo leather goods and footwear are also available at several upscale multi-brand stores in Canada including Holt Renfrew, Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom. It’s unclear if the brand’s standalone store expansion will have an impact on wholesale distribution for the brand in Canada.
Brokers are saying that Toronto’s Bloor Street West is seeing a flurry of interest and leasing activity from retailers to open stores on the street as well as nearby Yorkville Avenue. Swarovski is said to have already leased a space on Bloor Street after exiting 2 Bloor Street West for a new lululemon store set to open in early 2024. Another brand said to be looking at Bloor is Browns Shoes which for years has had stores in the area. Recent tenant announcements set to open on Bloor Street include first-to-Canada locations for luxury brands Alexander Wang, Anne Fontaine, Rolex, and foodservice business Paris Baguette and Retail Insider will be announcing more as we work through some information and prepare reports in the coming weeks. Apple is also expected to hopefully open a flagship storefront at 1 Bloor Street West though recently news reports said that litigation was making things less certain.
Italian shoemaker Salvator Ferragamo began making shoes in the 1920s and the luxury brand now has over 400 stores globally as well as thousands of wholesale distribution points.
