Toronto-based luxury menswear retailer Harry Rosen is relocating its flagship store at 82 Bloor Street West to a retail space nearby in the spring of 2026. Harry Rosen has been on Bloor Street for almost 55 years and has been in its current space for 37 of those.
Harry Rosen’s relocated Bloor-Yorkville store will occupy three levels at 153 Cumberland Street, which is currently home to four retailers on the main floor and two office levels directly above. The four retailers will be looking for space nearby — on the east corner is a small Moscot store, and next to that is luxury fashion retailer Nicolas. A service hall separates those units from an Aveda retail space, which sits next to Lululemon which is already confirmed to be moving to a huge space directly at the corner of Yonge and Bloor, in April.
The new Harry Rosen store will span about 38,000 square feet over the three levels. The store “will feature updated design and customer-centric experiences that reflect the brand’s vision”, with designer brand shop-in-stores and a large patio looking over the adjacent Village of Yorkville Park. Included will be a client lounge and espresso bar.
Harry Rosen President and COO Ian Rosen said that the new flagship store will be spectacular, featuring a new design concept that includes substantially more back-of-house operations, private client areas and tailoring. Brands carried in the new store will be consistent with what’s currently at 82 Bloor — shop-in-stores for brands including Tom Ford, Brunello Cucinelli, Zegna and Kiton will be part of the new Cumberland Street flagship.
Kingsett Capital owns the building at 153 Cumberland Street where Harry Rosen will be relocating. Ian Rosen said that negotiations were ongoing for the space, and that the retailer had been strategizing a new store in the area for at least five years. The lease on its current store at 82 Bloor is coming to an end and its site is earmarked for redevelopment.
The new Cumberland Street Harry Rosen could transform the character of the area — the retailer drives foot traffic and will offer services such as valet parking on weekends. It’s another major change for an area that is seeing a muli-year transformation. Ian Rosen said that the retailer analyzed traffic patterns and have found more consumers shopping in Yorkville as opposed to years past, when Bloor Street dominated retail in the area.
Neighbours to the new Harry Rosen include Nespresso, which operates a lofty flagship retail location next door at 159 Cumberland Street. To the east is the Village of Yorkville Park, which is particularly popular with people watchers in the summer. The new Harry Rosen store will feature exceptional visibility from the park.
The 153 Cumberland Street building is located at the back-end of the 130 Bloor Street West commercial building which also features a residential building above it. The retail on the Bloor Street side includes Gucci, which will be expanding by a further 2,500 square feet this year after adjacent retailer St. John Knits shuttered a couple of months ago. A Lafayette 148 store is the other Bloor-facing retailer in the building.
The residential tower above features some of the most expensive condominium apartment units in the city. The tower, with the address 155 Cumberland Street, features a mix of half and full-floor residences above the office component of the building. The full floor residences span approximately 6,000 square feet with soaring ceilings and luxurious interiors.
The four retailers at the base of 153 Cumberland Street will either relocate or exit the area entirely. New York City-based eyewear retailer Moscot, with its 812 square foot storefront on the corner of the building, has struggled to make sales after opening in early 2022 and replacing a SEE Eyewear store.
Retailer Nicolas has been in its 3,500 square foot space since the year 2000 — the retailer originally opened where the 10 Bellair Street condominium tower now stands, and moved to 153 Cumberland Street because of the former building’s demolition. After 24 years on Cumberland Street, owner Nic Kalatzis is looking again for space in the area, exceeding 2,000 square feet ideally he said.
It’s not known yet what will happen with the Aveda store, and next month it’s confirmed that Lululemon will relocate to a 12,000 square foot three-level space at 2 Bloor Street West.
Harry Rosen has been at 82 Bloor Street West for about 37 years in a building spanning more than 50,000 square feet over five levels. In 1987, late entrepreneur Harry Rosen himself was behind the building of the then 32,000 square foot store three level that became a beacon for menswear in the area. The Harry Rosen store saw an expansion in the fall of 2008 that added two levels on top of the original building.
In 1970, Harry Rosen opened his first store on Bloor Street, which was next door at 80 Bloor Street West. The Rosen store, in a retail space now occupied by Roots, was only about 4,000 square feet so its new location next door was a major upgrade at the time.
Founder Harry Rosen passed away on December 24, 2023 at the age of 92. He was remembered as a visionary and pioneer in the Canadian menswear industry.
The current building where Harry Rosen is located, as well as the adjacent 80 Bloor Street office tower, will be demolished for a mixed-use skyscraper that will soar more than 70 floors at the corner of Bloor and Bellair Streets. The office building behind the current Harry Rosen store, with address 1240 Bay Street, will be demolished in the spring of 2026 for an expansion of the Village of Yorkville Park. The nine level office building was built in 1967 and includes a vintage looking mini-mall that houses several small businesses.
We haven’t yet been updated on the date of demolition of 80-82 Bloor Street West, and construction of the new tower will cause considerable disruption to the area. Construction of the tower on the north side of Bloor Street could also happen at the same time as a massive project directly south across Bloor Street that could see a tower span more than 80 floors. A sales centre for a new condominium apartment building on the site will open this spring at 83 Bloor Street West, which will eventually be demolished along with a row of buildings directly west.
Hopefully the new developments will feature enough retail space to add more compelling retailers to the area. The submitted plans for the replacement of Harry Rosen/the 80 Bloor tower show about 10,000 square feet of retail space, only a fraction of what is currently there. The builder has the opportunity to create some exceptional two-level flagship-worthy spaces, as does the developer across the street. Both developments could see Bloor Street’s luxury run expanded eastward all the way to Bay Street.
Harry Rosen isn’t the only luxury menswear retailer to be exiting Bloor — across the street from Harry Rosen’s 82 Bloor flagship is Holt Renfrew Men, which will close later this year for a relocation back into the 50 Bloor Holt Renfrew flagship store. The exit of both Rosen and Holts from Bloor and Bellair Streets marks a major shift for the corner.
Harry Rosen also announced that it will be updating its West Edmonton Mall store in Edmonton, which will span about 13,000 square feet with a small expansion and full renovation. Rosen also revealed that the retailer will open a 16,000 square foot store at Oakridge Park in Vancouver in the spring of 2025. It’s part of a $50 million investment by the retailer into its Canadian operations. It follows the exit of Nordstrom from Canada last year, and the floundering of Saks Fifth Avenue which operates three struggling stores in the Toronto and Calgary markets.
We will be following up on this article with articles and podcasts discussing the shift in retail in Bloor-Yorkville, as well as an analysis of luxury menswear which is seeing increasing competition including from brands opening their own stores.
