Big changes are coming to the corner of Ste-Catherine Street West and Rue De la Montagne in downtown Montreal, with Apple and Alo Yoga both building flagship stores at the intersection. Both additions to the downtown core signal confidence in Montreal as the suburban Royalmount development prepares to open in August.
Apple is under construction at 1255 Ste-Catherine Street West according to a French language article in Montreal-based publication La Press this week. Retail Insider was able to confirm this information with sources along with the opening of Alo Yoga, which is under construction across the street at 1256 Ste-Catherine St. West.
The Apple store will replace a smaller location nearby at 1321 Ste-Catherine St. West that opened in 2008. The current Apple store spans about 9,000 square feet over two levels, and the new store will be considerably larger. Retail Insider was in Montreal last week and noted that construction firm SAJO is building the new Apple flagship store, which will be the first in Canada to be in a heritage building. The new Apple store will occupy a building built in 1895 for department store retailer Ogilvy, which relocated to its current building at 1307 Ste-Catherine St. West in 1906 and was expanded to create Holt Renfrew Ogilvy and a Four Seasons Hotel prior to the pandemic.
Alo Yoga is also building its two-level store across the street from Apple in a retail space vacated last year by Swatch (now at the Montreal Eaton Centre). Jeff Berkowitz of Aurora Realty Consultants confirmed with Retail Insider after publication of this article that he represented Alo Yoga in the lease deal. This will be Alo Yoga’s second store in the Montreal market, following the opening of a location at CF Carrefour Laval last year. Alo Yoga has also confirmed that it will be opening at the Royalmount development in Montreal in August.
Christopher Rundle of CBRE was the source of information for the article in La Presse which disclosed that Apple and Alo Yoga are on the way — he revealed what the industry has known for a while that both retailers are coming to the important intersection. The massive Holt Renfrew Ogilvy store occupies the northwest corner of the intersection of Ste-Catherine and De la Montagne, with Louis Vuitton occupying a concession presence at the corner. Montreal-based outerwear brand Mackage occupies the southwest corner of the intersection, creating a strong retail clustering for the area.
The La Presse article notes that the Gindi family from New York City owns 1255 Ste-Catherine Street West where Apple will be relocating — the family has various real estate holdings and also own the Century 21 discount department store chain. Cogir owns the current building where Apple is located on Ste-Catherine Street.
Alo Yoga’s move to a two-level space on the corner is part of a bigger expansion plan for the brand to take market share from Lululemon. Vancouver-based Lululemon currently has two small stores on Ste-Catherine Street including a pop-up at the Montreal Eaton Centre.
Apple and Alo Yoga’s move into downtown Montreal spells confidence in the area as landlord Carbonleo prepares to open the massive Royalmount project in the Town of Mount Royal — the retail centre could take market share from the downtown core with its mix of high-end and big-name retailers, as well as foodservice businesses and entertainment. Next week Carbonleo will be announcing more retail tenants for Royalmount which is scheduled to open on August 15 of this year.
I was hoping 1255 Ste-Catherine Street West would be anthropologie ! they closed on rue de la montaigne and ive been waiting for their re-opening
This is the best news for Rue Sainte Catherine in a long time. As you noted, that intersection with de la Montagne will become an even stronger focal point of Centre-ville with such an attractive concentration of flagship high-profile retailers. As you also noted, this represents confidence in the Montreal market all the more remarkable considering the upcoming opening of Carbonleo”s and Carttera’s commercial juggernaut at the corner of two traffic-clogged autoroutes in Ville Mont Royal. Royalmount’s concentration of first-to-market brands hitherto reluctant to open in Quebec, brands which would once have opened along or near Rue Sainte Catherine will most likely present a major challenge to Centre-ville’s retail viability. I hope we’ll see the same on-going resilience displayed by Bloor/Yorkville in Toronto faced with the ever strengthening Yorkdale ubermall. Perhaps Montreal’s evolving market will allow both the traditional core and the glittering new destination to both co-exist if not flourish, fingers crossed!
Also happy to see Alo Yoga opening in Centre-Ville on Sainte Catherine after being available only at Carrefour Laval. The tendancy of retailers in North America to eschew center city streets to open at outlying suburban shopping malls is is a trend I hope will diminish as more of them realize there is a thriving demand and market to be found in some of the stronger city centres. I’d include Montreal among them.