Toronto-based jewellery retailer L’ORO recently spearheaded an initiative that saw several beautiful retail spaces open at the Park Hyatt at Bloor Street West and Avenue Road in Toronto. That includes the opening of a new L’ORO multi-brand jewellery store space, and separate corporately-run boutique spaces for Richemont-owned watch brands Roger Dubuis, IWC Schaffhausen, and Panerai.
All three of the watch boutiques can be accessed from entrances within the L’ORO jewellery space, which has an entrance at 170 Bloor Street West. The Panerai and IWC boutiques also have street-facing doors onto Avenue Road.
Each of the watch boutiques feature the brands’ latest store design, and each contains private salons for guests along with showroom spaces. The Roger Dubuis boutique has various watch styles priced into the six figures, according to L’ORO’s President Haigo Derian. The independent boutiques range from 600 to 850 square feet each.
“We are honoured to have been awarded boutiques for Toronto Bloor Street, especially for brands as esteemed as IWC, Panerai and Roger Dubuis. Each location houses the essence and DNA for each luxury maison at its highest interpretation,” Derian said. “This includes decor, interactive elements, and of course the widest and most specialty product offering available.”
Derian noted that the new Bloor IWC location represents the first partner project in the country for the brand. He said that the new Panerai boutique is the first in Canada to utilize the watchmakers newest design concept including a watch-bar, and also noted that the Roger Dubuis boutique is a Canadian first. Product carried in each of the three boutiques include pieces that are unavailable within the traditional wholesale network in Canada.
The new luxury retailers are located at the base of the historic Park Hyatt Hotel, situated at the northwest corner of Bloor Street and Avenue Road. Oxford Properties, owner of the Park Hyatt Hotel, spent several years renovating the property while marketing its 20,000 square foot two-level podium retail space for lease. The last retail tenant to occupy the corner was Strellson, which shut its store in 2018.
“The footprint of this unique property encompasses our vision for luxury trends, especially considering its size and frontage,” Derian said, noting that the entire retail space spans about 130 feet on both Bloor and Avenue Road. At the heart of the multi-brand retail space is a new storefront for L’ORO.
“At 170 Bloor Street West, clients will also find the newest L’ORO concept. Focusing on warm-luxury, the store is more of a meeting-place where fine timepieces, renowned jewellery brands, and our own house-creations come together,” Derian said. “French luxury maison Messika has a new home here too. Other watch and jewellery brands are in the works, but not yet officially announced. We are excited about the product offering available at this new and special L’ORO!”
L’ORO Jewellery also operates a store at CF Sherway Gardens in Toronto with adjacent Chopard and Omega boutique spaces, as well as at CF Markville in Markham. The L’ORO Group also operates seven Pandora mono-brand boutiques within Ontario and British Columbia.
Roger Dubuis’ entry into Canada is particularly notable, with the brand having only a handful of boutiques globally. There are only two Roger Dubuis stores in the United States, at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California, and on Hyman Avenue in Aspen, Colorado. Global cities such as London, Dubai, Hong Kong and Sydney also have standalone locations for the brand.
Panerai and IWC both operate stores at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre — they, along with Vacheron Constantin and Piaget, opened in the mall in 2016. Vancouver’s Alberni Street, another important luxury node for watches and jewellery in Canada, boasts storefronts for Richemont watch brands Panerai, IWC and Vacheron Constantine among others. The L’ORO Bloor Street partnership is unique, given that the other Richemont-owned watch boutiques at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre and on Alberni Street in Vancouver are corporate stores.
The opening of the three luxury brands resulted in two other multi-brand retailers no longer carrying the same brands. Royal de Versailles, located 101 Bloor Street West, appears to no longer stock the IWC and Roger Dubuis brands, as the multi-brand Bloor Street Store prepares for a renovation that will include a new facade to match its recently opened Rolex partner store. Birks, located nearby at the Manulife Centre, no longer carries Panerai watches in a dedicated space that was unveiled in the renovated store in 2019.
The Park Hyatt Hotel is an iconic 17 storey heritage building that began construction at the end of the booming 1920s — a bankruptcy along with the stock market crash/depression resulted in its opening in 1936. For decades, the hotel was known as the Park Plaza Hotel, with a large lit sign on the roof which also has a bar.
In 2017, new owner Oxford Properties extensively renovated the property to include the transitioning of the 1936-built 17 storey south tower to a 65-unit luxury residential rental building. The shorter 14 storey north hotel tower, built in 1956, still contains 219 hotel units as well as ground-level and podium commercial units.
The corner of Bloor Street and Avenue Road in Toronto is also significant, given that it’s one of few major intersections in the city to feature four important heritage buildings at each corner. The buildings on the four corners includes: Northwest – Park Hyatt; Northeast – Church of the Redeemer (1879); Southeast – Lillian Massey Building/former Club Monaco (1912); Southwest – Royal Ontario Museum (1914). Each building features back-lighting, another rarity to see at all four intersections anywhere in Toronto. The former Club Monaco space in the Lillian Massey Building is currently home to a Brooks Brothers store, which is liquidating and preparing for closure following the bankruptcy filing of parent company Ted Baker Canada.
Toronto’s luxury run is seeing a flurry of activity, including new store announcements and construction of flagships. Last week Retail Insider announced that jeweller Tiffany & Co. will relocate its storefront from 150 Bloor Street West to the new ‘Tiffany Building’ that will be created in the 1200 Bay Street building that has a retail address of 66 Bloor Street West. Tiffany & Co. will elongate the luxury run on Bloor from Bay Street to Avenue Road, which is seeing various other retailer movements.
That includes Burberry, which is also relocating from a space at 144 Bloor Street West to 100 Bloor, next to a recently opened Van Cleef & Arpels flagship. In the same 100 Bloor podium, Holt Renfrew’s men’s store will exit at the end of the year to relocate back into the large 50 Bloor Holts flagship.
Several retail spaces at 110 Bloor Street West are still under construction, with Saint Laurent recently opening a 10,000 square foot store with a brutalist concrete facade. It will join Anne Fontaine and Paris Baguette which will open on Bloor later this year, along with Alexander Wang which opened in the building in December of last year.
