Walmart Canada is returning to Place d’Orléans more than two decades after leaving the Ottawa shopping centre, announcing plans for a new 115,500-square-foot, two-level Supercentre in the former Hudson’s Bay space.
The store is expected to open in 2027 and will include a full grocery offering, pharmacy, pickup and delivery services, and general merchandise. Walmart said its existing store on nearby Innes Road will remain open, giving Ottawa’s east end two Walmart Supercentres.
The announcement is significant beyond the store opening itself. It provides one of the first major examples of a former Hudson’s Bay department store being backfilled by a national large-format retailer following the chain’s liquidation and closure in 2025. It also gives Primaris REIT, owner of Place d’Orléans, a visible example of the post-Hudson’s Bay redevelopment strategy it has been outlining to investors and the retail industry.
Walmart Returns to Place d’Orléans
Walmart’s history with Place d’Orléans dates back more than 30 years.
The retailer first arrived at the shopping centre in 1994 following its acquisition of Woolco’s Canadian operations. Walmart later relocated to a larger freestanding store on nearby Innes Road in 2005, during a period when some major retailers were increasingly favouring power centres and standalone suburban locations.
Its return to Place d’Orléans is something of a full-circle moment for the retailer in Ottawa’s east end. The decision to operate both the existing Innes Road store and the new Place d’Orléans Supercentre also reflects Walmart’s confidence in the long-term prospects of the Orléans market, which has continued to grow as one of Ottawa’s largest suburban communities.
The new store will also benefit from the mall’s location beside Place d’Orléans Station, a major transit hub connected to Highway 174 and expected to become increasingly important as Ottawa’s light rail network expands eastward.
A Major New Anchor for Place d’Orléans
Place d’Orléans is one of Ottawa’s largest enclosed shopping centres, encompassing approximately 700,000 square feet and housing more than 140 stores and services. The centre serves a trade area of more than 368,000 people and occupies a strategic position in Ottawa’s east end.
The addition of Walmart is expected to significantly strengthen the mall’s traffic profile. Unlike traditional department stores, Walmart generates frequent visits through its grocery offering, pharmacy and everyday essentials business, creating consistent customer traffic throughout the week.
For Place d’Orléans, the transaction replaces a former department store anchor with one of Canada’s highest-traffic retailers.
That is an important shift for the property at a time when landlords across the country are working through the future of large department store spaces left vacant by Hudson’s Bay.
An Early Example of Post-Hudson’s Bay Redevelopment
The Place d’Orléans transaction may provide one of the clearest indications yet of how some former Hudson’s Bay spaces could be repositioned across Canada.
For much of the past year, landlords, retailers and investors have been assessing the future of millions of square feet of department store space vacated by Hudson’s Bay. Solutions have ranged from subdivision plans and entertainment concepts to grocery stores, fitness operators and new large-format retail tenants.
At Place d’Orléans, the answer is Walmart. The announcement also closely aligns with the strategy that Primaris REIT has been communicating in recent months. Earlier this year, the REIT said it had regained control of several former Hudson’s Bay locations and was in discussions with “strong covenant, high-quality national retailers, including large format tenants” regarding the future of those spaces.
Executives at the Toronto-based real estate investment trust have repeatedly described the departure of Hudson’s Bay as an opportunity to replace underperforming department store anchors with more productive uses capable of generating stronger traffic and significantly higher rental income. The Walmart deal appears to fit directly within that strategy.
Primaris has also said that most of its former Hudson’s Bay space is either leased or in advanced negotiations and has projected substantially higher rental income from redeveloped former Bay locations than the department store chain had previously generated.
Part of Walmart Canada’s Broader Expansion
The Place d’Orléans store also forms part of Walmart Canada’s previously announced $6.5 billion investment program, one of the largest capital commitments in the company’s Canadian history.
The investment includes new stores, supply chain infrastructure and store modernizations across the country as Walmart continues to expand its grocery and general merchandise business in an increasingly competitive retail environment.
While Walmart has confirmed the size and timing of the Place d’Orléans project, further details regarding the redevelopment required to convert the former Hudson’s Bay store into a two-level Supercentre have not yet been released.
No site plans, renderings or municipal planning documents related to the conversion had been publicly released as of Tuesday afternoon.
