More than 50 years ago, Simpsons unveiled a new department store at Devonshire Mall in Windsor that it described as “one of the most beautiful stores in North America.” The three-level store even featured “The Room,” the retailer’s celebrated designer fashion department, reflecting the company’s high expectations for the Windsor market.
At the time, it was considered one of the retailer’s finest new stores and a symbol of the continued growth of Canada’s regional shopping centres.
Today, the building that later became Hudson’s Bay is headed for demolition.
Primaris Real Estate Investment Trust, which owns Devonshire Mall, recently disclosed that it closed on the acquisition of the adjoining vacant Hudson’s Bay property for $4.5 million on June 5, 2026, and plans to demolish the building and create a new south entrance to the shopping centre.
The decision marks the end of a building that traced the entire arc of Canada’s department store industry, from the optimism of the 1970s expansion era to the recent collapse of Hudson’s Bay and the reinvention of regional shopping centres.
A Store That Began as Simpsons
The three-level department store opened on September 19, 1974, as a standalone Simpsons location during a major expansion of Devonshire Mall. In its annual report that year, the company highlighted the Windsor store as one of its premier new projects, underscoring both the importance of the development and its confidence in the Windsor market.
The Windsor store also featured “The Room,” Simpsons’ celebrated women’s designer fashion department. An August 1974 advertisement promoting the new store invited shoppers to discover fashions from “renowned designers in many lands,” underscoring the upscale ambitions of the new location and its importance within the chain.
At the time, department stores dominated Canadian retailing and regional shopping centres were anchored by large, multi-level merchants that offered everything from fashion and cosmetics to furniture and housewares.
Devonshire Mall occupied a particularly interesting place in Canadian retail history. The shopping centre originally opened in 1970 with a Simpsons-Sears anchor, which had already been rebranded to Sears by August 1973. When the standalone Simpsons store opened in September 1974, the mall was home to both a Sears department store and a separate Simpsons location — two retailers that shared common roots but operated under different banners.
From Simpsons to The Bay and Hudson’s Bay
Hudson’s Bay Company acquired Simpsons in 1978 but retained the well-known banner in certain markets for years afterward.
In Windsor, however, the Simpsons name disappeared earlier than many Canadians may remember. The Devonshire Mall location was among the stores outside Toronto and Montreal that were converted to The Bay on August 1, 1986, as Hudson’s Bay Company began consolidating its department store operations nationally.
The store would later become Hudson’s Bay in 2013, when the retailer adopted its historic name across the chain.
By the time the store closed during Hudson’s Bay’s liquidation in June 2025, the building had spent more than half a century in continuous department store use.
The Store That Almost Had a Second Life
Billionaire Entrepreneur Ruby Liu initially considered the former Hudson’s Bay property at Devonshire Mall as part of her proposed network of nearly 30 department stores across Canada.
Retail Insider was shown documentation in the spring of 2025 that included the Windsor property among prospective locations under consideration.
As Liu refined her plans, however, the Devonshire site was ruled out relatively early.
Retail Insider also understands that Liu examined several other former Hudson’s Bay properties that had been owned through the retailer’s real estate joint venture with RioCan, including the former stores at Yorkdale Shopping Centre, Scarborough Town Centre and Square One Shopping Centre. Plans to open Ruby Liu stores in these malls were halted in the summer of 2025 amid a court battle for other mall leases.
The Windsor location ultimately never advanced beyond the evaluation stage.
A New Chapter for Devonshire Mall
Unlike many former department store spaces that are already controlled by their shopping centre owners, the Devonshire Mall Hudson’s Bay building was separately owned. Primaris only gained control of the property after completing its $4.5 million acquisition in June 2026, paving the way for the planned demolition and redevelopment.
The demolition of the former Hudson’s Bay building follows the removal of Devonshire Mall’s former Sears store, which was redeveloped with a new entrance and reconfigured retail space. The shopping centre has also explored longer-term opportunities that could include additional retail, entertainment, residential and hospitality uses.
By acquiring the former Hudson’s Bay property, Primaris gains full control of one of the mall’s most significant redevelopment sites and the flexibility to reshape the southern portion of the shopping centre.
When the former Hudson’s Bay building comes down, Windsor will lose more than a vacant department store.
The city will lose one of the last physical reminders of an era when Canadian malls were defined by iconic department store chains such as Simpsons, Sears and Hudson’s Bay — retailers that once shaped the country’s shopping habits and helped define the regional shopping centre itself.
I wonder how many Hudson’s Bay stores have been or will be demolished. The Bay store at Winnipeg’s Unicity Mall on Portage Ave West was demolished during conversion to a power centre about 20ish years ago.