Nordstrom coming to Canada (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa)

[J. Will]

http://www.retail-insider.com/2012/0...-canadian.html

Retail Insider was just informed that Nordstrom has secured leases for 4 Canadian stores. These locations will include:

1. Pacific Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia - 225,000 square feet
2. Chinook Centre in Calgary, Alberta - 173,000 square feet
3. Rideau Centre in Ottawa, Ontario - ~200,000 square feet and
4. Sherway Gardens in Toronto, Ontario - 160,000 square feet.

The first three locations are currently occupied by Sears stores, while the Sherway Gardens store will be a new-build Nordstrom location, corresponding with an expansion of the shopping centre. The 225,000 sq ft Sears store at Sherway will continue to operate. Nordstrom's board of directors is expected to approve these leases by early next week.

The Sears store that Nordstrom will be taking over in Vancouver is in the 500,000-600,000 square foot range, so they will be taking over less than half the store. It will be interesting to see what happens with the rest of the store.

[vid]

A 600,000 square foot SEARS? Wow, there must be literally a dozen people in there at any one time.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by vid

A 600,000 square foot SEARS? Wow, there must be literally a dozen people in there at any one time.

quote of the day

[Wigs]

even though I'm not good at conspicuous consumption I look forward to Nordstrom coming. more competition will hopefully result in lower retail prices for Canadians.

[vid]

Originally Posted by WIGS

more competition will hopefully result in lower retail prices for Canadians.

Yeah, sort of like how more war will hopefully result in peace.

Everyone here is excited about Target providing competition to other stores. It is just replacing Zellers. There won't actually be more participants in the market, it is little more than a name change and a renovation. The Sears stores being sold to various other companies will be the same thing. No new competition at all, just different players.

[J. Will]

If Nordstrom had chosen to take over the entire Sears location in Vancouver, it would have been far and away the largest store in the chain.

That one is very disappointing though. It's the famous "bathtub" building with almost no windows (a few on the ground floor). I was hoping that building would be torn down for a massive mixed-use complex, including a new tallest for Vancouver. That it will remain for years go come is terrible:



It's interesting that the Toronto store will be a new build. How many new traditional dept. stores are built in this day and age? Virtually zero.

[Wigs]

vid, Zellers always sucked. good riddance. Too many Canadians shop at Walmart so when Target arrives they'll steal huge market share from them.
and as far as prices, I suppose as Canadians we always get screwed
and wow, that Sears in Van is horrendous looking!

[vanman]

Originally Posted by J. Will

If Nordstrom had chosen to take over the entire Sears location in Vancouver, it would have been far and away the largest store in the chain.

That one is very disappointing though. It's the famous "bathtub" building with almost no windows (a few on the ground floor). I was hoping that building would be torn down for a massive mixed-use complex, including a new tallest for Vancouver. That it will remain for years go come is terrible:

A complete overhaul of the former Sears is in the works.

[destroycreate]

That's got to be one of the ugliest buildings I've ever seen.

[Xelebes]

As an Edmontonian, *hick*, I'll take *hick*, it. It's *hick* not too bad. *hick*

[J. Will]

Originally Posted by destroycreate

That's got to be one of the ugliest buildings I've ever seen.

Didn't somebody mug you near there? And then you didn't bother chasing them down and getting your stuff back.

[Centropolis]

I interpret Nordstrom to mean "north power," or "northern power" I thought Nordstrom was from Canada.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by vid

Yeah, sort of like how more war will hopefully result in peace.

Everyone here is excited about Target providing competition to other stores. It is just replacing Zellers. There won't actually be more participants in the market, it is little more than a name change and a renovation. The Sears stores being sold to various other companies will be the same thing. No new competition at all, just different players.

whatever, well all know that Minneapolis is in Canada, anyway. It taint like the corporate money is going to Texas.

[mhays]

Nordstrom is from Seattle.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by mhays

Nordstrom is from Seattle.

Nordstrom (they might call it Nardstrum here) sucks because they didn't have a seersucker vest.

Isn't seersucker big in the PNW?

[mhays]

I don't know what that is because I live in the Northwest.

[miketoronto]

Originally Posted by J. Will

If Nordstrom had chosen to take over the entire Sears location in Vancouver, it would have been far and away the largest store in the chain.

That would never have happened, as American department stores do not understand how to operate downtown locations anymore(save for maybe Macy's with some of their downtown flagship stores).

Nordstroms like all other American department stores, builds small stores that really fail to offer anything like the old stores like the Eatons/Sears in Vancouver did.

It's interesting that the Toronto store will be a new build. How many new traditional dept. stores are built in this day and age? Virtually zero.

[/quote]

Well tons of department stores build new stores at malls. It is just a concrete box after all. This is not the building of a true grand urban department store.

The location of two of Nordstroms stores are troubling for Canadian cities. The Calgary and Toronto locations are seeing their first locations opened in suburban malls.
Opening a companies first store, and especially a department store outside of a Canadian downtown retail area would have been almost unheard of even up until about 10 years ago.
The opening of many American stores with their anti-downtown or even pro-suburban mall practices is seeing this happen a lot more often than before, and is putting Canadian downtowns at a disadvantage.
It was recently mentioned that many American stores moving into Toronto are skipping the prized downtown retail areas and opening in Yorkdale, because they value malls more than cities.
This could be a pretty big negative for Canadian retail in our downtowns, if American stores continue to push their pro suburban mall format in Canada.

[mhays]

Nordstrom does open downtown stores. Seattle's opened in 1998, moving from a smaller location nearby. Spokane's opened in a downtown mall around that time. Portland has one. San Francisco is a big one that is relatively new. Next they're building a new one ground-up (as a tenant) in Manhattan near Columbus Circle.

[miketoronto]

Originally Posted by mhays

Nordstrom does open downtown stores. Seattle's opened in 1998, moving from a smaller location nearby. Spokane's opened in a downtown mall around that time. Portland has one. San Francisco is a big one that is relatively new. Next they're building a new one ground-up (as a tenant) in Manhattan near Columbus Circle.

I said the opening of suburban stores in Toronto and Calgary puts those two cities downtown's at a disadvantage now. A huge store like that would never have dreamed of not opening their first store downtown. But the influx of American stores is seeing this change in Canada, with many American stores opting not to open their first stores downtown.

This has actually hit Calgary pretty bad, as the mall Nordstroms is opening up in, has been able to capture almost all the high-end American stores to open their only Calgary location in a suburban mall. This in contrast to the Canadian high-end stores who opted to expand their downtown locations in Calgary and other Canadian cities.

The influx of American stores could have a negative effect on Canadian downtown's.

[citizen j]

^Nordstrom wanted to open their first Toronto store in the Sears Eaton Centre location downtown, but Sears isn't ready to give up that site yet.