General Retail News

[J.OT13]

Nordstrom to open stores in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver

TORONTO — High-end U.S. retailer Nordstrom is coming to Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver starting in the fall of 2014.

The announcement this morning in Toronto sees Nordstrom join a fast-growing field of foreign chains vying for coveted Canadian consumer dollars.

Officials from the Seattle-based department store chain and Cadillac Fairview say Nordstrom will be moving into space vacated by Sears and then renovated at Pacific Centre in Vancouver, Calgary’s Chinook Centre, and Rideau Centre in Ottawa.

A new store will be built at Toronto’s Sherway Gardens. The tentative timeline for the stores opening is; fall of 2014 in Calgary; spring 2015 in Ottawa and Vancouver; and fall 2016 in Toronto.

Vancouver will get the largest Nordstrom store, with three levels and some 230,000 square feet planned.

The Ottawa store will be two levels and approximately 157,000 square feet, the Calgary store two levels with approximately 140,000 square feet, and the Toronto store will have two levels with some 138,000 square feet.

OT is 2 floors; so Kevinbottawa, you might just get your Mackenzie King Bridge food court. Sears is currently 240,000 sqft, take away 157,000 sqft and you get 83,000 sqft of space left. We will have the second largest store in the country.

[Requin]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

OT is 2 floors; so Kevinbottawa, you might just get your Mackenzie King Bridge food court. Sears is currently 240,000 sqft, take away 157,000 sqft and you get 83,000 sqft of space left. We will have the second largest store in the country.

Mackenzie King is the 2nd floor of Sears. If Nordstrom is 2 floors, I would assume they would be Mackenzie King and the upper floor. The lower floor of sears (2nd floor of the mall) would presumably be open for another retailer.

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by Requin

Mackenzie King is the 2nd floor of Sears. If Nordstrom is 2 floors, I would assume they would be Mackenzie King and the upper floor. The lower floor of sears (2nd floor of the mall) would presumably be open for another retailer.

Another option is to have it over 3 floors, but unevenly placed - using half of the 2nd and 3rd and all of the 4th (based on mall levels). Ideally, the food court needs to be on the 3rd floor of the mall near Mackenzie King Bridge (right as soon as you get off the bus). A food court there would be more beneficial to DND employees and better spread the food options around the area (considering some also exist on Rideau Street outside the mall). Some of the stores along the bridge entrance on the east side (including the OC Transpo kiosk) would need to be relocated to open the area up. As for the 2nd floor, a new mall wing with about 10 new stores leading to the tunnel beneath the Mackenzie King Bridge would likely be the best idea.

That food court should IMO be done in 2013, at the first stage. The existing food court should be freed up for stores on Rideau Street.

[J.OT13]

http://www.obj.ca/Local/Retail/2012-...ideau-Centre/1

Nordstrom taking Sears space in Rideau Centre

High-scale American fashion retailer Nordstrom confirmed on Thursday that it is heading to the Rideau Centre and will fill the top two levels of the soon-to-be-vacated Sears Canada (TSX:SCC) store.
Topics : Cadillac Fairview , Sears , Rideau Centre , Calgary , Vancouver , Canada

Partnering with Rideau Centre landlord Cadillac Fairview, Nordstrom will expand into four of the commercial real estate investor’s Canadian malls in Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.

"It's exciting to finally have this opportunity to better serve our Canadian customers closer to home and we can't wait to open our doors," stated president Erik Nordstrom in a company release.

"Cadillac Fairview has been instrumental in helping us get started in Canada, and we're thrilled to be part of these premier shopping destinations.”

Nordstrom will open its doors to Ottawa in spring of 2015 with its new 157,000-square-foot location. Sears has a footprint of 240,000 square feet spanning three storeys in the mall.

Rideau Centre's general manager Cindy VanBuskirk would not comment on who will fill the bottom floor of the Sears store.

"The additional space will be leased to other best in class retailers, but it’s premature to comment," Ms. VanBuskirk said.

Nordstrom also announced it will continue exploring opportunities to open additional stores as part of the company's future expansion into Canada.

“Nordstrom is an excellent fit for all four locations,” stated Cadillac Fairview president and CEO John Sullivan. “Not only will they transform our shopping centres, but enhance the Canadian retail landscape as a whole.”

Rumours of the company’s Canadian expansion began to swirl earlier this year with speculations that Nordstrom would take over three locations that Sears will leave this fall.

In March, Sears announced it would be closing its 240,000-square-foot Rideau Centre store by the end of October, along with locations in Vancouver and Calgary.

Founded in 1901 as a shoe store in Seattle, Nordstrom is now one of the leading fashion specialty retailers in the United States with 234 stores across the country and an online boutique.

Cadillac Fairview is wholly owned by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

Top 2 floors. I don't think the bottom floor will be used by another retailer since it is isolated from the rest of the mall (Daly ave.). Not desirable for retailers or a food court due to low visibility.

My theory is connection between OCC and possible hotel on the south east corner or, maybe eventualy, an expansion to the OCC.

[Kitchissippi]

Interesting note related to the first post on this thread. It seems Carbon Computing is going against the flow of former Westboro stores moving to Hintonburg. They are moving from Hintonburg to Westboro, into the old martial arts place between the Works and Newport.

Seems like a slew of changes are coming to the heart of the village, with Newport relocating, Westboro Sports closing, and Beckta opening a restaurant in the old TD location — 3 of the 4 corners of Richmond/Churchill will have something new. Lots of other construction and renos up and down the retail strip, hopefully it will diversify retail mix.

[gjhall]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

http://www.obj.ca/Local/Retail/2012-...ideau-Centre/1



Top 2 floors. I don't think the bottom floor will be used by another retailer since it is isolated from the rest of the mall (Daly ave.). Not desirable for retailers or a food court due to low visibility.

My theory is connection between OCC and possible hotel on the south east corner or, maybe eventualy, an expansion to the OCC.

I don't see how it's isolated from the rest of the mall, it's at the corner of the two main corridors on the principal level. I could see it being an ideal location for a Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, or heck, even a Whole Foods.

[J.OT13]

Depends how you look at it, with the grade diffrence all over the place and the Mackenzie King Bridge, it gets kind of confusing.

I might be wrong, but Sears lower level is below the Mackenzie King bridge (at grade with Daily and Nicholas no man lands and the first level of the OCC), the second level is the bridge, to be taken over by Nordstrom which is connected to the mall in two places and the third level, also to become Nordstrom, connected to the mall on the north side.

That bottom level is not directly connected to the mall. But there is a poorly used tunnel to the DND and east bound bus platform as well as an escalator to the MK level ( connecting the tunnel).

[gjhall]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Depends how you look at it, with the grade diffrence all over the place and the Mackenzie King Bridge, it gets kind of confusing.

I might be wrong, but Sears lower level is below the Mackenzie King bridge (at grade with Daily and Nicholas no man lands and the first level of the OCC), the second level is the bridge, to be taken over by Nordstrom which is connected to the mall in two places and the third level, also to become Nordstrom, connected to the mall on the north side.

That bottom level is not directly connected to the mall. But there is a poorly used tunnel to the DND and east bound bus platform as well as an escalator to the MK level ( connecting the tunnel).

No, that level is connected to the mall. It opens to what used to be called Eaton Court, on the same level as Apple, the Gap, etc. The second level is the MacKenzie King Bridge level, and the third level is a level above the rest of the mall and thus has no connections to it.

That poorly used connection to DND is at the same level, but because of grade changes, as you noted, appears lower.

That tunnel brings up an interesting angle though, as it creates a natural end to a new corridor. Perhaps Kevinbottawa's idea for a food court on this side of the mall would work well there, as it would connect nicely to the major employment point, DND.

[c_speed3108]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Depends how you look at it, with the grade diffrence all over the place and the Mackenzie King Bridge, it gets kind of confusing.

I might be wrong, but Sears lower level is below the Mackenzie King bridge (at grade with Daily and Nicholas no man lands and the first level of the OCC), the second level is the bridge, to be taken over by Nordstrom which is connected to the mall in two places and the third level, also to become Nordstrom, connected to the mall on the north side.

That bottom level is not directly connected to the mall. But there is a poorly used tunnel to the DND and east bound bus platform as well as an escalator to the MK level ( connecting the tunnel).

The bottom level opens out into "Eaton Court" in the mall. The bottom level has a weird exit into the bus station tunnel and a second weird exit toward Nicholas street (sorta the butt end of the complex) The third level has no connection to the inside (or outside for that matter) of the mall.

There are enough US retailers looking for space here plus the fact that it is still a decent sized space, I can't imagine the mall having too much difficulty finding someone to rent out the bottom level. The Apple store is also just up the hallway. The traffic is pretty decent.

Poking around on Google. It would be possible to add a store exit from the third level to the roof - although I am not sure why you would want to.

As an aside, I also note the letters from the EATON'S sign are still up there:

https://maps.google.com/?ll=45.42401...h&deg=180&z=20

[spotlight]

Originally Posted by gjhall

I don't see how it's isolated from the rest of the mall, it's at the corner of the two main corridors on the principal level. I could see it being an ideal location for a Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, or heck, even a Whole Foods.

Originally Posted by c_speed3108

The bottom level opens out into "Eaton Court" in the mall. The bottom level has a weird exit into the bus station tunnel and a second weird exit toward Nicholas street (sorta the butt end of the complex) The third level has no connection to the inside (or outside for that matter) of the mall.

There are enough US retailers looking for space here plus the fact that it is still a decent sized space, I can't imagine the mall having too much difficulty finding someone to rent out the bottom level. The Apple store is also just up the hallway. The traffic is pretty decent.

Poking around on Google. It would be possible to add a store exit from the third level to the roof - although I am not sure why you would want to.

As an aside, I also note the letters from the EATON'S sign are still up there:

https://maps.google.com/?ll=45.42401...h&deg=180&z=20

as the obj article points out.. rideau will be looking at top level retailers to fill the space.

my guess is the space will be split up.. they would be wise to use the current sears entrance on nicholas as the mall's main nicholas entrance instead of the current one that is basically a hall.. they can re-purpose the hall into a store expansion or something.. they would then trace a main mall type hall from the nicholas entrance to the OC transpo connection and into the eaton's court entrance forming a "Y" type shape hall and giving the mall between 3 to 5 large"ish" size tenant locations.. i wouldn't be surprised to see retailers such as Top Man, abercrombie, hollister, william sonoma, potery barn, crate and barrel be targeted ..

the other completely different option is to leave the space almost as is and have a large retailer like H&M come in.. although it doesn't fit the usual H&M type of location which is why i didn't put it as the first likely option.

there aren't many if any "first to market" type of retailers that are large enough to take the whole floor

[gjhall]

Originally Posted by c_speed3108

Poking around on Google. It would be possible to add a store exit from the third level to the roof - although I am not sure why you would want to.

I think the obvious reason would be for a cafe/restaurant/bar etc to have a terrace.

[kevinbottawa]

It'll be interesting to see if Cadillac Fairview takes this time to build on the vacant development site on Nicholas and do everything at once (maybe there wouldn't be enough time since Nordstrom is opening in 2015). If they end up building a hotel it could connect to Nordstrom on the second floor and/or whatever goes in on the lower level of the former Sears. That would imply that the hotel would have to be high-end

[J.OT13]

Oh, so the Daly level is the garage? This is complicated!

Sorry for arguing when I was clearly wrong.

[eternallyme]

Come to think about it, if the food court was on the 2nd floor, it could brighten up and liven up the little-used underpass to Mackenzie King and would be very popular with DND employees. The underpass is quite poorly maintained as well so it would become much more of a desirable space. Not to mention it could reduce the strain on the dangerous Mackenzie King Station crosswalk - which IMO should be removed and barricaded to speed up buses (pedestrians routinely ignore it as well, someday someone will be killed there).

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by eternallyme

Come to think about it, if the food court was on the 2nd floor, it could brighten up and liven up the little-used underpass to Mackenzie King and would be very popular with DND employees. The underpass is quite poorly maintained as well so it would become much more of a desirable space. Not to mention it could reduce the strain on the dangerous Mackenzie King Station crosswalk - which IMO should be removed and barricaded to speed up buses (pedestrians routinely ignore it as well, someday someone will be killed there).

I completely agree. I just can't see retail going down there and as a lot of you said, the DND would be big business for the food court. It would be kind of strange since food courts are usually on the top floor of malls (I don't know why that is) but keeping the Rideau Street side of the centre as well as the expansion for retail is the best option.

Barricading the MKB crosswalk is a damn good idea. All about safety and efficiency.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by c_speed3108

https://maps.google.com/?ll=45.42401...h&deg=180&z=20

How do you rotate google maps/3D !? And why would they have kept the "Eaton's" sign?

[spotlight]

Deleted

[spotlight]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

How do you rotate google maps/3D !? And why would they have kept the "Eaton's" sign?

you can rotate the map by clicking and dragging in a circular motion the north letter (N) on the top left hand corner.

as for why the letters are still there.. i would think pure laziness and since no one probably goes up on the roof ever.. they've probably forgotten that the letters are there.. unless of course the've been moved since this is obviously a very old image ... man i can't wait for bing and google to update their satellite images for this region.. i'm hoping the new apple map has newer images !!

[Retail-Insider]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

OT is 2 floors; so Kevinbottawa, you might just get your Mackenzie King Bridge food court. Sears is currently 240,000 sqft, take away 157,000 sqft and you get 83,000 sqft of space left. We will have the second largest store in the country.

Keep in mind this will only be the second-largest Nordstrom until other locations are announced. Nordstrom wants stores at Yorkdale Shopping Centre and in Downtown Toronto, both likely over 157,000 sq ft.

Ottawa may be getting a Louis Vuitton concession. Talks have commenced, and we'll let you know when we find out more.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by spotlight

you can rotate the map by clicking and dragging in a circular motion the north letter (N) on the top left hand corner.

as for why the letters are still there.. i would think pure laziness and since no one probably goes up on the roof ever.. they've probably forgotten that the letters are there.. unless of course the've been moved since this is obviously a very old image ... man i can't wait for bing and google to update their satellite images for this region.. i'm hoping the new apple map has newer images !!

That is so awesome! Thanks!