The Metro Vancouver Retail Thread

[Sheba]

A year after Target bolted Canada, creditors still face uncertainty

Creditors of insolvent Target Canada face renewed uncertainty about recovering their debts one year after the U.S.-owned retailer filed for court protection and acknowledged its massive failure.

The Ontario Superior Court this week threw out Target Canada's proposed recovery plan, raising questions about whether creditors will be able to get their hands on a controversial $1.4-billion intercompany claim that U.S. parent Target Corp. could technically keep for itself.

In the proposed plan, Target agreed to cede the intercompany claim to other creditors but only if landlords dropped guarantees many of them had from the parent company to cover their losses if Target Canada faltered.

Now creditors, including some landlords who had fought the proposed plan, face the possibility of receiving even less – and potentially seeing the proceedings collapse into total bankruptcy.

...

But a year after the retail disaster, creditors are no closer to knowing how much they may recover. Justice Geoffrey Morawetz on Wednesday rejected Target Canada's proposed plan even before creditors got a chance to vote on it. The judge is to provide reasons for his ruling by Friday.

Landlords have a lot at stake because many of them, such as Triovest, are grappling with empty former Target stores and are having difficulty finding replacement retail tenants as more merchants close or shrink outlets in an era of rising digital shopping.

The Globe & Mail

[Tetsuo]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

It will be interesting to see how much OFG spend on the makeovers considering the sites may be completely rebuilt eventually.

Save-On probably won't spend a lot, they didn't when they bought Royal City Safeway and New West Thrifty, and the Save on at Columbia Sq. feels like the old IGA (except brighter lights)

Originally Posted by officedweller

Old Orchard also has massive redevelopment potential.
So does that mean it'll stay a strip mall for the foreseeable future (i.e. Overwaitea wouldn't have bought a Lease that's about to expire)?

Save-on-Foods has a stranglehold on New Westminster, doesn't it?

I wonder if HY Louie shopped around the smaller "urban" grocery stores, too (L'Hermitage, Vancouver Tower, Broadway & Vine, Esplanade), but they were too small for Overwaitea's Save-on-Foods format? (i.e. will we see another sale announcement?)

Pattison's smaller store formats are Overwaitea's Urban Fare and Buy Low's Nesters. Otherwise, there's Whole Foods, Choices, and Loblaw's CityMarket, Independent Grocer or No Frills.

Funny how the bureau forced Safeway to divest of New West sites that only resulted in OFG controlling New West. (Sobeys+Safeway before divesting = 4 stores, after divesting New West: 2Sobeys stores, OFG: 4)

Choice's has been expanding lately, I could see them and Loblaws partnering splitting up the remaining IGAs.

You could tell which IGAs were going to be sold as the three locations sold had not rebranded. HY Louie seems to be divesting of a lot of stuff, the IGA rebranding suggests that they'll be repackaged and sold.

Wonder what London Drugs' future looks like

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by Tetsuo

Funny how the bureau forced Safeway to divest of New West sites that only resulted in OFG controlling New West. (Sobeys+Safeway before divesting = 4 stores, after divesting New West: 2Sobeys stores, OFG: 4)

...

You could tell which IGAs were going to be sold as the three locations sold had not rebranded. HY Louie seems to be divesting of a lot of stuff, the IGA rebranding suggests that they'll be repackaged and sold.

Wonder what London Drugs' future looks like

WRT New West SoFs - it boggles a bit doesn't it? Does the Royal City Centre Wal-Mart have groceries?
There's also the Queensborough Wal-Mart - but Wal-Mart really isn't all that cheap on groceries.

Interesting WRT the rebranding of the IGAs.

I wonder if Metro would come to BC or if Sobeys might buy them to convert to Thriftys.
(they may be too small to be Safeways (?)).

I think there's less brand separation between IGA and Safeway now that Safeway carries "Compliments" as its private label brand.
Compliments is a Sobeys private label (it operates IGAs outside of BC) and I suppose the HY Louie IGAs just buy-in as an IGA brand.

I could see the smaller format HY Louie IGAs converting to Thriftys (which is owned by Sobeys and carries Compliments brands).

Hmm... from Wiki:

Sobeys has reportedly made unsuccessful attempts to purchase the MarketPlace chain.[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobeys

... and come to think of it, each of the IGAs that were sold would share a trading area with a Sobeys-owned Safeway and might have been required to be sold by the Competition Bureau (Dunbar IGA / Arbutus Village Safeway; CentrePoint IGA / City Square Safeway; Old Orchard IGA / Kingsway Safeway) if Safeway were to buy the HY Louie IGAs.

Arguably, the Broadway & Vine IGA is a different, smaller store than the previous Safeway location at Broadway & Arbutus - but there are still other IGAs close to other Safeways (4th Ave) and Thriftys (i.e. Capilano)

Hmmm....

[cairnstone]

The family is making god money now and iga has a very loyal clientele. I was told if the right deal comes along the whole chain or store per store will be sold. This applies to more than iga, Vanwhole and other assets also. For the orchar park who owns the mall?

[mcminsen]

Originally Posted by connect2source

Signage going up on Prada hoarding, Alberni and Thurlow. The utility poles can't go soon enough!

photo by : connect2source

Originally Posted by Vin

That Prada hoarding had been an urban blight for a few weeks now it's about time they cover it up with nice prints. By the way, this Prada store is huge compared to others around, and I believe it's 2 storeys?

Originally Posted by theKB

I have read it will be three stories.

Jan.16 '16, my pic

[mcminsen]

Here is a pic of Moncler at the south end of Prada, and a couple pics of the new Versace store across the street.



Jan.16 '16, my pics

[mcminsen]

Oh, and strellson around the corner from Versace.


Jan.16 '16, my pic

[osirisboy]

What's going in beside moncler

[supercanuck]

Originally Posted by Tetsuo

The land is part of Shape's Lougheed redevelopment plans, not sure if they'll progress with demolition this early though.

Short term tenant could grab it but i doubt T&T could fit there (like you said, lack of parking)

They recently put up fencing around the old Sears Outlet at Lougheed. I wonder if something is going on in there.

[connect2source]

Eddie Bauer is going in the old French Connection ( FCUK ) space on the 1100 block of Robson per Retail-Insider. At just over 3000 sq. feet, seems small for Eddie Bauer, glad there's interest in that beleaguered block, however.


http://www.retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2016/1/eddie-bauer

[officedweller]

You can see that there are brackets above the Versace entrance for additional Versace signage to match the Brunello Cucinelli signs.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by cairnstone

The family is making god money now and iga has a very loyal clientele. I was told if the right deal comes along the whole chain or store per store will be sold. This applies to more than iga, Vanwhole and other assets also. For the orchar park who owns the mall?

Also interesting that on the King George Hub thread, there's suggestion that an HY Louie Fresh St. Market may open there.

[Prometheus]

Originally Posted by connect2source

The utility poles can't go soon enough!

photo by : connect2source

What makes you think they will? I can't think of a single wooden utility line that has been updated on the downtown peninsula within the last couple of years, approximately. It's as if the city has gone completely to sleep on this file. I would love to be mistaken, however.

[officedweller]

Van Cleef & Arpels now open according to Granville St. Twitter:


https://twitter.com/GranvilleStreet

Back to the big banking hall at TD Bank, TD Tower:


https://twitter.com/GranvilleStreet

Indigo Spirit opening January 28, 2016:


https://twitter.com/GranvilleStreet

[osirisboy]

Originally Posted by Prometheus

What makes you think they will? I can't think of a single wooden utility line that has been updated on the downtown peninsula within the last couple of years, approximately. It's as if the city has gone completely to sleep on this file. I would love to be mistaken, however.

I'm 90% certain it's a bc hydro job. And my understanding is they are still working on the eventual removal of the h frames. (Not sure if these single poles would fall in that)

[mcminsen]

Here's a look at the old Chapters location at Robson and Howe. Is it to become a new Sportchek?



Jan.18 '16, my pic

[connect2source]

Yes, it's going to be Sportchek, if you look to the left of the hoarding you'll see the Sportchek signs in the windows along Robson. If they do a build-out similar to the Metrotown location is should look pretty amazing on the corner.

[GeeCee]

I heard an odd rumor that the 10 year old shopping complex (Thrifty Foods) on Austin and Mariner in Coquitlam is closing and everyone has to be out by April. Apparently it's going to be redeveloped?

Edit: address is 2662 Austin Avenue.. still has a few active listings on Spacelist.

Edit2: Thrifty Foods will be closing according to their Facebook page. Haven't found anything about the rest.

[SpongeG]

i would think the powerlines would be hard to develop around.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by GeeCee

I heard an odd rumor that the 10 year old shopping complex (Thrifty Foods) on Austin and Mariner in Coquitlam is closing and everyone has to be out by April. Apparently it's going to be redeveloped?

Edit: address is 2662 Austin Avenue.. still has a few active listings on Spacelist.

Edit2: Thrifty Foods will be closing according to their Facebook page. Haven't found anything about the rest.

Weird - like you say, it looks really new on the Google map pics.