The Metro Vancouver Retail Thread

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

cool, it was muji that announced the locations right? I kinda get the 2 confused at times

I think Vancouver has more of a history with Nordstrom, most people in this area have been going to it for decades.

Yeah, Muji announced their locations. Sure, but I guess Muji/Uniqlo is banking on strong Asian support (not sure how their other NA locations are doing and what their customer base is out there)

[Vin]

I don't think Nordstrom majority customer base are the locals who'd been to Seattle's Nordstrom.

[connect2source]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Nordstrom Toronto Eaton Centre isn't doing well (worse than Yorkdale).
The Urban TO forum noted that they fired their store manager there.

Not surprised. Vancouver has a westcoast connection with Nordstrom, my mom's been going to the Seattle and Bellevue locations since I was a kid, hence brand awareness for me similar to Eaton's or Woodward's when I was young.

Toronto likely has more of a connection with Saks, via New York, Nordstrom doesn't likely resonate with people in the GTA like it does with us.

[Sheba]

Canadian Investors: Should You Worry About the Death of the Shopping Mall?

The retail industry’s struggles are increasingly making headlines.

In the last week alone, Sears Holdings indicated to investors it may have difficulty continuing as a going concern, Payless Shoes has been heavily rumoured to be working out the details of its bankruptcy filing, and GameStop shares fell nearly 14% on weak holiday sales’ numbers.

Amazon.com, meanwhile, trades at just 2% under its all-time high and at 172 times trailing earnings. It’s obvious where the market thinks retail is heading.

Many investors have vowed to never touch retail again, convinced the sector is destined to die a very slow death. Some have gone as far as including any retail real estate as part of their ban. It’s hard to argue with that logic.

But at the same time, the Canadian shopping mall sector is hardly on its knees. These operators have done a great job adapting to a new world.


Moving beyond retail

A number of things have helped Canadian malls thrive as U.S. malls continue to languish.

The first factor is that we simply don’t have as many malls in the first place. The United States features 23.6 square feet of enclosed retail space per capita. This is the largest ratio in the world. Canada is well behind the U.S. with 16.7 square feet per capita.

Canada’s malls have also done a nice job evolving from pure shopping centres to more of an entertainment destination. They’re filled with things like restaurants, movie theatres, and giant food courts. Many have invested in kids’ play areas. And we’ve all seen traditional stores being replaced by things like high-end hair salons, dentists, and chiropractors.

This trend will likely continue. Think about all the advantages a medical office has if it locates in a mall. There’s plenty of parking. Mass transit options are a nice perk for both employees and customers. Plenty of mall traffic also ensures a steady stream of walk-in customers.

There’s also the eye test. It’s admittedly a little imperfect to take my experience and extrapolate it for all of Canada, but thousands of Canadians agree. When I go to malls in Calgary, they’re busy. Folks in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal are saying the same thing.

[SpongeG]

German fashion brand/designer Marc Cain is opening a store at Oakridge Centre and a second store will probably open in 2018.

In late spring of this year, Marc Cain’s first Vancouver store will open at Oakridge Centre, in a 2,200 square foot retail space next to Tiffany & Co., and across from Harry Rosen.

http://www.retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2017/3/marc-cain

[LeftCoaster]

Originally Posted by Hot Rod

Love it.

Downtown Vancouver must already be one of Nordstrom's highest grossing stores to be listed as having a Nike boutique along with #1 Nordstrom Chicago Mag Mile and #2 Nordstrom Seattle.

Vancouver IS their number one store. It does more volume than Seattle, San Francisco or Chicago.

Originally Posted by connect2source

Not surprised. Vancouver has a westcoast connection with Nordstrom, my mom's been going to the Seattle and Bellevue locations since I was a kid, hence brand awareness for me similar to Eaton's or Woodward's when I was young.

Toronto likely has more of a connection with Saks, via New York, Nordstrom doesn't likely resonate with people in the GTA like it does with us.

Bingo. The brand just resonates out west better than it does in Toronto. Nordstrom is still respected out here, just not with the same history, similar to Saks in Vancouver.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by Sheba

Canadian Investors: Should You Worry About the Death of the Shopping Mall?

Exactly, Canadian shopping malls are hardly dying. I think most North Americans are pretty closed minded about what a mall can be, but thank God we don't have as many urban sprawl malls that are dying a slow death as in the US. We should focus on moving the population to city centres and erecting multi-storey shopping centres with access to transit and work places. Malls should not just focus on high-end offerings, but also a place where we can get many things done in one location.

[officedweller]

New (?) leasing brochure for City of Lougheed shows:

• a 2 level Nordstrom Rack (10,007 sq ft on Level 171 and 19,559 sq ft on Level 187); and

• relocated London Drugs (33,041 sq ft with street and mezzanine access).

All plans from:
http://shapeproperties.com/leasing/assets/projects/lougheed/pdf/lougheed-brochure.pdf

Level 171


Level 187


More plans at the City of Lougheed thread:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?p=7755485#post7755485

[connect2source]

Kohler has opened their first Canadian retail location at Broadway and Fir.

http://www.retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2017/3/kohler

[osirisboy]

Why is it called level 171 and 187? What do those numbers refer to?

[Graham_Yvr]

Looks like that picture scooped the location of one of Nordstrom Rack's first Canadian locations. None have been announced yet as far as I know.

[SpongeG]

they have announced a few Nordstrom Racks. Toronto spring 2018 in downtown. Vaughn Mills, Ottawa Train Yards in Ottawa, Deerfoot Meadows in Calgary and South Edmonton Common in Edmonton have all been announced.

[SpongeG]

Will safeway move or just close down? They only have it as anchor in the current spot. Will the bay het demolished and rebuilt? or will they just reconfigure it? Current location will be the future nordstrom rack and London Drugs.

Interesting looing.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by osirisboy

Why is it called level 171 and 187? What do those numbers refer to?

I'm guessing feet above sea level since there all the ground floors will vary across the development site?

[Tetsuo]

Sobeys likes to open new stores under Safeway Extra to avoid old prior unions, We might see another example here with a Safeway Extra going into the podium of the condo marked for a food store.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by osirisboy

Why is it called level 171 and 187? What do those numbers refer to?

Elevation - same as on the Brentwood mall plans.

Originally Posted by Tetsuo

Sobeys likes to open new stores under Safeway Extra to avoid old prior unions, We might see another example here with a Safeway Extra going into the podium of the condo marked for a food store.

I think everyone is expecting that food store to be a Whole Foods - but they've stalled expansion plans recently (mainly Alberta though), so maybe not.

[SpongeG]

maybe they will bring the whole foods 365 store to Canada. It's been described as if Trader Joe's and Whole Foods had a baby. It's a cheaper version of whole foods. They have their in-house brand called 365. They have a cafe, but the fancy deli and bakery stuff etc isn't there, but they instead have only prepackaged meats etc.

I can't see safeway closing that location but they are opening up on austin in a couple years and the new one just opened up clarke and como lake. That would be 3 safeways within minutes driving time of each other.

[osirisboy]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Elevation - same as on the Brentwood mall plans.

Yeah I was going to say this and Brentwood do it, guess it's a shape thing. It's weird that they would use elevation especially on a leasing brochure? Lol seems needlessly unclear

[ACT7]

Originally Posted by connect2source

Not surprised. Vancouver has a westcoast connection with Nordstrom, my mom's been going to the Seattle and Bellevue locations since I was a kid, hence brand awareness for me similar to Eaton's or Woodward's when I was young.

Toronto likely has more of a connection with Saks, via New York, Nordstrom doesn't likely resonate with people in the GTA like it does with us.

I don't know that that's true. Nordstrom Eaton Center could also not be very well managed, who knows. Plus Saks provides direct competition. Remove Saks, and Nordstroms numbers change. Yorkdale in general grosses more than any other mall in Canada so not sure that that's a reasonable comparison either. Also, Yorkdale doesn't have a comparable department store to Nordstrom on site (I don't think Holts counts as a comparison), so there isn't a head-to-head competitor at the mall.

[Tetsuo]

Saks has that head start. Who knows how both Saks and Nordstrom fare had HBC went with their original plan on Bloor