An Ontario court judge approved the sale of three B.C. Hudson’s Bay Company leases to billionaire Weihong (Ruby) Liu for $6 million on Monday.

The decision marks the first approvals of Bay lease sales under the iconic company’s creditor-protection process.

The leases cover former Bay stores at Liu’s Central Walk malls in Tsawwassen, B.C.; Victoria, B.C.; and Nanaimo, B.C.

Each lease is priced at $2 million. The former Bay-owned stores are located at Tsawwassen Mills in the suburban Vancouver community of Tsawwassen, Mayfair Shopping Centre in Victoria and Woodgrove Centre in Nanaimo. The Tsawwassen Mills location was a Saks-branded store.

Victoria and Nanaimo are secondary markets. It remains to be seen whether the approvals will set a pricing benchmark for leases at former Bay stores in small markets.

The leases are among 28 in B.C., Alberta and Ontario that Liu has agreed to acquire from HBC as Canada’s oldest department-store chain winds its business down. Court-appointed monitor Alvarez & Marsal has reported that landlords for 23 of the 25 malls have served notice that they will oppose Liu’s remaining proposed lease acquisitions.

The court will rule on those deals at a later date. Landlords must approve the sales as part of the Bay’s restructuring process.

Liu is planning to form a new department-store chain through all of the proposed lease acquisitions. During Monday’s court hearing, lawyers for the other former stores’ landlords, including Cadillac Fairview and Oxford Properties, criticized Liu for failing to provide sufficient details on her business plan.

The billionaire has told The Canadian Press that she will invest at least $30 million in renovating the spaces at her three B.C. malls, because the former Bay stores’ equipment is outdated.

All 96 Hudson’s Bay Company stores, including Saks-branded outlets, closed June 1.

Outside the court on Monday, Liu told reporters that she will relocate to Toronto from Vancouver. Her Tsawwassen-based company Central Walk could also relocate there, she added.

Liu is looking to develop her proposed new department-store chain through Central Walk.

Pictured: Entrance to Mayfair Shopping Centre in Victoria, B.C.

Photo: City of Victoria