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‘Peg Chamber Chief Not Worried About Former Hudson’s Bay Stores Reuse
The president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce is confident that YM will put the former Hudson’s Bay Company store at the Outlet Collection mall to good use.
Loren Robillard told CBC that he is not worried about the adaption of the city’s other former Bay stores, either.
He noted that businesses have gained experience repurposing other large spaces when former chain Sears folded them.
“We’ve successfully navigated through those times and found new tenants, new offerings in those malls,” he said in the interview with CBC. “We’ll get through this.
“Those spaces will be filled with maybe some more traditional retail or some new offerings that currently don’t exist.”
“The fact is, where consumers are, the malls and the businesses in those malls will adapt to meet them there.”
YM recently acquired the lease of the Outlets Collection space from the Bay as part of a $5-million purchase that covers six of the iconic department-store chain’s locations across Canada.
Both YM and Outlets Centre have declined to discuss how the former Bay store space will be reused. YM owns several retail chains, including Urban Planet, Bluenotes, West49 and Suzy Shier. The company operates about 650 locations across Canada under the leadership of entrepreneur Michael Gold.
A total of 25 former Bay leases remain to sold as part of the company’s creditor-protection process and business wind-down. B.C. billionaire mall owner Ruby Liu is seeking to secure all of those leases through a proposed deal with the Bay that is going through the approval process.
She is facing intense opposition from mall landlords and the Bay’s lenders. Altogether , 34 leases are under agreement, with nine of those deals already completed and approved by an Ontario court.
All unsold leases are expected to be returned to landlords. Court-appointed monitor Alvarez & Marsal will have a large say in whether Liu’s proposed deal goes ahead.
She is seeking to launch a new department-store chain bearing her name.
Pictured: Outlet Collection mall in Winnipeg.
Photo: Tanger
