Landlords at three major Ottawa malls are in talks with a number of retailers to take over space formerly occupied by Hudson’s Bay and expect to fill the vacancies soon, a prominent retail broker says. Candice Lerner-Fry, head of the retail leasing division in the Ottawa office of Marcus & Millichap, said she recently spoke […]
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Landlords at three major Ottawa malls are in talks with a number of retailers to take over space formerly occupied by Hudson’s Bay and expect to fill the vacancies soon, a prominent retail broker says.
Candice Lerner-Fry, head of the retail leasing division in the Ottawa office of Marcus & Millichap, said she recently spoke with representatives from Bayshore Shopping Centre, Place d’Orléans and St. Laurent Shopping Centre and was told all three malls have candidates to fill the vacancies left when the iconic Canadian department store chain closed earlier this year.
“Things are moving in a positive way,” Lerner-Fry said in an interview with OBJ last week. “Even if we’ve had some of our larger retailers leave or close, I think we will have interesting new retail (stores) opening in Ottawa.”
Store leases at Bayshore and St. Laurent are among the 25 that B.C. billionaire Ruby Liu wishes to purchase, according to court documents that showed the leases were valued at a total of $69.1 million.
The lease at St. Laurent Shopping Centre had the highest singular bid among the 25 at $5 million, while Bayshore Shopping Centre was listed at $1.83 million. A source who is working closely with Liu told OBJ in July that St. Laurent got the highest bid due to its lengthy lease term, which extends to 2091.
Hudson’s Bay closed its doors in June after filing for creditor protection in March, when it began looking for businesses to take over its 39 leases. Liu and her company, Central Walk, have already taken over three former Bay locations at the B.C. malls she owns, but wish to purchase the additional 25.
However, Liu’s bid to buy the leases remains embroiled in a court dispute with landlords of former Bay stores who argue she doesn’t have the necessary cash to finance her plan to launch a new department store that would take over the vacant spaces.
The source working with Liu said Bayshore has the potential to be a flagship store for the new chain due to its size at 180,000 square feet. The St. Laurent store is 145,000 square feet.
Lerner-Fry said the leasing team at Bayshore told her the mall’s landlords, Cushman & Wakefield, are in discussions with “many great new retailers” that could potentially include a grocery store and a fitness centre. They said the mall hopes to fill the space by 2027.
Bayshore management did not respond to OBJ’s requests for comment last week.
Lerner-Fry said she also recently asked Morguard, the owner of St. Laurent Shopping Centre, if the east-end mall had any openings for a significant retail tenant and was told the property had “no large vacancies” available.
“That means they have someone to backfill (the former Bay location), but will not announce who it is yet,” she added.
Representatives from Morguard did not respond to emails from OBJ last week.
Farther east at Place d’Orléans, mall owner Primaris REIT has backfilled the former Bay space and plans to announce shortly who will be moving in, Lerner-Fry added.
Asked last week if the mall had found new occupants for the space, Place d’Orléans regional manager of operations Curtis Fortowsky declined to comment.
Meanwhile, the fate of the Bay’s 330,000-square-foot former flagship Ottawa store on Rideau Street, which was owned by Hudson’s Bay and RioCan REIT, remains in limbo. Lerner-Fry said RioCan told her it was “still waiting on decisions from the court” before deciding its next move.
The veteran broker said she’s encouraged by the number of potential tenants who are kicking the tires at the former Bay sites.
“Nobody is doom and gloom,” she said. “I think everybody is fairly positive on what’s happening in Ottawa for the retail sector.
“I’ve always believed that Ottawa is somewhat protected from what’s happening in the rest of the world because we’re a government town (and have) a strong economy. It looks very positive.”
