American retail brands Williams Sonoma, West Elm and Pottery Barn are slated to fill part of the former Nordstrom space in the CF Rideau Centre. The three brands are operated by San Francisco-based Williams-Sonoma Inc. They will take up some or all of the level three section of the 157,000-square-foot former Nordstrom store, which occupied […]
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American retail brands Williams Sonoma, West Elm and Pottery Barn are slated to fill part of the former Nordstrom space in the CF Rideau Centre.
The three brands are operated by San Francisco-based Williams-Sonoma Inc. They will take up some or all of the level three section of the 157,000-square-foot former Nordstrom store, which occupied two levels at the CF Rideau Centre.
West Elm and Pottery Barn offer furniture and other home furnishings, while Williams Sonoma specializes in cookware and kitchenware. The CF Rideau Centre locations will be the brands’ first foray into Ottawa. The stores are slated to open next spring.
It is unknown how the level three space will be configured, or what tenants might fill the vacant upper portion of the former Nordstrom, which opened in 2015.
According to Retail Insider, the upper levels of former department stores can present a different leasing challenge, since traditional department stores were designed to move shoppers vertically through large interconnected floors, while specialty retailers typically favour direct access to a mall’s main circulation corridors. That can lead landlords to pursue different strategies by floor. Primary retail levels can be divided among multiple stores, while upper levels can accommodate larger destination uses that are less dependent on conventional mall frontage.
Williams-Sonoma’s Canadian physical network remains relatively small, concentrated in major markets such as Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal. The Ottawa openings come as the retailer prepares to return to physical store growth following several years of optimizing its portfolio.
On Friday, retail analyst Bruce Winder told OBJ that these additions at the CF Rideau Centre are “a vote of confidence” for the Ottawa market and the downtown.
“I know downtown Ottawa has had some challenges in some parts of the ByWard Market for a number of reasons post-pandemic … It’s a step forward in terms of trying to revitalize things,” he said, adding that it helps make “Rideau Centre a destination again.”
Candice Lerner-Fry, head of the retail leasing division in the Ottawa office of Marcus & Millichap, told OBJ the additions are another example of how the Ottawa market is shaping up downtown.
“I think it’s just a great thing for the downtown core. It’s great to see that Ottawa still is and will always be a choice … We are always considered as a strong market because of our employment security,” she said.
In recent years, Ottawa, like other cities, has seen major vacancies in malls and shopping centres as legacy retailers such as Hudson’s Bay, Sears, Nordstrom and Eddie Bauer closed. Winder said he’s encouraged to see those vacancies being filled.
“It’s been very difficult for some of these landlords to fill the massive space that’s been left by these legacy department stores,” he said. “You’re starting to see landlords get creative in terms of having to carve up these boxes and often fill them with two or three major players because there really aren’t a lot of companies that can take the full space.
“They’re legacy footprints from a different day when department stores were in vogue. But you’re starting to see all sorts of different tenants fill them. Whether it’s grocery or specialty stores or even service providers in some cases, we’re seeing that if there’s a will, there’s a way and landlords are finding a way to fill the space and add value to consumers in the mall.”
Earlier this year, speculation arose when local job postings for Italian grocery and food hall Eataly showed up on Indeed and other job-posting sites, sparking discussions about whether Eataly would take over all or some of the former Nordstrom space at the Rideau Centre.
Though Eataly never confirmed an Ottawa location, it wasn’t a far-fetched idea, as other Cadillac Fairview shopping centres have filled major vacant spaces with Eataly locations, for example, at CF Sherway Gardens, CF Eaton Centre and CF Shops at Don Mills in Toronto.
Winder said that, even though Eataly may not find a home at the Rideau Centre, it isn’t out of the question to expect it to come to Ottawa in future.
“Eataly may further expand somewhere in the Ottawa market, even if they don’t have a location yet … That’s an example of a newer, more modern-day type of tenant. Malls have gone through and enhanced the food courts and really elevated them. But now there’s other tenants, like the Eatalys of the world, who might be able to fill those spaces.”
The Williams-Sonoma news follows several years of leasing activity at CF Rideau Centre, which has added Uniqlo, Arc’teryx and Quebec-based Imaginaire to its retail mix.
