Department stores closing is nothing new. It was 1993 when once-prominent western Canadian retailer Woodward’s went bankrupt and closed all its locations, including four in Edmonton. Hudson’s Bay acquired most of Woodward’s former stores and put Bays in them, including at West Edmonton Mall, which for four years hosted two of the major anchor’s locales on the east and west ends of the mall before renovating the latter space into a movie complex and smaller retail spaces. A similar scenario occurred in 1999, when local malls quickly filled the spaces vacated by Eaton’s after the major Canadian retailer’s bankruptcy. But that was then. More than a quarter century later, it takes longer for Edmonton’s indoor shopping destinations to replace tenants in department store spaces. Hudson’s Bay went out of business earlier this year, shuttering local stores in West Edmonton Mall, Southgate Centre, Kingsway Mall, Londonderry Mall and St. Albert Centre. It’s been less than a month since The Bay went extinct and vacated their long-time homes – it was an original tenant at four of the remaining area sites – so it’s understandable that the owners of the malls are grappling with what to do with the more than one million square feet of retail space and not already announcing plans. Spokespeople for both West Edmonton Mall and Kingsway owner Oxford Properties told CTV News Edmonton on Tuesday they don’t yet have news to share on what’ll replace their Hudson’s Bay spots. Both malls have long dealt with filling retail space vacated by department stores, Kingsway as recently as 2022, when Walmart moved into its former Sears space, while a Toyota dealership relocated to the main floor of West Edmonton Mall’s old Sears locale the year before to join The Brick, which had taken over the top floor of it in 2019. Montreal-based real estate firm Leyad, owner of Londonderry Mall and St. Albert Centre, and Southgate co-owners Primaris REIT and La Caisse (formerly known as Ivanhoé Cambridge) did not reply to inquiries about the future of their now-vacant Edmonton-area Bay stores. One wrinkle in the future of the spaces is the effort by B.C. billionaire Ruby Liu to acquire 25 of Hudson’s Bay’s leases. On Tuesday, in the latest development of the judicial saga unfolding in Ontario, the collapsed retailer asked the court to force landlords to accept Liu’s bid to assume the leases, which include those in West Edmonton Mall and Southgate, in her quest to establish her own department store empire. Liu’s attempt to acquire the leases will cost Liu about $69 million. The filing of the motion in Ontario Superior Court sets up a potential fight between the Bay and its various landlords. The odds are that both West Ed and Kingsway will eventually fill the empty spots. They’re the city’s two largest malls – and in WEM’s case, arguably Edmonton’s biggest tourist draw – and the examples of what shopping centres do to fill vacancies in ever-turbulent retail times, given the rapid rise of online shopping and delivery from the likes of Amazon Prime, are numerous. That includes what local malls, particularly West Ed, have done over the years to fill spaces as large-format stores continue to close. Here are a few possible, realistic uses for the Bay spaces. Pickleball courts A paddle sport that’s grown in popularity over the last decade continues to increase its footprint inside malls. Pickleball court facilities have been installed in former store spaces across the U.S. and Canada in recent years. Retail strategist David Ian Gray says putting sports facilities in former department store spaces is “one of the hot ones right now,” although he suspects such facilities will be overbuilt and “be a problem in a number of years,” with pickleball leading the way. “That’s the trending use of that kind of space, especially when the outdoor versions carry a lot of noise that neighbours aren’t too happy with,” Gray told CTV News Edmonton. “Having something indoor and soundproof is in demand right now.” More dining Most malls feature a food court, but more may choose to add higher-end options and restaurants. Not unlike West Edmonton Mall’s Bourbon Street, shopping centres could opt to reimagine their empty Bay spaces to accommodate more food options, Gray said. “We’re seeing a lot more advanced dining,” he said. “Good restaurants, food courts becoming food halls in which you have good chefs operating their space, and making nicer dining environments, hoping people can come there to eat and then they’ll spend some time shopping.” Retail analyst Bruce Winder said large-format grocer/restaurant concepts such as Eataly, an Italian food destination with 13 stores in the U.S. and several more in 11 more countries (including four in Toronto), could be a fit for some malls. Flex space Both Winder and Lisa Hutcheson, the managing partner of retail consultancy firm J.C. Williams Group, say malls are booking temporary exhibits and experiences for their large, vacant spaces. Local malls such as West Edmonton Mall and Kingsway have both hosted such experiences in the past but not necessarily using a space the size of a department store. Hutcheson gave examples of pop-up roller-skating events, interactive museum/art gallery installations and product tie-ins such as the immersive World of Barbie as types of experiences seen in other places. Libraries There are malls in the city that host libraries already – Londonderry and Abbottsfield have locations inside them, while Mill Woods Town Centre and Bonnie Doon have libraries close by in stand-alone buildings nearby – but this back-to-the-future idea makes sense as libraries and malls alike are reimagining themselves as their worlds change, Hutcheson says. “I think we’re going to start to see much more entertainment and community kind of elements,” Hutcheson told CTV News Edmonton. “We’re even seeing libraries coming back into some shopping centres as part of the community, not necessarily in downtown markets, but in more suburban (areas), because libraries are actually being reinvented as well. They’re not your old library (that’s) shushing everybody. They’re very community-based, really interactive spaces.” Libraries once occupied space inside Edmonton malls such as Southgate, Capilano and Mill Woods Town Centre. Divide up space, build something new Malls could simply do what several have done already: redevelop the Bay spaces to accommodate more retail units. It’s something West Edmonton Mall did in 1999 with the old Woodward’s/Bay space at the west end of the property to create the SilverCity theatre complex (now Scotiabank Theatre) and additional retail, Kingsway in 2017 with the former Target/Zellers space and Southgate in 2022 in repurposing the old Sears/Eatons/Woodwards site. Gray said this move is being made elsewhere, including downtown Vancouver’s Pacific Centre, where the former Nordstrom/Sears/Eatons will be parcelled into four retail spaces. Winder said the malls could also consider tearing down the Bay spaces and building something new instead. “What some malls are doing is they’re putting in condominiums,” he said. “They’re tearing down some of these areas and creating a mixed-use mall where you have a few towers in the parking lot. I’ve seen parking lots shrink, and they put towers in and create instant customers, if you will, who just go downstairs (to shop and access services.)” It’s that kind of idea that’s in proposed plans for the likes of Bonnie Doon and Mill Woods Town Centre, concepts that Winder says are a throwback to commerce of old. “Think about shopping 200, 300 years ago – we weren’t around, obviously – but that’s kind of the way shopping was,” he said. “You go to a marketplace and under one roof you have everything you need. Some people live nearby and they get food, they get entertainment, they get music, they get products. “We’re almost gravitating a bit to that sort of mixed-use marketplace. Again.”
