Can a B.C. developer's big bet on Hudson's Bay stores redefine Canadian retail?
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When Hudson's Bay began liquidating all of its stores and hunting for a potential new owner, Ruby Liu was determined not to let Canada's oldest company disappear.
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The B.C. mall owner made an offer for the company in hopes of restoring it to its former glory, but when Canadian Tire was chosen (court approval pending) to buy its name and trademark stripes, Liu's plan was foiled.
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Yet she didn't give up. Instead, she brokered a deal to take over up to 28 of the leases held by Hudson's Bay and its sister Saks businesses in Alberta, B.C. and Ontario and transform them into 'a new modern department store.'
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But making the jump from vision to reality won't be easy, even with her persistence and the billions of dollars reportedly at her fingertips.
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'There is a lot of research, a lot of planning, a lot of capital, a lot of logistical challenges, inventory, branding and people that need to be figured out,' said Jenna Jacobson, the Eaton Chair in Retailing at Toronto Metropolitan University.
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Because Hudson's Bay sold off its real estate years ago, Liu's first task once the liquidation sales end Sunday will be convincing the landlords who own the massive spaces to get on board with her plan or it's unlikely a court will rubber stamp it.
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Don Gregor, an executive vice-president at Aurora Realty Consultants not involved with the deal, suspects their approval will be hard to win.
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He reasons that landlords like to be in control and usually don't want to have tenants selected for them, especially tenants who will pick up 'trophy leases' with the kind of deep concessions only a business as storied as the Bay could extract.
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Many of those leases date back to the very inception of the malls or properties they cover and would have rent charges Gregor believes were 'well-below market.'
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He also figures they had clauses restricting what other tenants could move in and what else could be built on the site.
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'(Landlords) would have loved if HBC had gone bankrupt and hadn't just fallen apart totally and they just get the space back because all the restrictions that anchor tenant held in that old lease would have gone away,' he said.
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