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Hudson's Bay Company

matrix said:
No updates I've seen, other than RioCan bid to buy the other half of Oakville Place and Georgian Mall out of the Hudson's Bay co-ownership.

If there are any updates on Ruby, the media hasn't reported on it...
Click to expand...

The process has been extended to the end of October. There's a chance she'll still get it but at this rate, the $50M she'd bring to creditors is being eaten up by the process.

My fantasy outcome would be for Canadian Tire to come in and bid on 10-15 of Ruby Liu's proposed stores for less than what she was going to pay but win over the approval of the Court Monitor by agreeing to re-open a few select Hudson's Bay Co. stores, even if it's for a fraction of what they would have had to pay initially and call it a win for all those involved.
 
Noticed today that the escalators at the former Queen St store on the PATH level are partially repaired. Down escalators at both the West and South entrances are working, as is the up escalator on the west side of the Bay St underpass. The remaining 3 non-functional escalators are blocked off for maintenance (and there were people working on the western ones) so we're probably pretty close all the escalators on the PATH level being restored hopefully.
 
The Hudson's Bay signage at the Queen Street flagship has begun to come down. Simpsons ghost reappears:

IMG_6627.jpg

via: https://retail-insider.com/retail-i...-former-hudsons-bay-flagship-on-queen-street/

Looks like Cadillac Fairview officially has possession despite the ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. With the Nordstrom refit nearing completion with Simons open, Nike opening tomorrow and Eataly next month, I'm sure CF's attention will turn towards this massive city block sized space.
 
nightstreak said:
The Hudson's Bay signage at the Queen Street flagship has begun to come down. Simpsons ghost reappears:

IMG_6627.jpg

via: https://retail-insider.com/retail-i...-former-hudsons-bay-flagship-on-queen-street/

Looks like Cadillac Fairview officially has possession despite the ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. With the Nordstrom refit nearing completion with Simons open, Nike opening tomorrow and Eataly next month, I'm sure CF's attention will turn towards this massive city block sized space.
Click to expand...
Love the old Simpsons Logo
 
matrix said:
Per Globe and Mail there will be a court decision on Ruby Liu's lease bid this week. After all these weeks of not hearing about this, I will be watching for this coverage!
Click to expand...

My prediction: the court allows the sale as long as Liu follows the terms of Hudson’s Bay’s tenancy agreements. Disallowing the sale of a lease would set a precedent that would cripple future CCAA proceedings.

If the landlords don’t believe Liu can run the stores, then they can evict her if/when she stops paying her rent or breaks the terms of the lease. Otherwise she’s just paying what Hudson’s Bay would be paying and operating a store like HBC would have been.

I think she has shown she has little idea on how to run a chain of stores of that size but I also think the landlords want out of the long term leases they signed with The Bay so they won’t have to pay for them. If they want these leases so badly, then buy them back, offer more than what Liu is bidding on. The Court’s first role is to make the creditors whole and I would be surprised if it turns away almost $70M for nothing.
 
Some serious thoughts now:

It really sucks to say but I am happy that, for this venture at least, the judge struck it down. Way too much liability on the line. Her three locations would be a fine start to her department stores, and she can see where things go there. But all those leases at once were never going to cut it, not with her track record, and not with the state of affairs right now. I've said it time and time again- but the landlords nor the judge want to be in this exact same predicament in a few years, and I think he did the right thing. Let some other interested, established companies buy those leases and provide solid jobs, instead of having a shady businesswoman try to speedrun a department store empire.

I will say something that I did notice over the past few months since Ruby hit the news, is the amount of people who thought the landlords were crazy for not wanting any of this. I had a friend who said, that if the landlords don't like Ruby's idea, it must be a good one. I get it- landlords will always be landlords. But this is commercial space, and Ruby's idea was stupid from the jump for self-explanatory reasons, and I think a lot of people outside of this forum didn't get that.

I don't think this will be the last of Ruby, though. She may be able to snag another lease or two, but for now it sounds like most of the landlords want nothing to do with this.

I'm also curious as to who wants these leases now, or what the landlords will do with these spaces- we've seen YM Inc turn a bunch of Saks locations into Urban Planet outlets, and Fairweather do some mysterious Zellers-related business that isn't what it seems... They'll have to get a bit creative like they did with Sears or Target. But at that point I'm repeating things.
 
matrix said:
Some serious thoughts now:

It really sucks to say but I am happy that, for this venture at least, the judge struck it down. Way too much liability on the line. Her three locations would be a fine start to her department stores, and she can see where things go there. But all those leases at once were never going to cut it, not with her track record, and not with the state of affairs right now. I've said it time and time again- but the landlords nor the judge want to be in this exact same predicament in a few years, and I think he did the right thing. Let some other interested, established companies buy those leases and provide solid jobs, instead of having a shady businesswoman try to speedrun a department store empire.

I will say something that I did notice over the past few months since Ruby hit the news, is the amount of people who thought the landlords were crazy for not wanting any of this. I had a friend who said, that if the landlords don't like Ruby's idea, it must be a good one. I get it- landlords will always be landlords. But this is commercial space, and Ruby's idea was stupid from the jump for self-explanatory reasons, and I think a lot of people outside of this forum didn't get that.

I don't think this will be the last of Ruby, though. She may be able to snag another lease or two, but for now it sounds like most of the landlords want nothing to do with this.

I'm also curious as to who wants these leases now, or what the landlords will do with these spaces- we've seen YM Inc turn a bunch of Saks locations into Urban Planet outlets, and Fairweather do some mysterious Zellers-related business that isn't what it seems... They'll have to get a bit creative like they did with Sears or Target. But at that point I'm repeating things.
Click to expand...

I didn't think the landlords were crazy, but I wanted Ruby's plan to succeed. Aside from Simons, there are no other Canadian department stores to take the Bay's place. I want more retail options and love entrepreneurship. A new business will often work harder to win you over than an established business. New businesses tend to bring fresh ideas to the market.

It feels like there's more entrepreneurship in the US in terms of retail and consumer goods, which is unfortunate. We always have some excuse in Canada for less entrepreneurship. Conservative lenders, a smaller market, consumer preferences for established players, etc.

What are these landlords going to bring in to fill the empty department stores with? A food hall or a giant Nike store? Another Target or Nordstrom whose credentials will impress the landlords but who won't try hard here and will fail after a couple of years? I'll take the new homegrown department store idea over any of that, even if it seems crazy.
 
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