A European invasion

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This article was published 17/05/2016 (3585 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On the same day Canada’s oldest retailer — Hudson’s Bay Co. — announced plans to open 20 new stores in the Netherlands, it was revealed another major European clothing retailer is coming to Winnipeg.

Denmark-based Bestseller plans to open four stores — two women’s clothing shops and two men’s clothing shops — in a 7,500-square-foot section of the former Zellers space on the second floor of the CF Polo Park Shopping Centre.

Polo Park manager Deborah Green told delegates attending the 2016 Winnipeg Real Estate Forum that all four stores — Vero Moda, Only, Jack & Jones and Premium by Jack & Jones — will all open this summer. An exact date has not yet been finalized.

Green said in a later interview Vero Moda and Only are the women’s clothing stores, and Jack & Jones and Premium by Jack & Jones are the two men’s shops. She described all four as mid-priced apparel stores.

She said it’s interesting that although the Bestsellers chain has approximately 3,000 branded chain stores in 38 markets worldwide, Manitoba is only the second Canadian province where it will have a presence. Quebec is the other.

“It shows that European retailers are starting to look at the Winnipeg market,” she said.

Another prominent European fashion retailer with a presence in Winnipeg is Sweden’s H&M, which opened its first store in the Polo Park mall in September 2014. On the home-furnishings side, there’s Swedish giant IKEA and Denmark’s Jysk.

Green was one of four panellists participating in a morning discussion on the state of the retail market in Winnipeg. Another was Blair Forster, president of Regina-based Forster Projects Inc., who along with Regina’s Harvard Developments and Ivanhoe Cambridge, is developing the Outlet Collection at Winnipeg factory outlet mall in southwest Winnipeg. The outlet mall, slated to open in May of next year, is the first in the city and is the anchor tenant in Harvard and Forster’s Seasons development, which includes a mix of retail, office and multi-family residential buildings.

Forster wouldn’t reveal which fashion retailers are coming to the outlet mall. Although the 385,000-square-foot outlet mall is about 50 per cent pre-leased, he said tenant names won’t be announced until shortly before the mall opens.

Besides the outlet mall, other tenants in the 854,000-square-foot development include a hotel, an assisted living complex for seniors, a 400-unit apartment block and two auto dealerships. Forster said in a later interview that four mid-rise condo towers are also planned for the site.

Harvard and Forster are also hoping to attract a grocery story, and Forster said two chains have expressed an interest. But they’re waiting to see what impact the new Save On Foods grocery store in the nearby Bridgwater Townsite development will have on the buying patterns of area consumers.

“So based on that, we’re probably 18 months away from getting a grocer to commit to our development,” he said.

Michel Avigliano, vice-president of retail for the Bridgwater Townsite’s developer — Calgary’s Hopewell Development Corp. — told the session the Save On Foods store is slated to open in late October or early November in the office development.

A record 650 people, including about 225 from outside Manitoba, attended the one-day real estate forum, which was organized by Informa Canada.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca