Hudson's Bay Downtown Vancouver Store Celebrates 100 Years!
 

Vancouver's Downtown Hudson's Bay store celebrated 100 years last week.
The store had a party, and I am sure we can all agree this is one of Canada's iconic retail landmarks.

The Vancouver store is one of the original six Canadian cities to have a grand Hudson's Bay store built. The others were Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg.

At 650,000 sq feet, it is the third largest Hudson's Bay store in the nation after Toronto's Queen Street Store, and Montreal's Centre-Ville store. Winnipeg's Downtown store was also either the same size or larger, but it has been downsized.

Investments in the store have been well received, and the store went from sales of about $120 million in 2011, to about $175 million in 2013.

For more info, check out
http://www.retail-insider.com/retail...-100-on-friday

May this store have hundreds more years of life in it! They do not build them like this anymore, at least in North America.

http://static.squarespace.com/static...g?format=1000w
Photo: Darrell Bateman

I don't shop at The Bay ever, but I'm proud of the HBC's history and contribution to North America's economy for over 300 years. Oldest company on the continent if I have my facts straight.

The Hudson bay is the world's longest continuous running company and the world's first department store.

I wish they started using some of the windows above the 1st floor in their stores, instead of boarding it up or putting mirrors behind them.

Thanks for the shoutout Mike.

I shop at the bay all the time. They have very good sales on pretty good quality clothing.

It seems that The Bay is in pretty good shape these days, unlike Sears which seems to be on the path of Timothy Eaton.

The bay is on pretty rough ground still, my understanding is that it has the exact opposite problem of Sears, it's flagship stores and high end locations are doing really well but the lower end mall locations are struggling.

I love the downtown flagship Bay stores. So much more than the hit or miss suburban outlets.

The Bay's suburban stores are wildly inconsistent... some of them are practically like downtown flagships while others are glorified Zellers stores.

I have to say I'm jealous of the nice treatment that the Vancouver (and other) flagship stores are getting... ours in Winnipeg is in a spectacular building but is basically dying a slow death. I'd be surprised if it were still around in 5 years. Other than a fresh coat of paint a few years ago, virtually nothing has changed for the better in there since the late 80s.

There are hotels and pubs in Japan and Europe that have been continuously operating for more than 1000 years. There was a Japanese construction company founded in the 6th century that only went bust in the last decade, also.

^^ It is a shame about Winnipeg's downtown Bay Store, amazing structure, but the future of this building as you mentioned, is grim at this point.


http://downtownpeggy.files.wordpress...0/the-bay1.jpg
Source

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Can you imagine being in charge when your almost millennium-and-a-half-long corporate history ends in bankruptcy and the end of your company as a going concern? That's a unique failure.

Hudson's Bay is starting to uncover the windows on the buildings. In both Vancouver and Toronto they have already opened up some of the windows on the selling floors. It looks great I have to say.

The downtown Winnipeg store suffers, because sadly Winnipeg's downtown retail scene has been stagnant for a while. They have been downsizing the store, which I think is a mistake.
I think if they just renovated, and hold on a little long, the tides will change in downtown Winnipeg. Birks has already left Polo Park and moved back into downtown Winnipeg. So the area has to grow better soon.
Too often stores will start downsizing a store, which just makes it less of a place to go to, and it creates a cycle of decline.

I hope that with the steady resurgence of Downtown Winnipeg, the flagship HBC store will come beck to life.

Here in Ottawa, HBC's downtown flagship is the former Freiman's Department Store Building since 1972.

The store hasn't been renovated since 1983, the year they completed the Freiman Mall (over the former Mosgrove, later Freiman Street) and skywalks to the newly opened Rideau Centre.

Only the top retail floor, where they sell furniture and appliances, has exposed windows (which seem original), along with what looks like original hardwood floors.

They've recently started interior renovations, although they didn't have any sort of announcement. It's being done in a sort of under-the-radar kind of way. I haven't seen the renos yet, but I've heard good things from Ottawa forumers.

Here are a few pictures of the building:

Rideau Street Elevation
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...a/Freimans.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freimans

One of two skywalks
https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/117/27...539_z.jpg?zz=1
https://www.flickr.com/photos/steve-brandon/273683930/

Similar view in 1950s
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AU_RKvFh-x...aufreimans.jpg
http://urbsite.blogspot.ca/2012/05/r...o-archive.html

Skybridge to Freiman Mall (1983 expansion)
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FR_JLUK79a...0/P3060076.JPG
http://urbsite.blogspot.ca/2014/03/r...6-transit.html

George Street façade of Freiman Mall
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oSk5mTxNAG...0/P3110111.JPG
http://urbsite.blogspot.ca/2014/03/r...dreams-of.html

George Street façade of main HBC Building. These orange panels were added, you guessed it, in 1983. They were placed over the original brick and windows. Hopefully, they restore the George Street elevation to its original look.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kAWaXmOO86...P3110087-1.JPG
http://urbsite.blogspot.ca/2014/03/r...dreams-of.html

Calgary's is also over a century old. It's 101 years as of this year.

Calgary's looks like a carbon copy of Vancouver's.

Actually, ours is older, so theirs would be a carbon copy of ours. Except that Calgary's has the beautiful arcade/collonade, while Vancouver's just has the overhangs. Design-wise I prefer Calgary's, but the fact that Vancouver's has Granville subway station under it makes it super convenient, except the layout is hell. It took me 15 minutes just to find where the mens section was (6th floor) last Wednesday! :haha:

the whole world's oldest thing is an urban myth...its not even close to that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies

they say the oldest commercial corporation in North America....

totally agree....HBC is trying to kill the winnipeg store...a little effort and it would be fine...the grocery it had was hugely successful...it had a zellers in the basement that did very well...when zellers shut down they closed both....now the whole store is a walking ghost....they are looking for the first opportunity to bolt...sadly i think its too late to convince them otherwise.

it will be a massive blow to downtown winnipeg...its downsizing already is.

Guess I'll toss in a pic of Calgary's

http://www.calgaryherald.com/cms/binary/8932843.jpg
calgaryherald.com

http://i.imgur.com/PAK3OBc.jpg
resized from:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darrellinyvr/8348601954/

The arcade or whatever

http://clairephotoflash-blog.com/wp-...-field-002.jpg
http://clairephotoflash-blog.com/?p=2865

http://farm9.static.flickr.com/8229/...3446ff82f1.jpg
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/dar...7632439937266/

The main other differences I see is Vancouver's has a railing on the roof, more interesting windows, and they have the fancy awnings (Calgary's have been replaced with boring ones)

Looks like Calgary's not only had the railing originally, they had fancy light posts on them as well
http://postmediacalgaryherald.files..../08/bay_cd.jpg
http://blogs.calgaryherald.com/2012/...ened-downtown/

Looks like Calgary's always had the less fancy windows though.