{"id":8876,"date":"2020-11-30T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/hudsons-bay-struggles-a-harbinger-of-things-to-come\/"},"modified":"2023-11-15T03:08:28","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T03:08:28","slug":"hudsons-bay-struggles-a-harbinger-of-things-to-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/news\/hudsons-bay-struggles-a-harbinger-of-things-to-come\/","title":{"rendered":"Hudson\u2019s Bay struggles a harbinger of things to come?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heavyweight retailer Hudson\u2019s Bay has been making headlines in recent days for its inability to pay rent, with landlords taking the company to court for eviction, and according to a commercial broker in Toronto, this could be a sign of things to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate to say it, but yes, we could see more of this,\u201d Nicole Attias told CREW<\/a>. \u201cWe didn\u2019t expect the pandemic, or for it to last this long, and this is part of the fallout. It\u2019s a matter of how things will play out because there are too many unknowns right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attias found the news that Hudson\u2019s Bay wasn\u2019t paying rent surprising because, until now, she\u2019d heard seemingly myriad stories about smaller retail tenants either deferring rent or not paying it at all, but scarcely anything about juggernaut retailers doing the same.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

At Centrepoint Mall in North York\u2019s Yonge and Steeles neighbourhood, Hudson\u2019s Bay\u2019s landlord tried having it evicted for not paying rent during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Quebec, a judge recently ordered the company to pay rent to several department stores in the province.<\/p>\n

According to , the pandemic isn\u2019t the only reason large retailers like Hudson\u2019s Bay are struggling to pay their rents. The trend had already been well underway, thanks to the rise of e-commerce, although there\u2019s nary a question that the pandemic has exacerbated the retail sector\u2019s woes.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterviewees are seeing a structural shift in retail, but it is an acceleration of the move toward e-commerce already underway,\u201d said the report. \u201cSeveral retailers, including big-name brands, have shut their doors permanently or are seeking creditor protection. Enclosed malls have been hit particularly hard, and street retailers in downtown cores like Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver are seeing less foot traffic because many office towers are still mostly vacant.\u201d<\/p>\n

The federal government doled out a rent relief program when the pandemic began, but it has since ended and thrust retailers back into precarious situations. Some have negotiated everything from rent-free periods to rents that are based on a percentage of sales. However, many brick and mortar retailers are worried that the pandemic will have permanently shifted consumer behaviour towards e-commerce, and it\u2019s spurred some .<\/p>\n

\u201cWith some areas of brick-and-mortar retail, like outlet centres, regional malls, and power centres, struggling, there is a strong sense among interviewees that retail properties need to evolve,\u201d said the PwC report. \u201cMalls might convert into residential or mixed-use properties, possibly using some of that space for warehousing, distribution, or fulfilment\u2014including last-mile delivery\u2014to satisfy the growing demand for online shopping.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heavyweight retailer Hudson\u2019s Bay has been making headlines in recent days for its inability to pay rent, with landlords taking the company to court for eviction, and according to a commercial broker in Toronto, this could be a sign of things to come. \u201cI hate to say it, but yes, we could see more of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":22979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8876"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8876"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28998,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8876\/revisions\/28998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}