A real estate advisory team has listed the historic Hudson’s Bay downtown Vancouver store for sale.
Toronto and Vancouver-based commercial real estate firm CBRE Ltd. and California’s Marcus & Millichap were appointed to lead the sale of 674 Granville St., on behalf of the court-appointed receiver, FTI Consulting Canada Inc.
Whether it will remain a retail space or evolve into a form of mixed-use development is, for now, an open question.
Hudson’s Bay, saddled with $1.1 billion in debt, filed for creditor protection in March. When a buyer didn’t emerge, the company liquidated 80 stores, along with 16 Saks outlets. Some housed in suburban malls were sold but the 1926-built centrepiece on Granville failed to land a buyer.
Jim Szabo, vice-chairman of CBRE’s national investment team, envisions something similar to what happened with the former post office on nearby Homer Street for the HBC heritage property. In fact, Szabo secured that sale to QuadReal, which successfully repurposed that building into The Post, a mixed-use retail, food and office space that
.
However, he said it’s much too early to predict who might purchase and redevelop the high-profile site at Granville and West Georgia streets.
“I imagine it will be mixed use of some sort,” said Szabo, including retail, office and perhaps hotel space given Vancouver’s shortage of the latter. He said residential isn’t likely in the immediate future because Hudson’s Bay is in an area not currently zoned for housing.
The heritage building currently has more than 617,000 square feet across seven storeys, and two underground levels, including a connection to the Granville SkyTrain Station. The facade is heritage-protected but the interior space is flexible.
Szabo said a purchaser could potentially remove the heritage exterior walls and rebuild entirely from scratch, including much-needed seismic improvements, then reattach the walls once the new build is complete. That’s similar to what is being done by Reliance Properties with a heritage site at Beatty and Robson streets.
That will obviously take a lot of money on top of the sale price, which is why Szabo foresees a buyer restoring the current footprint then perhaps going higher with hotel and/or office space in a future phase when market conditions improve.
Years ago, a company related to the building’s owners pitched a redevelopment that would have added a 12-storey glass tower and a million square feet of office space above the former store. But a rezoning application never happened and demand for new office space has stalled.
Still, Szabo sees it as an “iconic” property that will draw plenty of interest from local developers and retailers, as well as commercial real estate and hotel companies around the world. There’s precedent from The Post sale there, too. It sold to Pontegadea, the family office of Spanish billionaire and Zara fashion company founder Amancio Ortega.
“This is an extraordinary opportunity to acquire one of Vancouver’s most iconic assets,” said Szabo. “The scale, location and connectivity of 674 Granville St. are unmatched in the market.”
Szabo touted the former Hudson’s Bay property as being at “centre ice” in the city’s financial and retail district — including being integrated closely with the Pacific Centre mall across the street — and its potential to house multiple tenants in retail, office, hotel or a mix of all the above.
The listing says its “combination of scale, location and future adaptability positions this asset as one of the most compelling investment opportunities in one of Canada’s dynamic urban markets.”
With files from Joanne Lee-Young
