The 92,000-square-foot Simons store will be the third-largest location for the Quebec City-headquartered company.
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The rumours, it turns out, were true. Canadian department store Simons is set to open a store in downtown Vancouver at the Pacific Centre.
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“We want the news to come from us rather than from the rumour mill or from people discovering it by walking by the construction site,” says Simons president and CEO Bernard Leblanc of the announcement timing.
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Construction on the store is expected to get underway soon, with the 92,000-square-foot retail space slated to be the third-largest location for the Quebec City-headquartered company, after Toronto’s Eaton Centre and Yorkdale stores.
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“We have had downtown Vancouver on our wish list for some time,” says Leblanc. As is often the case in the Canadian commercial real estate market, it was really a matter of right place, and right time.
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That element of not having the right store space available is what prompted the retailer to enter Vancouver through its store at Park Royal in West Vancouver, which opened in 2015.
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“The typical plan would be downtown first and then the periphery, potentially, after,” Leblanc says. “It doesn’t always happen exactly the way anyone anticipates. So, we’re very happy to have entered the market in Vancouver through Park Royal.
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“It’s been a very successful project for us and, now, good things come to those who wait.”
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The new Vancouver outpost, which takes over a portion of the old Nordstrom department store at the busy Pacific Centre shopping mall facing the intersection of Georgia and Granville streets, is expected to open in fall 2027. The store will be the 20th Simons store across Canada.
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Simons will be one of four retailers taking over the 230,000-square-foot retail space that was vacated in 2023 by the Seattle-headquartered retailer when it ceased its operations in Canada.
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So far, Aritzia is the only other confirmed tenant moving into the space. The Vancouver-headquartered fashion brand will be opening a 40,000-square-foot flagship store at the southwest corner of the building, facing Robson and Howe streets.
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The desire to open in downtown Vancouver, as well as a continuing relationship with Cadillac Fairview, made Pacific Centre a top choice, according to Leblanc. The expansive new Oakridge Park development in South Vancouver, he notes, was never part of the next-step expansion plans for the retailer.
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“There’s an actual vibrancy to the heart of the city,” he says. “So it just felt natural for us to go into that location.”
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The planned Simons store will feature three levels of shopping, with a design that’s “a nod to Vancouver’s brutalist architecture” and a mix of the 1960s, according to Leblanc.
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Investing $55 million in the redesign, the company says it will bring an estimated 150 new jobs to the downtown retail scene, elevating Simons’ overall employment numbers across Canada to 4,000.
