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Simons

ShonTron said:
I'm wondering where in the Rideau Centre Simons will go? Nordstrom is taking over part of the closed Eaton's/Sears space on the south end of the mall, and the food court is supposed to move over there. I don't think the current food court is big enough to handle a Simon's unless they totally reorganize that end of the mall as part of the LRT construction. Or are there plans for expansion?

Interestingly, Les Ailes de la Mode tried, and failed, in the Ottawa market, as they had a store at Bayshore, on the west end of Ottawa.
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The Rideau Centre is starting the work for a large expansion along Rideau Street (currently surface parking and the old Ogilvy's building, the historic portion of the facade of which is being dismantled and will be reconstructed as part of the expansion). Presumably Simons will end up there.

Les Ailes de la Mode had a lot of problems and significantly over-extended itself. By all accounts, the store at Bayshore was a disappointment, but it's hard to know how much of that was attributable to the much larger problems within the company. The company ended up closing some of its banners and selling the others off piecemeal. Visiting the Ailes "Grand Magasin" store on Ste Catherines in downtown Montreal today, reduced in size from when it originally opened, is so sad - full of poor quality, discount merchandise. It's like shopping at International Clothiers (I think it is now the same company IIRC).
 
Skeezix said:
The Rideau Centre is starting the work for a large expansion along Rideau Street (currently surface parking and the old Ogilvy's building, the historic portion of the facade of which is being dismantled and will be reconstructed as part of the expansion). Presumably Simons will end up there.
Click to expand...

That makes a lot of sense now, especially as the food court will move to the south end.
 
So, Simons has now announced two store openings in Ottawa (Rideau Centre, Promenades Gatineau) and one in West Vancouver (Park Royal).

I wonder how the negotiations for a Toronto are coming along. Wonder if the availability of the space in the Toronto Eaton Centre is impacting negotiations for space at Yorkdale or Square One?
 
Coruscanti Cognoscente said:
The press release reads: "Simons to open first Ontario store at Square One Shopping Centre"; isn't Rideau Centre getting one first? http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/simons-coming-to-ottawa-rideau-centre-1.1213947
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The Rideau Centre is now talking in the media about completing its expansion by spring 2016. Although I have seen no actual confirmation that the planned 2015 opening of Simons has been delayed, I suspect that's the case. The new Simons at Promenades Gatineau is scheduled to open Spring 2015, and some recent news reports said it would open a year before the one at the Rideau Centre.
 
Now that Saks is opening on Queen Street, would it mean that The Eyesore on Yonge and Bloor might become a Simons? What's the lease deal on that location? Is it owned by HBC?
 
It's too big to be a Simons, but that's probably the most logical guess at this point. I can also see it becoming a temporary Holt's site if they completely demolish and re-build the Bloor flagship.
 
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