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Toronto Eaton Centre

Wild unabashed speculation alert: how cool would it be if Cadillac Fairview was collecting square feet for Simons, thereby returning Yonge and Queen to a 2 department store intersection? Basement, Entrance via the old bank building at 2 Queen West, and the McDonalds space? Would be amazing.

Won't happen.

The McDonald's space may be for J. Crew... I know they wanted a large store in the EC.
 
Here's an outside look at the real estate being freed up:

screenshot20111031at110n.png

screenshot20111031at110.png


That entire wing is almost all vacant. Only the Town Shoes on the street floor and Cultures tucked between the already closed McDonalds and Grand & Toy on the 2nd remain open.

Whatever is happening here is going to be big. I don't know that a department store would fit here but if it's one retailer as it appears to be, it's going to be a big company. How would the Apple Genius know about the McDonalds closing and why would he insinuate that the Apple Store needed a bigger flagship store that might go there?

It seems like the perfect location, right on the corner of Yonge & Queen West. That historical brick building could use some restoration and would be comparable to what Apple has done on Regent Street in London:

800px-Apple_Store_London.jpg
 
Which is really odd. It is on it's own with no other retail. That can either be a really good thing for them, or a really bad thing.
 
Here's an outside look at the real estate being freed up:

screenshot20111031at110n.png

screenshot20111031at110.png


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I know! Let's get Woolworth's back!

Silly, I know, but it does speak to the square footage in that section. The Coast Mountain/Sportcheck store was huge (and very maze-like).
 
I don't think its that odd that the Genius guy would know that McD's is closing. If he works there frequently he may eat at McD's and in casual convo... a staffer said the place was closing. Apple is notorious for firing ppl who leak information about new locations etc... and really would a guy who works at the Genius counter know much about a new store.

The space that is being freed up is HUGE, especially if you include the basement.

Maybe I wasn't so out of the ball park with Simons ;)
 
The Cultures adjacent to the now-closed McDonalds and Grand & Toy is also closed now.
 
So whatever is happening is happening soon. They're all closing at once. I guess whichever store goes here will exclude the street level floor where Town Shoes is. They don't show any indication of closing soon. We have a massive -1 level where Sports Check and McDonalds used to be, the entire Coast Mountain Sports on the main level and second floor of the brick building and the McDonalds, Cultures and Grand & Toy on the 2nd floor of the mall. Wow... this is huge.

I agree, probably not an Apple Store.
 
Is the combined McDonald's/Cultures/Grand & Toy all that much bigger than Harry Rosen's current location? Will it include the space that was the upper level of Atomosphere? Who will then move into the old HR location mid-mall? It used to be that the prestige was up in the north end of the mall (back when there was the big Birks store and Eaton's was still around), but perphaps HR sees itself better located near The Bay, whose menswear dept. is also on that level just across Queen?
 
Is the combined McDonald's/Cultures/Grand & Toy all that much bigger than Harry Rosen's current location? Will it include the space that was the upper level of Atomosphere? Who will then move into the old HR location mid-mall? It used to be that the prestige was up in the north end of the mall (back when there was the big Birks store and Eaton's was still around), but perphaps HR sees itself better located near The Bay, whose menswear dept. is also on that level just across Queen?

The current HR is about 11,000 square feet. Which is small for a HR.

According to the leasing plan:
Grand and Toy is: 2650
Cultures: 1276
McDonalds: 2665

It says that the SportCheck Atmosphere was 8888 square feet, I'm just confused if that is the basement and main floor... The Good Life square footage isn't on the leasing plan.

Regardless... I could see Harry consolidating those second floor spaces (plus the Goodlife) and maybe the first floor atmosphere space...

Harry Rosen's have gotten fairly big - Bloor Street is over 50,000 SqFeet, Calgary's Flagship is 30,000 square feet, Yorkdale is about 15,000 ( I think they were looking to expand in the new wing), and First CDN place is about the same size as Yorkdale...

I don't think 20,000 square feet is out of the question it would be great if they have a street presence via the old atmosphere.

As for luxury in that area - I think it is moving south, the in store Burberry shop at the Bay faces Queen, as does the Coach boutique... adding Harry to the intersection is a great idea.
I guess what is unclear is
 

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