La Maison Simons is confirmed to be opening its first Calgary location at The CORE shopping centre in spring of 2017. Simons' somewhat awkward configuration has been revealed on landlord 20 Vic Management's leasing website. Plans show a five-level retail space carved out of a heritage office building and existing retail space and as well, Simons will occupy some of the public corridors which currently provide pedway access to neighbouring Scotia Centre and Hudson's Bay to the east.

We have provided 'before and after' floor plans to each of Simons' floors in this article. You can click on each plan for a PDF lease plan of the entire CORE centre. The first plan of each floor will be of Simons' new retail space, followed by a recent plan from the fall of 2014 showing what was there prior. The fall 2014 plans are each marked 'before', to hopefully avoid any potential confusion.

In the fall of 2014, we revealed that Simons will occupy five levels (four above ground, one below) within the historical 10-floor Lancaster Building, connected to the CORE on multiple levels. Each of Lancaster's floorplates are less than 10,000 square feet, hence necessitating annexing adjacent retail space to create the approximately 96,000 square foot Simons store.

Level 'P1' (basement, plans above) features about 9,700 square feet of retail space for Simons within the Lancaster Building, including some adjacent storage space. Level P1 otherwise primarily includes parking, loading dock and storage space for other centre tenants. Our best guess is that Simons' P1 space will be for offices/services/storage, as it appears to lack escalator access.

Simons' ground floor (plans below) features mall retail space merged with most of the Lancaster Building's ground floor, with room left for elevators and a lobby to the Lancaster Building upper tower office levels. Simons will occupy mall retail space which, for years, was occupied by TD Canada Trust and some smaller retailers. In total, Simons will occupy about 31,270 square feet at street level, with new escalators to all retail floors above accessed via Simons' Lancaster Building component.

Screen Shot 2015-08-05 at 8.59.48 PM.png

Simons' 22,070 square foot second-level (plans below) features space in the Lancaster Building, mall space, and the public corridor currently used to access neighbouring Scotia Centre and Hudson's Bay via an above-ground pedway (the +15 as it is called, being about 15 feet above the street). It appears that Harry Rosen's retail space has been downsized by about 3,000 square feet for the expansion, as evident in the 'before' and 'after' plans shown below.

Simons will occupy about 23,000 square feet on its third level (a.k.a +30 Level, plans below), again merging mall retail space with space in the Lancaster Building and public walkway into Scotia Centre/Hudson's Bay. A substantial portion of the the hallway beside Harry Rosen will be eliminated for Simons' expansion. Plans indicate that Harry Rosen's retail space on this level will remain the same.

Simons' top floor (Level +45, plans below) will only occupy space in the Lancaster Building, and will measure approximately 9,800 square feet. The adjacent mall level is occupied by the Devonian Gardens.

Several months ago, La Maison Simons President and CEO Peter Simons said that he was interested in opening a second Calgary location at Southcentre though at the time, nothing was confirmed. Given that Southcentre is under the umbrella of Oxford Properties Group, however, it could almost be expected that Simons would join the Calgary mall. By the year 2019, five of Oxford's 11 Canadian malls will feature Simons as an anchor, including Galeries de la Capitale (Quebec City), Les Promenades Gatineau (opening this month), Square One in Mississauga (spring of 2016), Scarborough Town Centre (2018) and Yorkdale Shopping Centre (2019).

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web: August 31, 2015