San Francisco-based Kitchenware and home furnishings retailer Williams Sonoma has closed its two-level store at 100 Bloor Street West in Toronto. It will be replaced by French luxury brand Hermès, which will open a ‘maison’ of approximately 12,000 square feet this fall, according to sources.

Williams Sonoma has occupied its 100 Bloor Street West space since 2001, when it joined Pottery Barn to lease the majority of the building’s retail podium. In August of 2014, it was announced that Both Williams Sonoma and Pottery Barn would vacate its Bloor street premises, after a substantial rent increase that made operations unviable. Both stores were expected to close in early 2015.

*(Click above for interactive Google Map)*

Williams Sonoma officially closed its Bloor Street store after the end of business on Wednesday, January 18, and exterior signage was already being removed that evening. Pottery Barn’s space is currently for lease, with no definitive closing date for the store set as of yet.

Hermès, which currently operates out of a one-level retail space of about 3,965 square feet at 130 Bloor Street West, will relocate to the Williams Sonoma space at 100 Bloor Street West in the fall of 2017. The new two-level Hermès will span approximately 12,000 square feet and will be one of a handful of Hermès ‘maisons’ globally, as well as one of its largest stores.

*(The current one level Hermes store at 130 Bloor St. W. will close this fall, to be replaced with a store about triple its size)*

*(Williams Sonoma at 100 Bloor St. W. at about 2:30pm on Wednesday, January 18, 2017)*

*(Signage being removed from Williams Sonoma at 100 Bloor St. W. at about 9:00pm on Wednesday, January 18)*

Besides the Bloor Street store, Hermès operates four other Canadian boutiques. Vancouver is home to two of them — a 2,500 square foot location operates at 755 Burrard Street (corner of Alberni Street) in the city’s ‘luxury zone’, and a second Vancouver boutique is located at Vancouver International Airport. Hermès also operates concessions within Holt Renfrew stores in Calgary and Montreal.

100 Bloor Street West has seen several substantial changes since Williams Sonoma and Pottery Barn announced intentions to vacate. Holt Renfrew opened a 16,500 square foot freestanding men’s store in the corner retail space in September of 2014, and women’s fashion retailer Milli relocated from a Critchley Lane-facing space to a new store on Avenue Road in the summer of 2016. CBRE has been involved with a number of transactions both at 100 Bloor, as well as in the immediate area.

We’ll publish an article shortly with updates on what’s happening on Toronto’s Bloor Street West, as a number of retailers are opening and expanding stores on what is considered to be Canada’s most prestigious retail street.

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web: January 19, 2017