POSSIBLE SIGNIFICANT ADDITION TO TORONTO'S LUXURY RETAIL SCENE: 100 BLOOR WEST

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Over 50,000 square feet of potential luxury retail space could become available at 100 Bloor Street West in Toronto. According to the landlord's website, most of the retail component of 100 Bloor could come up for lease, including spaces currently occupied by Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, The Body Shop and Roots.

Roots is already confirmed as leaving its 100 Bloor retail space in early 2014, and there's no word yet as to whether or not Williams Sonoma and Pottery Barn will vacate. A source tells us that both Williams Sonoma and Pottery Barn may be in talks with Hazelton Lanes to open replacement stores in the mall, though we can't confirm this beyond saying it is speculation.

In total, over 51,000 square feet of retail space at 100 Bloor could come up for lease. This includes retail space on both the ground floor and the second floor. Looking at its lease plan, we can imagine somewhere in the range of seven two-level flagship stores to occupy space at 100 Bloor, including an Apple Store flagship that we discussed yesterday. Note that this article was only speculation, but some brokers have quietly suggested that Apple might open here.

Ground floor plan for 100 Bloor St. W., including our edits in red (showing 7+ retail spaces)

We would expect 100 Bloor's retail rents to be among some of the highest in Canada. Bloor Street already boasts Canada's most expensive street-front retail and 100 Bloor is 'centre ice' in the luxury district, being across the street from Harry Rosen's flagship menswear store and within steps of luxury retailers Chanel, Prada, Mulberry, Gucci, Hermes, Burberry and others.

Before 100 Bloor's construction in the early 2000's, the site had multiple proposals that ranged from hotel towers to theatres to department stores. At one time, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale's and Paris-based department store Printemps were interested in the site, as it offered retail floorplates large enough to accommodate one of these flagships over 4-6 floors. Before current tenants were secured, 100 Bloor was reportedly in talks with Donna Karan, Fendi and Dries van Noten. According to one source, 100 Bloor's landlord felt that "Pottery Barn's money was as good as Fendi's money" which helps to explain the current configuration of tenants at 100 Bloor. 

[100 Bloor Street West website]