Malls could turn empty Nordstrom stores into residential units, says one expert

A retail professional says Canadian mall operators trying to fill areas left behind after Nordstrom Inc. shops depart this 12 months might money in on the nation’s robust demand for residential housing.

Nordstrom stated final week it might shut down its 13 Canadian shops by the tip of June because it winds down operations in Canada, practically a decade after getting into the market.

Jane Domenico, senior vice-president of retail at Colliers Real Estate Investment Services, advised BNN Bloomberg that retail landlords have choices to fill the department-store sized gaps of their floorplans, provided that Nordstrom had shops in “some of the best shopping centres in Canada,” together with downtown Toronto’s sprawling Eaton Centre.

One of the choices could possibly be to interrupt up the massive vacant areas into smaller retailers – and probably embody some residential condo items because the nation struggles to maintain up with a housing scarcity.

“Across Canada, demand for residential has been extremely high, and so a lot of our retailers and our landlords working together have adopted a retail-and-residential friendly footprint to develop,” Domenico stated in a Monday tv interview.

The idea might match with a central Toronto purchasing centre just like the Eaton Centre, she stated, as retail landlords are “adaptable” and know tips on how to pivot when the sector goes by way of adjustments.

“They’re looking for the long term,” she stated. “What is best for today is not always going to be their direction. They’re going to look to the future and see what other retail or other types of use make sense for those locations.”

Some Canadian mall house owners have already begun fascinated by including flats to their areas.

In late 2021, Oxford Properties Group president Michael Turner advised Bloomberg News in regards to the firm’s early-stage plans for residential buildings at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre, and on the Scarborough Town Centre within the metropolis’s east finish.

Construction has additionally begun on condominiums round Oxford Properties’ Square One Shopping Centre in Mississauga.

With recordsdata from Bloomberg News.