Ambitious Plans for Hudson’s Bay

Hudson’s Bay Co. Ltd. (Toronto) told Women’s Wear Daily it will be spending $180 million a year on capital expenditures over the next five years.

“We are spending in a very healthy way,” ceo Richard Baker told WWD in an exclusive interview. “We happen to have a lot of good new projects. You want to spend money on things that improve the store and get a healthy return. ” 

That investment will include a new 20,000-square-foot Kleinfeld Bridal salon at the 1 million-square-foot Toronto flagship and the development of a 30,000-square-foot shoe department, which will be Canada’s largest, also at the Queen Street location. 

Canada’s oldest and largest department store retailer will also overhaul the Bloor Street store in Toronto. WWD says other retailers have been interested in taking over the prime site, on the corner of fashionable Bloor and Yonge streets. but Baker told WWD he’s not giving it up and that he’s cooking up plans to revive it. 

The company is also preparing a new two-level, 100,000-square-foot men’s store to open on the ninth and tenth floors of Lord & Taylor in New York. The store is now engaged in a two-year, $40 million renovation.

Baker told Women’s Wear that Lord & Taylor will also open an 80,000-square-foot store in Mizner Park (Boca Raton, Fla.) this September, its first full-line Florida store in 10 years.

And Baker said Hudson’s Bay will be moving away from the popular colloquialism, The Bay, and all advertising, packaging and in-store signage have been converted. “Calling it 'The Bay' is like calling Bloomingdale’s ‘Bloomies’ or Neiman Marcus ‘Neiman’s,’ “ he said.