Several of Canada’s most prominent real estate companies are slamming an attempt from a B.C. billionaire to take over 25 former Hudson’s Bay leases, saying her plan for their spaces “defies commercial common sense” and is “entirely unrealistic.”
The landlords, including Cadillac Fairview, Oxford Properties, Ivanhoe Cambridge, KingSett Capital Inc., Morguard Investments Ltd. and Primaris Real Estate Investment Trust, made filings Saturday that ask the Ontario Superior Court to stop Liu from moving in.
Most said they are opposed to Liu becoming a tenant because she has no detailed or credible business plan and despite owning three B.C. shopping centres, lacks the experience or staff she’d need to successfully operate a retailer out of the Bay’s former digs.
Her business is “an empty shell without any guarantee of financial means beyond Ms. Liu’s bare assertion that she will keep it afloat,” said Rory MacLeod, Cadillac Fairview’s executive vice-president of operations, in an affidavit.
“All of the indications are that (her company) will run out of money before the first store opens.”
B.C. billionaire Ruby Liu is hoping to expand her mall empire by taking over 28 former Hudson’s Bay retail space leases. She joined CBC’s Gloria Macarenko with a translator to share her vision for the department stores, in her first interview with English-language media in Canada.
His affidavit and a slew from other retail executives up the ante in a battle that has been festering between Liu and landlords since the Bay announced in May that it had chosen her to buy 28 of its leases. The first three got court approval and were transferred in short order because they were at Liu’s three malls.
The remaining 25, however, have been much more fraught. Those leases cover some of the country’s most prized retail space and came with cheaper rent and very attractive terms for the Bay, which filed for creditor protection under the weight of tremendous debt in March.
For example, the Bay paid $1.3 million in annual rent for 152,420 square feet at Fairview Mall in Toronto, court documents show, which is a fraction of what non-anchor tenants would pay.
Unable to get most landlords onside with a lease transfer, the Bay asked a court at the end of July to force property owners to accept Liu as a tenant.
Liu and the Bay have until next Tuesday to respond to Cadillac Fairview’s allegations. A judge will hear the matter at the end of the month.
Liu has said she wants to turn the Bay stores she is hoping to buy into her own department store named after herself. She has repeatedly told The Canadian Press and CBC News her stores will not just offer retail space but also dining, entertainment, kids play and recreation areas.
MacLeod says she’s also talked of outfitting Bay spaces with grocery stores, educational centres, senior’s facilities, robotics and musical performances.
On June 1, the storied Hudson’s Bay department store at the intersection of Georgia and Granville streets in downtown Vancouver will be shuttered. CBC News spoke to people in downtown Vancouver who said there will now be a void in the city’s retail fabric.
Cadillac Fairview says leases at the six malls she wants from the company — Fairview Mall, Sherway Gardens, Masonville Place and Markville in Ontario, Market Mall and Chinook Centre in Alberta and Richmond Centre in B.C. — don’t allow for anything other than a department store to be operated there.
“Despite her private assurances that she intends to respect the lease terms, Ms. Liu has consistently presented a different idea to the public, one that would not be compatible with the leases,” MacLeod said.
When Oxford Properties met with Liu, it got the impression her goal is to run her own mall within anchor tenant spaces and felt she has ambitions that stretch well beyond what is permitted in the Bay’s leases.
Nadia Corrado, a vice-president with Oxford, alleged in an affidavit that Liu criticized the food court at Hillcrest Mall, north of Toronto, and shared a vision for including Asian fine dining, “when the food court forms part of the shopping centre owned by Oxford – and not part of the HBC premises she is seeking to take an assignment of.”
Concern over timelines and budgets
Affidavits from landlord executives also raised concerns with the timelines and budget in her business plan.
Liu has said she will be ready to open at least 20 stores within 180 days of obtaining leases and will spend $120 million on “overdue” repairs to roofs, HVAC systems, washrooms, elevators and escalators and $135 million on initial inventory.
Cadillac Fairview says her proposed timeline is “entirely unrealistic” for a new brand, let alone an established one, and her plan is underfunded based on the high number of repairs properties need and expensive terms suppliers will require her to agree to.
MacLeod estimates the stores will need more than $15.8 million in repairs before the end of 2026 to bring the leases into good standing. By 2027, Liu will need to spend another $5.7 million on repairs, not including taxes, permits or fees for expedited labour.
Over the next 10 years, he estimates Liu will be required to spend at least $43.1 million on the Cadillac Fairview leases alone.
Corrado from Oxford said Liu’s $8-million budget for renovations at Southcentre Mall in Calgary was also insufficient. She alleged Liu was surprised she’d be responsible for exterior or structural parts of the leased spaces, like the roof, and said Liu indicated her proposed budget did not account for such costs.
Even if her budget for renovations changes, landlords have concerns about whether she can secure inventory.
Though Liu maintains companies are willing to supply her with inventory, a KingSett Capital affidavit said evidence she’s filed in court mostly amounts to letters from merchants saying they have capacity to support her stores, rather than committing to a relationship.
Staffing concerns
The landlords also took issue with her staffing estimates, which show she will need 1,800 employees to carry out her plan.
If all 1,800 are sales staff that would only leave 64 people on the floor of each of her 28 stores. Macleod said such staffing levels are “inadequate to support a countrywide chain” and “inconsistent with a retail location even a fraction of that size.”
“With my decades of experience in commercial real estate, it is apparent to me and Cadillac Fairview that (Liu) will fail and again leave these stores vacant,” he said.
Ruby Paola, a managing director with landlord Ivanhoe Cambridge’s parent company, also agreed Liu is “most likely to fail” because her retailer is “uncertain, untested and unknown.”
If that happens, it will “negatively impact the mall for many, many years to come and will likely far exceed the costs to be expended by Ivanhoe in redeveloping the space.”
