Can I say how excited I am for this? Yorkdale’s next expansion (will have nearly 300,000 square feet of shopping space) is slated to be completed in 2016 will include Nordstrom, according to a post on the mall’s blog. The store will be “full service,” meaning that it will likely have a bridal salon (question: what’s going to happen with Topshop? Topshop is in Nordstrom stores in the US, while it is at Hudson’s Bay here in Canada. Will The Bay have to give up their licence? Is it still “full service” without Topshop?) and will take up more than 60% of the expansion. Previously, the only other official Toronto location was announced for Sherway Gardens, a mall that is not subway accessible. And you know how I am about subways. However, I am still waiting for a downtown spot – the other two already-announced Canadian stores, in Ottawa and Vancouver, are located in the core of its respective cities.
A Nordstrom store in New Jersey
As for the remaining third of the expansion, who knows? There are plenty of brands that have yet to arrive in Canada. We are still, for example, waiting for UNIQLO, though I will not be surprised Yorkdale isn’t the Japanese brand’s first location (can’t it open at the Forever 21 on Yonge and Dundas? Makes no sense to have that spot AND one at the Eaton Centre, just steps away) and many would love to see more luxury brands in this city. Yorkdale still needs a J.Crew menswear shop (I was surprised it wasn’t part of the 2012-2013 expansion) and Crewcuts. It is interesting (and a little bit disappointing from a downtown girl’s perspective) that Toronto’s luxury shopping destination is not in its downtown core in a mall that is not quite “suburbia” from an area code perspective. Sorry, Bloor-Yorkville, but you’re going to be slowly pushed out if there continues to be a lack of space and expansion. Bloor should have been the first to get Kate Spade, Tory Burch and Burberry, not Yorkdale.
A rendering of Yorkdale
Are you looking forward to Nordstrom opening and this expansion itself? Who else would you like to see at Yorkdale? Personally, not only would I want to see more mid-range and luxury brands as well as restaurants (especially something unique and preferably not with more than five locations), I’d also like to see more Canadian brands (Pink Tartan, I’m looking at you!). In fact, I’d love to see a store open up carrying only Canadian designers. Dollar stores and true big box chains can stay far, far away as it’s not in the mall’s brand image.
Image credits: Nordstrom Image: Northfoto / Shutterstock.com; Yorkdale image is Oxford Properties (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons
