Hudson's Bay Centre
| Hudson's Bay Centre | |
|---|---|
|
The Hudson's Bay Centre in Toronto | |
| General information | |
| Coordinates | 43°40′15″N 79°23′12″W / 43.670724°N 79.386606°WCoordinates: 43°40′15″N 79°23′12″W / 43.670724°N 79.386606°W |
| Construction started | 1972 |
| Completed | 1974 |
| Height | |
| Roof | 135 m (443 ft) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 35 |
| Floor area | 535,000 sq ft (49,700 m2) |
Hudson's Bay Centre is an office and retail complex in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the heart of the city at the intersection Yonge Street and Bloor Street along the Mink Mile and also known as the business and pleasure area of midtown Toronto. Brookfield Properties owns and operates the centre.
Description
Completed in 1974, the International style office skyscraper stands at 135 metres in height. It contains 35 floors and 535,000-square-foot (49,700 m2), and its address 2 Bloor Street East, at the northeast corner of the intersection of Yonge and Bloor Streets. It served as the headquarters for the retailer Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), and to this day it is still the main tenant although the company relocated its head office to the Simpson Tower in 1978.
The extensive retail concourse is anchored by a flagship store of Hudson's Bay/The Bay (known as the "Toronto, on Bloor Street" store at 44 Bloor Street East[1]), the main brand of HBC. The mall contains over 45 specialty shops, boutiques, services and eateries. The complex also includes the Marriott Hotel, an RBC Royal Bank branch, apartments, and condominiums.
The centre has space for 1,200 cars in its underground and above-ground parking lots, multiple entrances located on Yonge, Bloor Streets, Park Road and Asquith Avenue and is surrounded by several parks and the Yorkville neighborhood which is known for upscale shopping.
The building is connected to the Bloor-Yonge subway station, the TTC's major east-west/north-south transfer point. There are also below-grade connections to the Holt Renfrew Centre and Cumberland Terrace, which continues westward to 60 Bloor Street West and Manulife Centre. The pedestrian tunnels stretches along Bloor Street West to the Bay subway station, making this Toronto's largest underground network after PATH.
In August 2014, the centre became the subject of controversy when its property manager, Brookfield Properties Ltd, admitted to regularly confiscating bicycles that were locked to a pole on a municipal right of way on Bloor St. outside of the mall. Many Torontonians are accusing the centre of theft and the City of Toronto has assigned by-law officers to investigate. [2]
Future
There was speculation that the 342,000 square foot Hudson's Bay/The Bay store would undergo a $100 million renovation to become the Canadian flagship location of Saks Fifth Avenue, the American luxury department store chain which is now also owned by Hudson's Bay Company (HBC).[3]
However, it was subsequently announced that HBC would instead be renovating its flagship Hudson's Bay store at Yonge and Queen to include a 150,000 square foot Saks Fifth Avenue, and would leave the Yonge and Bloor location as a Hudson's Bay store for now.[4]
External links
References
- ↑ "Store Locator". Hudson's Bay Company. Retrieved 2014-05-27.
- ↑ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/city-investigating-seizure-of-bikes-at-hudson-s-bay-centre-1.2736345
- ↑ Wright, Lisa (29 November 2013). "Saks sets sights on Yonge-Bloor". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2014-05-27.
- ↑ Strauss, Marina (27 January 2014). "Tycoon shows his real estate savvy with sale of Hudson’s Bay store". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2014-05-27.