Though I don’t think anyone wants to see the building torn down, if the building can’t be repurposed that could well be its fate. So, what could happen to our beloved terracotta clad Hudson Bay department store and its charming colonnade? Let’s first look at what has happened in other cities.

Calgary's downtown Hudson's Bay store opened in 1913. This six-story, Chicago commercial-style building with its terra cotta cladding became a template for the company's major western Canada stores.

Downtown Hudson’s Bay Stores – Winnipeg and Montreal

Don’t expect Calgary’s Bay Building to be repurposed like the mega Winnipeg store that was given by The Bay to Southern Chief’s Organization (SCO), representing 24 First Nations in southern Manitoba in April 2022. Backstory: Not quite free - as a nod to history of Hudson’s Bay Company’s fur trade with the indigenous peoples, it cost the SCO two beaver pelts and one elk hide. The value of the building was zero as it requires extensive renovations to meet code, convert to new uses and meet heritage preservation requirements.

The SCO have accessed funding from all levels of government with plans to convert the building into 373 homes (200 affordable), commercial and office space for the SCO operations, a childcare centre, a health and healing centre, a public atrium, rooftop garden and two restaurants - one serving First Nation cuisine and the other a copy of the store’s iconic Paddlewheel restaurant. However, the total cost has increased from the original estimate of $130M to $300M today - and it’s still rising, so nothing has happened yet.

It is too early to say if this redevelopment will be a success or not, but that fact that no construction has started after three years doesn’t bode well.

In Montreal, a similar proposal is being looked at. The James Bay Eeyou Corporation, a Cree organization, has partnered with JHD Real Estate to bid on their downtown Hudson’s Bay department store building, with plans to redevelop it as cultural heritage hub and a price tag of $400 million.

Back in 2021, there was approval for a 25-storey glass office space on the roof of Montreal’s downtown Bay building, perhaps it might be resurrected.

Montreal’s historic downtown Hudson’s Bay store opened in 1891 as the Henry Morgan Building and was the flagship store for the Morgan’s department store chain. It was acquired by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1960 and became their downtown flagship store. It was slated to include a Saks Fifth Avenue in 2018, but those plans fell through and today it is for sale.

Winnipeg’s iconic Hudson’s Bay department store has been empty for years and plans to redevelop the building have been delayed to do major cost increases.

Vancouver’s downtown Hudson’s Bay store has been neglected for decades, before it closed permanently escalators weren’t working and no repairs were being done.

Edmonton’s Downtown Hudson’s Bay Store

In Edmonton, The Bay moved out of its downtown heritage building in 1993, to Edmonton’s City Centre Mall. It wasn’t until 2005 that the University of Alberta bought the building and renovated it to become Enterprise Square, a downtown campus for the UofA’s business school, as well as an incubator for the university’s startups and TEC Edmonton, a joint venture between UofA, Edmonton Economic Development Corporation and the Alberta’s Ministry of Transportation and Economic Corridors (TEC). There was even a TV station at street level in the late ‘90s. While the intent was to create a vibrant streetscape along Jasper Avenue, Edmonton’s historic downtown main street, it has never been realized.

Edmonton’s historic downtown Hudson’s Bay department store building.

Victoria’s Downtown Bay Store

In Victoria, its downtown Hudson’s Bay department store moved from its heritage building to Eaton’s department store space in the Eaton’s Centre in 2003, which then got rebranded as The Bay Centre. The heritage store building sat empty until the Townline Group of Companies bought it and renovated the upper floors into condos main floor retail including Victoria Public Market, opening in 2013. While the condo conversion has been a success, the market and retailed struggled. Currently the entire retail/market space is being converted into a conventional grocery store.

Victoria’s Hudson’s Bay store has been renovated to create condos on the upper floors while retaining retail at street level, however the retail has struggled.

Calgary’s Downtown Bay Store

Don’t be surprised if a group emerges to propose our Hudson’s Bay store becomes an indigenous museum, cultural and healing centre as part of a reconciliation initiative. But I doubt they will get the government support needed for a $400+ million redevelopment of the building.

From a private sector perspective, the cost of rehabilitation and redevelopment of the building is prohibitive due to decades of neglect and potential heritage conditions. While the site has value, the building doesn’t, especially with no parking. FYI: The Bay Parkade was sold to Brookfield Properties to allow for the development of Brookfield Place in 2012 - a second tower is planned where the parkade sits today. Without any parking, the options for redevelopment of Calgary’s historic Hudson’s Bay building are limited.

A possible use would be residential and hotel, but again without any parking the feasibility of that is low. Perhaps a deal could be worked out by the potential new owners of the Hudson’s Bay store with Brookfield to utilize the old Bay Parkade as the likelihood of them building the second office tower is zero (downtown Calgary’s high office vacancy is still over around 30%). Better yet, perhaps Brookfield would be interested in partnering with a residential/hotel developer to buy and redevelop the building.

It is unlikely to become home to a post-secondary school as the University of Calgary has already committed to a 20-year lease of 9 floors of the old NOVA tower or its School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape. And it leases a second building at the corner of 8th and 8th nearby creating a downtown campus with the Century Gardens as an outdoor student gathering space. One might think the University of Calgary Business School would be an ideal tenant for the Bay store, but they just opened Mathison Hall as part of the Haskayne School of Business in 2023.

While there has been rumours of the Alberta University of the Arts moving downtown, I had a meeting with AUArts officials a few years back and they indicated there are no plans to relocate.

Would Mount Royal University want a presence downtown? Perhaps their Bissett School of Business? It’s a long shot, but could we attract a satellite business school from another country? Harvard? MIT? What about a Mayo Clinic? Cleveland Clinic?

Let the “blue skying” begin.

What about retail? Would the owners of The Core shopping centre, Ivanhoe Cambridge and Alberta Investment Management Corporation, want to buy the Bay building and incorporate it into their mega shopping centre. Might Simons want to relocate from the Lancaster Building to the first two floors of historic Hudson’s Bay store? (There is street talk that Simons may be looking at different sites, unfortunately they include leaving downtown.)

Would SportChek want to create a concept store, after its failed experiment further east on Stephen Avenue? Would Aritzia be interested in a flagship store in downtown Calgary, they just opened at 40,000sf store in the old Nordstrom space in downtown Vancouver ? Would Canadian Tire be interested in a downtown concept store, featuring a Hudson Bay boutique? An Apple store on the main floor along Stephen Avenue would be very cool? As would a cinema complex that could be home for the Calgary International Film Festival.

How about the Concorde Group? Could they be part of a partnership be interested in converting the building into a dining, food hall, entertainment (cinema complex, live music venue, dance hall) venue combined with a boutique hotel?

I highly doubt any of these retail ideas are going to happen. Downtown retail development will have to complete with Chinook who also have major spaces to fill.

In 2016, The Guild an upscale restaurant opened in the basement of downtown Calgary’s Hudson’s Bay department store and is still operating even with the building in receivership. The upper floors were converted in to office space but that has mostly been vacated. The upper floor was leased to a gym for many years.

Tech Hub?

What about a tech start-up hub? Platform at the base of a parking garage in East Village has been a huge success. Could it be ready for an expansion? At one point, SAIT was planning a hub for its School for Advance Digital Technology at the old Chamber of Commerce building. Is there an opportunity for a post-secondary joint venture? Bow Vallery has a School of Technology, including a 70-seat Esports Arena that might be a good partner. A huge Esports Arena would be cool, but is it feasible.

Recreation Centre

Or could it become a public recreation centre? Since the closure of the Eau Claire Y, downtown has been without a major public recreation centre. While many of the “office-to-residential conversions” have their own fitness centres, downtown lacks a public recreation centre. With 50,000+ people living just a 10 to 15 minute walk of the site and its great transit access, this could a great site for a regional recreation centre.

It’s a long shot.

enough “blue skying”

The most probable future of Calgary’s downtown Hudson’s Bay store is a facadectomy i.e. keep the façade and incorporate it into two new towers, (possibly one hotel, one residential), with on-site underground parking. Remember it was just a few years ago (2023 to be exact) the City rejected a three-tower proposal for the block immediately to the east of the Hudson’s Bay store because it didn’t preserve the facades. I expect the City would be happy to have more residential and a hotel in the middle of Stephen Avenue today.

Fun Fact: There is another historic Hudson’s Bay building in downtown Calgary at the corner of 8th Avenue and Centre Street. In 1884, HBC built a wood-framed store on this site, and then in 1890 replaced it with a sandstone store (after a major downtown fire in 1887) and in 1895 doubled its size. Today it is home to a bank and coffee shop at street level and offices above. This is a reminder of how buildings must evolve and adapt over time, as the market and economics change.

Last Word

The Hudson’s Bay building is currently listed without a list price or a fixed date for submission of expression of interest to purchase. The Receiver is prepared to accept offers; I expect for a while to make sure they get the best price. Hopefully, the offers will roll in quickly and the Court will approve one of them so the revitalization of the Hudson’s Bay block can happen sooner, than later.

However, the reality is it will probably be another 10 years before we will see the building occupied. It will take a year to sort out any new ownership, then a couple of years to sort out and get approval for new concept, financing and recruit new tenants, probably a couple of false starts followed by 3+ years for construction.

Future of Calgary’s historic Hudson’s Bay building?