[matrix]

Interesting to see the above come out...........

There may be other shoes to drop...........

The classic Northern Light tease!

 

[torontowest91]

So is ruby not opening her own 3 department stores in her own malls?

 

[matrix]

So is ruby not opening her own 3 department stores in her own malls?

Take this with a grain of salt but I saw a comment on Retail Insider saying that the talk going around is that there aren't any plans for that. It seems as if she wanted all the leases before she opened any stores, which... Should not be how this works.

 

[Richard White]

Take this with a grain of salt but I saw a comment on Retail Insider saying that the talk going around is that there aren't any plans for that. It seems as if she wanted all the leases before she opened any stores, which... Should not be how this works.

She probably wanted to make a grand appearance nationwide to show how successful she was. Unfortunately, as you said that's not how it works.

She is a minor blip in the grand scheme of things.

 

[officedweller]

Take this with a grain of salt but I saw a comment on Retail Insider saying that the talk going around is that there aren't any plans for that. It seems as if she wanted all the leases before she opened any stores, which... Should not be how this works.

The problem is that the only location in the Lower Mainland is at Tsawwassen Mills in a former Saks Off5th - which is a small location. That mall has a large East Indian customer base from Surrey.
The other 2 locations (which are department store sized) - Victoria's MayFair and Nanaimo's Woodgrove - may not have the right demographics to make what she wants to do work. I could see repurposing of those spaces with innovative retail, but as one-offs and not the start of a national chain.

 

[matrix]

The problem is that the only location in the Lower Mainland is at Tsawwassen Mills in a former Saks Off5th - which is a small location. That mall has a large East Indian customer base from Surrey.
The other 2 locations (which are department store sized) - Victoria's MayFair and Nanaimo's Woodgrove - may not have the right demographics to make what she wants to do work. I could see repurposing of those spaces with innovative retail, but as one-offs and not the start of a national chain.

It really seems like she did not think this through. It bares repeating!

 

[Brian S-W]

“There may be other shoes to drop”
As long as they’re Jimmy Choo’s or Louboutin’s! This saga is going from bad to utterly ridiculous. So much damage done to some great stores by the Benitahs, at what point do the banks and malls tell them to go away?

 

[TossYourJacket]

DailyHive has a pretty brutal summary of why Ruby failed to get the leases.

Some choice moments/quotes:

Her malls are all losing money and in debt.

Furthermore, the court found that all three of Liu’s malls in B.C. are losing money and can only stay afloat because they receive large loans from her other related companies — loans on which no interest is charged. In other words, the malls aren’t generating enough income to cover their expenses on their own.

On top of that, each of these three properties is already burdened with substantial debt to outside lenders: Woodgrove Centre owes $87.6 million, with Ms. Liu personally guaranteeing the loan; Mayfair Shopping Centre owes $141.9 million, with the lenders holding the right to collect rent directly if necessary; and Tsawwassen Mills owes $113.8 million under similar conditions.

She believed her stores would make 2201% more profit than HBC in their first year.

The EY report also pointed out that the company’s expected profits were wildly unrealistic, since Liu’s plan assumed the stores would earn 22 times or 2,201 per cent more profit than HBC did in 2024 — even though there would be relatively limited capital investment to improve the large store spaces, a smaller budget for acquiring inventory, and lower staffing levels than HBC.

Meeting with CF went... poorly.

However, when the meeting began, Liu had no materials or a plan to show. Instead, she told Iacono to ask questions, and when asked for her business plan, she claimed she was “not allowed to share it” until Cadillac Fairview agreed to give her the leases.

By the end of the brief 10-minute meeting, Cadillac Fairview executives concluded that Liu did not understand the leases, had no viable plan, and lacked experience running a department store. The meeting ended quickly — not because it was planned that way, but because there was simply nothing meaningful to discuss.

The judge didn't exactly think highly of her business plan

The judge agreed with Revesco’s concerns that Central Walk’s limited experience managing just three malls and a golf course was insufficient. He also noted that there has never been a successful example of a retailer launching a large number of department store locations in Canada within 18 months, especially in major mall anchor spaces. The new department store would suffer from a complete lack of brand recognition, inadequate management experience, an untested distribution model, no evidence-based merchandising strategy, no market analysis, and a wide product range — from apparel and cosmetics to electronics — that “lacks a clearly defined customer.”

Also it seems like she appointed her Assistant to be the CEO of the company.

According to the ruling, the CEO was appointed in May 2025, with her most recent experience being a residential real estate broker with no experience in retail or department store management. As recently as late May 2025, her email signature describes her as the “Assistant to Ms. Liu.”

All in all, a mess! But an interesting read, like it's kinda amazing how almost nothing about this went well.

 

[matrix]

DailyHive has a pretty brutal summary of why Ruby failed to get the leases.

This is the same lady that told Oxford to "change up the food court" at Hillcrest when inspecting the Hudson's Bay location there. The same lady who invited former HBC employees to the Union Station Food Court, the same place I ate breakfast every morning for quite some time, to discuss this new business (I would have loved to be a fly on the wall to see those discussions). Imagine you go for a job interview at a food court. Professionalism was never in the equation here, even with the landlords!

I've figured she was this incompetent, and even some of these details are pretty easy to figure out yourself (such as lack of brand identity and untested business model), but all these finer more unknown ones are just so funny to hear.

I mean, those people at EY are very smart, but I think even my cat knows that 2201% more profit than Hudson's Bay is completely ludicrous.

It really makes you think what she wanted out of this. Doesn't understand leases, how to run malls, how to form business plans, how to appoint people. She probably figured as long as the creditors get their money, she can have her name up in shining lights, at a department store where people can cosplay, play VR games and buy Hugo Boss.

On the bright side she has three shining new leases at the malls she owns. I've been saying she should use that as a launching point, but no one should even have confidence in that. What the hell is she going to do with those?

 

[Richard White]

It really makes you think what she wanted out of this

It almost sounds like a scheme of some sort.

Like she was using the leases at a discount to fund her failing other ventures.

 

[matrix]

It almost sounds like a scheme of some sort.

Like she was using the leases at a discount to fund her failing other ventures.

It seems like it, given the interest-free loan thing she apparently has going on.

In that case, even more reason to rejoice that the judge shot this down. It was bad enough The Bay was run down by an American equity firm, we definitely did not need all these leases replaced with another funny money shakey business.

 

[officedweller]

It really seems like she did not think this through. It bares repeating!

I think she paid to buyback those leases from the receiver as a sign of goodwill or her seriousness.

But as Nightstreak mentioned, she paid big money ($6M) for the leases that would have come back to her (as landlord) for nothing if no one else had bid on them. That could mean she has cash to burn.
Likewise, the fact that she is propping up her malls with interest free loans means that she has the cash to do so.

Mayfair and Woodgrove are not failing - the fact she is putting in money to run them at a loss shows she isn't cost cutting them into oblivion (i.e. it's not a Woodbine situation).
Tsawwassen Mills is a bit different as it's a late comer and on the periphery (a "Mills" mall akin to Vaughan Mills). She has proposed redevelopments there (after purchasing it in 2022) with an emphasis on restaurants and entertainment, which have been slow to materialize - but recently announced construction of a pickleball/volleyball facility. That's not Yorkdale high fashion and may not be architecturally pretty, but expands the customer base and will bring them to the restaurants at the mall (because sports teams usually eat after practices or games).

B.C.'s largest indoor pickleball centre opening in Tsawwassen

The Nest will feature 98,000 square feet of indoor competition-grade volleyball and pickleball courts, plus a pickleball retail outlet

www.northdeltareporter.com

 

[nightstreak]

I’m hearing that HBC is planning another round of feelers for interest on the leases. I mean, little interest came out on the first two tries other than Ruby Liu, they’re really trying to wring something out of a dry towel at this point.

If someone could come in with a take it or leave it lowball offer, I’d say it’s Canadian Tire. In their press release detailing the IP acquisition, they said they’d bid on a handful of leases. They didn’t get any (so far). They could probably get a dozen leases for $5-10M at this rate of desperation.

 

[RGB_11]

If someone could come in with a take it or leave it lowball offer, I’d say it’s Canadian Tire. In their press release detailing the IP acquisition, they said they’d bid on a handful of leases. They didn’t get any (so far). They could probably get a dozen leases for $5-10M at this rate of desperation.

Canadian Tire is testing a (much) larger Mark's store currently in Dufferin mall (Toronto). They took over the former Globo shoe store space next door, all while keeping their current location.
If it doesn't fail, it's fair to say it's (most likely) their new example store. A hint as to how much square footage they might prefer to work with, moving forward. (For current, or future Mark's store locations)

 

[Richard White]

Canadian Tire is testing a (much) larger Mark's store currently in Dufferin mall (Toronto). They took over the former Globo shoe store space next door, all while keeping their current location.
If it doesn't fail, it's fair to say it's (most likely) their new example store. A hint as to how much square footage they might prefer to work with, moving forward. (For current, or future Mark's store locations)

I can't see them expanded Marks into higher profile malls.

Marks is a workwear store designed almost as a companion to Crappy tire.

It won't work at Yorkdale, it won't work too well at STC or Square One.

Even at the Eaton Centre it's relegated to a small obscure corner of the mall hidden away.

I can see Simons bidding on some of the leases however given the potential discount.