[Toronto Rocks]

No -

Located at 19 Trinity Square with offices and program space at 6 and 10 Trinity Square, the Church of the Holy Trinity is surrounded by the Toronto Eaton Centre on the north, south, and east sides, a Marriott hotel and the Ted Rogers School of Management to the northwest, and the office building known as Bell Trinity Square to the southeast. The original Eaton Centre construction plans called for the church to be demolished as well, but the parishioners successfully resisted and forced the mall's design to be changed.

 

[AlbertC]

 

[nightstreak]

Well… yuck.

 

[nightstreak]

I sure hope to hell that this puke green tile isn’t the colour outside too, but I’m nearly certain I’ll be disappointed. It seems to continue past the glass dome to the outside. I hope Nike’s window adds more glass and colour to the end of the atrium

I went up a level to see if I could peek behind the remaining hoarding but you can’t see the upcoming corridor. Eataly’s second floor windows are finished and you can see a mostly finished store through the window, though not furnished.

What I can see is that the layout was correct that Eataly’s second floor ends at a point that is hidden by Roots as seen up the atrium and that Nike’s store is going to dominate the façade.

 

[nightstreak]

...aaaaaand voilá, Cadillac Fairview has updated their leasing map. Nike is now in the map, shown as "leased" 17,814 sq. ft. and it's exactly like the layout I posted with a short corridor into Simons, flanked by Nike and Eataly. There is no access to Nike from this corridor. It'll be closed wall or glass. The grey shaded areas are common Eaton Centre space so Simons won't have a presence in the mall's atrium, though just slightly past it.

Nike has added a set of central stairs up to their second floor.

 

[TossYourJacket]

Given the 2 story store design with the central stairs, I'd expect the Nike store ends up looking a lot like the one at Yonge and Bloor.

 

[nightstreak]

Given the 2 story store design with the central stairs, I'd expect the Nike store ends up looking a lot like the one at Yonge and Bloor.

Yes, that's about right. Though it'll have less glass than what I anticipated and will look smaller than the Yonge/Bloor flagship.

Looking closer at my photos, you can see that they kept the exact windows — the frame and the fritted glass — from Nordstrom. The tiled stone on the left side is still there too, beneath Simons' green tiles.

So the Nike entrance will be smaller, somewhat like what was there before.

The corridor is replacing the dark grey wall starting right of the central pillar in Nordstrom's entrance to the mall's Yonge St. entrance on the right. Nike is to the left of the pillar up to the tiled wall.

I honestly can't envision how Simons is going to draw traffic through such a small corridor off to the side. Maybe there'll be a canopy like Nordstrom had, but that's not really Simons, it's the entrance to Eataly. Simons is further down through the corridor. I guess much of Simons' traffic will come from the Dundas atrium, though that too is kind of hidden behind BMO unless you look for it. At least this is a good motivator to keep the Yonge Street doors operable unlike Nordstrom that kept them locked. Eataly will have outside doors too. Those will be Eataly's main entrance — their Eaton Centre entrance is a tiny after thought, it's really a Yonge Street store.

Edit to add a mockup:

You can now get a sense of how the corridor, aligned to the Yonge Street door does seem to work in providing a visual continuation of that wall. The light green facet is the entrance to Eataly which from this vantage point will show its escalator. I think this might work better than I had earlier envisioned.

I don't know how the Nike store is going to look so I put a placeholder there. It does stand out in this mockup more than it will in real life but do note that the framing is going to be there (you can see it peeking out in the closeup photos) and the store will look larger than any other on this façade. Simons, despite having the most square footage and flagship title, did get the short end of the stick on this most visible façade inside the mall.

 

[officedweller]

It's nice that the Simons sign is centred on the atrium.
I think it has more presence than the Nordstrom sign did.

Looks like they are keeping the horizontal Nordstrom tiles on the street level of the exterior too, so I guess it makes sense they have kept it next to Nike inside the atrium.

 

[Rimawi]

“Yuck”? And “puke green”? How can anyone not love that, I think it’s stunning!!! Goes to show how it’s all subjective

 

[nightstreak]

The scaffolding is coming down.

There's enough clearance that I could take pictures inside. It's hard to take photos through the remaining scaffolding on the right, still covering the corridor, Simons and Eataly, though Nike is completely visible. Some observations:

The Nike store will indeed be connected to that corridor despite the leasing layout showing a wall there.

You can see the state of the Nike store. There's a stairwell opening, though no stairs yet. The bones of the store look to be nearly complete so it's probably going to be fitted by Nike soon after this. Maybe a couple months? Fall 2025 seems way longer than they'd need to complete the store.

Here's a look at the store and ground level. The dark grey panels are Eaton Centre's finishings as I could see through the right side in front of Eataly and Simons. The same dark framing continues above the corridor. None of Nike's storefront is installed yet so we've yet to see what colour's it'll use but so far, this entire façade at the end of the Eaton Centre atrium is set to become fairly dark between the grey panels and Simons' dark green tiles. Nordstrom had been very white and airy.

I could also tell, peeking through the scaffolding that the corridor is substantial enough that it'll feel natural to continue from the atrium into Simons and Eataly. It'll feel even larger once Eataly is visible on the right with an entire store and escalators up visible from this corridor. I'm no longer worried about it feeling isolated and off to the side.

You will however have to go through Simons to reach the Dundas atrium. The corridor won't continue all the way there but it'll be a shorter walk than when you had to go through Nordstrom.

On the Dundas side, they're refinishing the ceilings in that corridor past Uniqlo and BMO to better connect Simons to the atrium. I imagine they're brightening it up, I recall it being dark only lit by small potlights.

 

[nightstreak]

A realization: Both Nike and Eataly are boarded up to the corridor behind the already boarded up entrance into the corridor. Why would they do that if the public isn’t allowed back there? I suspect they’re opening the corridor to Dundas to reconnect the mall ASAP which explains why the scaffolding is coming down before it’s all done. They can continue to build Simons while keeping a passageway open through the store like they did when Nordstrom was being dismantled.

 

[LOSat]

I find it quite amazing that when Eaton's first open it was over 1 million sq feet of space IIRC. Simon's will occupy about 111,000 sq ft or about 10-11% of that original space as the anchor. Incredible how this (anchor) space has shrunk over the decades. I bet the Simon's family never envisioned occupying a part of that space when it was first opened as an Eaton's store.

 

[nightstreak]

Yesterday's Hudson's Bay court motion seems to confirm that Ruby Liu didn't bid on the Queen Street store.

I find it quite amazing that when Eaton's first open it was over 1 million sq feet of space IIRC. Simon's will occupy about 111,000 sq ft or about 10-11% of that original space as the anchor. Incredible how this (anchor) space has shrunk over the decades. I bet the Simon's family never envisioned occupying a part of that space when it was first opened as an Eaton's store.

Had they waited another year they'd probably be occupying the Hudson's Bay Company's flagship space. Not even in their wildest dreams.

 

[Rascacielo]

Here's a translated interview with Ruby Liu from Retail Insider, outlining her vision of modern-day retail. It sounds like she now plans to open stores under her name instead of "New Bay" or other names associated with The Bay. I didn't realise a Ruby Liu store already exists in BC.

Ruby Liu Unveils Vision to Reinvent Canadian Retail

Ruby Liu, Chairwoman of Central Walk, shares her bold vision for Canadian retail focused on entertainment, culture, and Gen Z shoppers.

retail-insider.com

 

[nightstreak]

Here's a translated interview with Ruby Liu from Retail Insider, outlining her vision of modern-day retail. It sounds like she now plans to open stores under her name instead of "New Bay" or other names associated with The Bay. I didn't realise a Ruby Liu store already exists in BC.

Ruby Liu Unveils Vision to Reinvent Canadian Retail

Ruby Liu, Chairwoman of Central Walk, shares her bold vision for Canadian retail focused on entertainment, culture, and Gen Z shoppers.

retail-insider.com

Mentioned over on the Hudson’s Bay thread and relevant to this one, Ruby Liu didn’t bid on the Eaton Centre location. We’ll find out as early as next week or the latest by end of July whether anyone else is getting it.

Odds are growing that Cadillac Fairview is just going to get the space back. It’s an enormous space, 4X the square footage CF needed to fill after Nordstrom left.

Any guesses what fills it? Unlikely to be one tenant. Those just don’t exist anymore.