The approval from Ontario Superior Court Judge Peter Osborne allows the retailer, which dates back to 1670, to begin selling off inventory at most of its 80 Hudson’s Bay stores, three Saks Fifth Avenue locations and 13 Saks Off 5th shops in Canada.
“This is the art of the possible and we are where we are today. In my view, there is no other alternative,” Judge Osborne said.
The six stores being saved from the liquidation sale include the flagship on Yonge Street in Toronto, as well as a store in the city’s Yorkdale mall and another farther north in Hillcrest Mall in Richmond Hill, Ontario The remaining three span Montreal, the Carrefour Laval mall and Point-Claire, Quebec.
I think the best course of action for most of the old stores is developing the land into housing and mixing commercial and residential zoning more. Trying to find another big box store for the place is follwing the same path we have for the last 50 years, promoting further capitalism and isolation in our communities.
Redeveloping the stores into mid or high rise density would help alleviate the housing crisis a bit. Most locations are probably already pretty close to transit corridors as well, making it possible for people in these new developments to live without a car if needed, reducing transportation emissions and cost of living for those individuals. A big big big part of our housing crisis and cost of living crisis lies in the fact we almost exclussivly build SFH, many of which have been getting bigger over the years.
Canada has been threatened by our neighbour that we used to look up to. Its time to ask if we want to keep following the devleopment policy and practices they use, or consider using some of the practices more common in the European Union (transit and density) which many Canadians are ready to join.