Zara set to close its first-ever location in Downtown Toronto

Popular fast fashion retail giant Zara will be closing its Bloor Street location at the end of the month, according to Retail Insider.

Nestled within Holt Renfrew, the 50 Bloor Street West branch includes 5,910 square feet of retail space at street level, as well as a lower level of 4,472 square feet.

The Bloor Street store was Zara’s first Toronto location and opened on April 11, 2000. Before that, the space was occupied by British department store Marks & Spencer.

The fashion brand opened its first-ever Canadian store in 1998 at Place Montreal Trust in downtown Montreal.

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Zara’s departure after 22 years frees up another storefront for Holt Renfrew, which has four levels and spans across 190,000 square feet. It’s home to luxury labels such as Celine, Louis Vuitton, and Balenciaga.

Five years ago, fashion brand Eddie Bauer also closed its Bloor Street street location. Next to the Zara storefront sits an empty space that was formerly home to a Fossil store.

Zara still has multiple locations across the city with two downtown stores: one at CF Toronto Eaton Centre and another on Queen Street.

According to Fortune magazine, Zara has bounced back from the pandemic and reportedly raked in “record-high profits” last fall, partly due to store closures and a $3.09 billion investment in “the technological integration of its online and in-store shopping.”

The Bloor Street closure isn’t the only recent business activity for Zara in Toronto.

In January, Amancio Ortega, the Spanish billionaire owner behind clothing chain, agreed to buy Toronto’s Royal Bank Plaza skyscraper for just over $1.2 billion.