Chapters Books to replace Aldo on downtown Vancouver's Granville Street

A former space previously occupied by Aldo Shoes on Granville Street near Robson Street will be home to an Indigo Spirit, the replacement for the recently closed Chapters Books Robson flagship.

Indigo spokesperson Kate Gregory told Vancity Buzz the new store will occupy a 5,000-square-foot street front retail space that was recently vacated by Aldo Shoes. The space is within a historic building that also houses the Club 816 nightclub in the basement and language schools in the upper floors.

The Indigo Spirit store will open in mid-November, just in time for the Christmas shopping season.

“We at Indigo are thrilled to be back in downtown Vancouver, offering both our new and existing customers the best in books, gifts and paper, in perfect time for holiday gift giving,” said Heather Reisman, Indigo founder and CEO, in a statement.

In today’s announcement, Indigo maintained that it is still looking for a large format store to serve the downtown Vancouver market. There was speculation it would occupy, on a temporary basis, a 16,000-square-foot space in the second floor of the new 745 Thurlow Street office tower.

[am2_see_also]

The new Indigo Spirit store on Granville Street is less than one-tenth of the size of the now-closed Chapters Books flagship, which spanned 52,000 square feet over three storeys.

The company previously announced that it was forced to close the flagship store after 17 years due to a significant rise in rent. The store closed on June 7 to make way for a Sport Chek flagship.

The following week, the 29,000-square-foot Chapters Books store at the intersection of Broadway and Granville streets reopened after renovations and a complete rebranding as an ‘Indigo’ location. The American Girl speciality boutique that was previously located at the Robson flagship was relocated to the renovated store.