Victoria Public Market to close due to vacancies, new grocery store | Daily Hive

Victoria Public Market to close due to high vacancies, making way for new grocery store

Victoria Public Market. (Townline)

Persistently high vacancies over an extended period of time have ultimately led to the downfall of the Victoria Public Market.

It marks a major shakeup in the 18,000 sq. ft. market, which first opened in 2013 within the ground level of the former Hudson’s Bay Company department store building in downtown Victoria. This includes 3,000 sq. ft. of open-concept event space.

There is commercial unit space for 19 businesses in the market, but only seven spaces are currently occupied. The vast majority of the spaces are empty.

For that reason, Vancouver-based developer and property owner Townline announced today it has decided to close the current market concept and repurpose the space into a full-service, urban-format grocery store.

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Market tenants have been informed of this decision to close the market soon and will be provided with up to six months to transition out of their current spaces. It is also possible that some of these tenants could be relocated to other retail spaces in the developer’s Hudson District complex.

Townline did not specify the operator of the grocery store but noted that it is a Canadian chain and is expected to open in early 2026.

Victoria Public Market. (Marc Bruxelle/Shutterstock)

Victoria Public Market. (Townline)

Victoria Public Market. (GTS Productions/Shutterstock)

“In keeping with Townline’s commitment to our residents and neighbours to build walkable communities with important retail amenities and daily conveniences, it is important that we use the space in a way that best serves Hudson District and beyond,” reads a statement by the developer today.

Victoria Public Market at the Hudson District is located on Douglas Street near Chinatown within the northern end of downtown Victoria.

Construction of the four-storey Hudson’s Bay building began in 1913 but was delayed due to the First World War, and it was not completed and opened until 1921.

However, by the turn of the century, the core of business activity in downtown Victoria had shifted southward, away from Hudson’s Bay. For that reason, in 2003, Hudson’s Bay moved its downtown store south to the newly vacated Eaton Centre department store space — spanning 236,000 sq. ft. over four levels — at the 1989-built Victoria Eaton Centre, which was subsequently renamed The Bay Centre.

Then, in 2006, Townline acquired the heritage former Hudson’s Bay building as a part of its plan to create a new high-density, mixed-use residential neighbourhood known as the Hudson District.

The former department store building’s heritage facade was retained, but the upper three floors were converted into 152 condominium homes. The ground level was repurposed into 40,000 sq. ft. of retail/restaurant uses, including the 18,000 sq. ft. Victoria Public Market.

This restoration and mixed-use transformation of the heritage building reached completion in 2010, and the market opened three years later.

Victoria Public Market at The Hudson. (Roshan_NG/Shutterstock)

Victoria Public Market. (Townline)

The retained and repurposed former department store building is now simply known as The Hudson.

Other adjacent buildings, all a part of the Townline-built, multi-building Hudson District, include Hudson Place One — which is currently the tallest building on Vancouver Island with a height of 279 ft. containing 25 storeys — as well as the 23-storey Hudson House, 16-storey Hudson Walk One, 15-storey Hudson Walk Two, and the 12-storey The Hudson Mews. All buildings combined have roughly 1,000 homes — a mix of condominiums and secured purpose-built rental housing — along with various commercial spaces.

The closure of Victoria Public Market within the repurposed former Hudson’s Bay building comes at a time when there is immense uncertainty over the future of the Hudson’s Bay Company, which has 80 department stores across the country.

As these stores carry a very large footprint and help drive customer/pedestrian traffic, their closure will change the dynamics of city centre areas and shopping malls, including Hudson’s Bay at The Bay Centre.

Amid the current creditor protection, restructuring, and liquidation turmoil, there are some suggestions of repurposing some of the stores after closure, especially from the retailer’s joint venture partners.

Prior to the Hudson’s Bay existential crisis, redevelopment plans were hatched for the downtown Vancouver flagship store. In 2022, the retailer announced its proposal to achieve a high-density, mixed-use redevelopment that preserves the existing heritage building facade, provides a 12-storey vertical expansion, generates about one million sq. ft. of office space, and provides space for a downsized Hudson’s Bay department store, along with space for other retail, restaurant, and public space uses.

Some revisions to the proposed redevelopment design were expected to reduce the size of the office space component for the introduction of some secured purpose-built rental housing uses. The future of the downtown Vancouver store is up in the air.

674 Granville Street Vancouver hudsons bay redevelopment

Artistic rendering of the redevelopment of Hudson’s Bay’s Vancouver flagship store at 674 Granville St. (Perkins & Will/Streetworks Development/Hudson’s Bay Company)

Hudson’s Bay also closed its downtown Winnipeg department store in 2020 during the pandemic, and donated the heritage building in 2022 to local First Nations as a measure of reconciliation. The Southern Chiefs’ Organization (SCO) subsequently created retrofit plans that retain the 1923-built, six-storey, 655,000 sq. ft. structure, with the space repurposed into hundreds of affordable homes for First Nations, a childcare facility, restaurants, retail space, office space, and an indoor public atrium.

There were previous plans to also include a First Nations museum and art gallery, assisted living for First Nations seniors, and the SCO’s new Governance House for Chiefs of the southern First Nations, but these uses have been axed.

Unlike the private sector-led and funded project by Townline for the Victoria project, the Winnipeg project has required significant public funding.

The project of rehabilitating and converting the century-plus old department store — space that has likely seen significant deferred maintenance by the retailer — was originally estimated to cost $130 million, with the federal government announcing in 2022 that it would provide $65 million and Manitoba’s provincial government with$35 million.

The estimated cost has since more than doubled to $310 million, with the federal government providing an additional $31 million. Construction on Wehwehneh Bahgahkinahgohn, the name of the Hudson’s Bay conversion project, is well underway and expected to reach completion in 2028.

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