Victoria's Secret flagship store on Burrard Street permanently closed

Victoria's Secret's flagship store at 750 Burrard Street, Vancouver, as of January 5, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

After just over 10 years of business, Victoria’s Secret has called it quits for its downtown Vancouver flagship store location at the prominent northeast corner of the intersection of Robson Street and Burrard Street.

The store at 750 Burrard Street quietly permanently closed this past weekend, with the process of dismantling furnishings and moving merchandise now well underway.

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The lingerie and women’s clothing store has indicated it will reopen nearby at CF Pacific Centre shopping mall within the coming months. The size of this replacement location serving downtown Vancouver is not immediately known.

When Victoria’s Secret first opened to much fanfare in August 2013, it was the chain’s second-largest international store at the time, spanning over 35,000 sq ft across the building’s two levels, including the basement level, which was the brand’s Pink store.

victorias secret 750 burrard vancouver closure

Closure of Victoria’s Secret at 750 Burrard Street, Vancouver, as of January 16, 2024. (Darcy Matheson/Daily Hive)

Earlier this month, a source wishing anonymity also told Daily Hive Urbanized a decision had been made by the company in late 2023 to not renew their lease for the location.

Daily Hive Urbanized has reached out to Victoria’s Secret for comment on their decision to close to store and the new mall location.

Victoria’s Secret stock price has been on a gradual decline since 2021, when it was spun off as a separate publicly traded company — separate from L Brands, now known as Bath & Body Works. The retailer closed about 250 stores in 2020, and an additional 50 stores in 2021. For the third quarter ending in October 2023, according to the latest quarterly financial report, the company reported a net loss of $71 million and the net sales for its North American stores fell by 11% compared to the same period in 2022.

The closure of Victoria’s Secret’s flagship location represents another major retail vacancy for downtown Vancouver, but provides retailers with a highly prime location opportunity.

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Victoria’s Secret’s flagship store at 750 Burrard Street, Vancouver, as of January 5, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

This 1957-built, six-storey building — deemed to be a Class A heritage structure — was originally used as the Central Branch of the Vancouver Public Library, which moved to Library Square in 1995.

Virgin Megastore took over the lower level space between 1996 and 2005 until it was replaced with HMV, which closed in 2012. This building was also briefly home to a Planet Hollywood restaurant from 1997 to 1999.

The upper floors of the building are currently used as the offices and studios of Bell Media, including CTV Vancouver.

Up until just after the 2010 Winter Olympics, when CTV was the national Olympic broadcaster, the main entrance into CTV was situated in a mid-building atrium entrance on Burrard Street. After HMV closed and made way for Victoria’s Secret, the CTV atrium entrance was turned into space for Victoria’s Secret and Shoppers Drug Mart, and the main entrance to the Bell Media floors was relocated to a small entrance on Robson Street.

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