Buyers emerge for HBC stores in downtown Calgary, Ottawa, Vancouver: court docs

Buyers have been found for four properties that used to be home to Hudson’s Bay department stores.

Court records filed this week show the defunct retailer and its ex-property partner RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust have takers for their downtown Calgary, Ottawa and Vancouver sites, as well as a location at Devonshire Mall in Windsor, Ont.

Astra Real Estate Corp. wants the 8th Avenue location in Calgary, a numbered company linked to Claridge Homes is after the Ottawa site on Rideau Street and Onni Development Capital Corp. is eyeing the former store on Granville Street in Vancouver. Meanwhile, Circle Retail Properties LP wants the Devonshire Mall site on Howard Street.

A receiver, which was appointed to take control of the HBC and RioCan joint venture last year, says it will ask a court next week to approve the Ottawa sale and seek permission for the other transactions soon.

Court filings do not show what the buyers have offered to pay for the properties, nor what they will do with them.

The filings were made around the same time as Brookfield Properties and Larco Investments applied to the City of Toronto to turn the upper floors of a former HBC site on Bloor Street East into a self-storage facility. HBC closed its property at that location years before the retailer filed for creditor protection in March 2025.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2026.

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Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press