Landlord takes over 2 Hudson’s Bay stores in Ontario [Video]

As the Hudson’s Bay Company winds down, the fate of the soon-to-be vacant stores is being settled.

The company filed for creditor protection on March 7 and later announced all stores would close. Liquidation sales started later in March and are expected to continue until the end of May.

Primaris Real Estate Investment Trust announced it would assume full control of Bay stores in five of its malls.

The real estate company said five of the nine HBC leases in Primaris malls did not receive any bids and they would assume full control of these sites effective June 16.

The five stores are in Cataraqui Town Centre in Kingston, Ont., Place d’Orleans Shopping Centre in Orleans, Ont., Sunridge Mall in Calgary, Medicine Hat Mall and Les Galeries de la Capitale in Quebec City.

Taking over the vacant stores will result in $5.5 million of lower annualized revenue and it will cost approximately $50 million to $60 million to repurpose the stores, Primaris said.

But Primaris said …