Hudson's Bay Building Heads to Redevelopment with Onni
Vancouver's iconic downtown flagship store shifts hands with massive potential for mixed-use transformation.
The historic Hudson's Bay department store at 674 Granville Street is getting a second life. Onni Development Capital Corp. has agreed to purchase the 1913-era building out of receivership following the demise of Canada's oldest retailer, signaling one of downtown's most ambitious redevelopment opportunities in recent memory.
Onni hasn't publicly revealed its plans, but architects and retail analysts are already sketching possibilities: mixed-use projects combining hotel, office, residential, and retail components. The building's 617,628 square feet of gross leasable area is too large for any single modern department store—a business model that no longer works—but perfectly sized for something transformational.
"The possibilities are quite tremendous," said Mark Thompson, partner with MCMP Architects, who worked on The Post, a nearby heritage conversion of a Canada Post facility. Working with heritage buildings, he noted, requires flexibility and opportunism. You don't know what's inside until you break through the walls, and every discovery changes the design.
David Ian Gray, retail analyst and instructor at Capilano University's School of Business, said there's pent-up demand downtown. If retail continues, the space could house multiple flagship stores targeting conference and tourist traffic, or a grocery anchor the neighborhood has lacked for years. The economics are still uncertain—the building has been neglected (elevator failures were symptomatic of larger deferred maintenance), and whoever takes it on faces a yearslong slog from concept to occupancy.
Bill Yuen, executive director of Heritage Vancouver Society, emphasized the building's layered significance: architectural heritage, yes, but also a physical symbol of difficult histories involving Indigenous dispossession and the 20th-century department store era. "Any redevelopment should allow the wide public to connect with all these different layers," he said.
Onni's purchase agreement was finalized April 23, with a completion target of June 30, pending Ontario court approval. The price remains undisclosed. For a downtown that's been waiting for momentum, this move feels like something finally shifting.