In a video posted on Chinese social media on Monday, billionaire mall owner Weihong Liu shows off an early logo for her envisioned retail brand, 鈥淣ew Bay,鈥 a name she hopes to use for the 20-plus Hudson鈥檚 Bay leases she is bidding on.
The ‘New Bay?’ B.C. billionaire mall owner’s plan to take over Hudson’s Bay leases
Weihong Liu says in a Chinese social media video posted Monday that she’s eyeing more than 20 Hudson鈥檚 Bay leases and plans to operate stores under a new name.
In a video posted on Chinese social media on Monday, billionaire mall owner Weihong Liu shows off an early logo for her envisioned retail brand, 鈥淣ew Bay,鈥 a name she hopes to use for the 20-plus Hudson鈥檚 Bay leases she is bidding on.
A British Columbia-based billionaire mall owner is still looking to purchase dozens of Hudson鈥檚 Bay聽store leases, despite losing the bid for the retailer鈥檚 intellectual property to Canadian Tire.
Weihong Liu, chairwoman of shopping centre owner Central Walk, said in a video posted on this week on RedNote, a Chinese social networking and e-commerce app, that she plans to take over more than 20 Hudson鈥檚 Bay leases in British Columbia, Calgary and 海角社区官网and operate stores under the name 鈥淣ew Bay.鈥
Clutching a piece of white paper, Liu revealed in the video what appeared to be an early logo for her envisioned retail brand: a bold red diamond stamped with her name, 鈥淟iu,鈥 and the words “New Bay” printed in italics just below.
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“You see this logo, right? Next time you spot it, I hope you will stop by and support my store,” she said in Mandarin.
The 355-year-old Canadian retail icon is currently in discussions with Liu regarding her bid on the leases, according to two sources with knowledge of Hudson’s Bay’s restructuring process.
Although Hudson’s Bay announced last Thursday that it had found a new domestic home for its intellectual property in a $30 million transaction with Canadian Tire, the clock is ticking for Canada’s oldest company to select winning bidders for its leases and other assets by May 30, the deadline for court approval to sell all its assets.
In a video posted by one of Liu’s employees on RedNote on Thursday morning, the shopping mall owner, who immigrated from China,聽was filmed speaking with a few team members and saying she “will sign the contracts today” with Hudson’s Bay.
She was on a ferry en route to her Mayfair Shopping Centre in Victoria for the opening of an H Mart store, part of聽a chain of Asian supermarkets, in the mall, the post read.
Liu could not be reached for comment as of Thursday. Central Walk and Hudson’s Bay did not respond to the Star鈥檚 request for comment by publication time.
Liu鈥檚 blueprint for the Hudson鈥檚 Bay stores remains unclear, but her RedNote posts suggest a vision that departs from the traditional department store 鈥 leaning instead toward a multi-faceted shopping centre with retail, food, entertainment and boutique offerings.
According to court filings, Hudson鈥檚 Bay has received 12 鈥渜ualified鈥 bids on a total of 39 individual leases. Canadian Tire disclosed in a press release last week that it is also bidding on some leases in addition to the intellectual property.
No qualified bids were received for 62 leases, which means Hudson鈥檚 Bay may need to abandon some of these properties and could face penalties from landlords for breaking the lease agreements.
The retailer is also developing an auction procedure for its extensive collection of 1,700 pieces of art and more than 2,700 artifacts, including the 1670 charter document that paved the way for the company鈥檚 founding.
Estella Ren is a Toronto-based general assignment reporter for
the Star. Reach her via email: eren@thestar.ca
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