La Maison Simons, more commonly referred to simply as Simons, confirmed today that it will open within a portion of the former Nordstrom space at CF Pacific Centre in downtown Vancouver.
This will be the Quebec-based retailer’s 20th store in Canada and its second in British Columbia, following the 2015 opening at Park Royal Shopping Centre in West Vancouver.
“Vancouver is one of Canada’s most dynamic and inspiring retail markets, and we’re pleased to expand our presence here,” said Bernard Leblanc, president and CEO of Simons, in a statement today.
“Our growth is guided by our customers and a desire to create spaces that reflect the communities we serve. The strong response in Western Canada has reinforced our commitment to the region, and we look forward to bringing a distinctive Simons experience to the downtown core — one that blends fashion, art and design while building meaningful connections with Vancouver’s diverse communities.”
Today’s announcement comes nearly three years after Nordstrom closed all of its Canadian locations.
Spanning three floors, the Simons store will cover approximately 92,000 sq. ft. — about 40 per cent of the 230,000 sq. ft. space vacated by Nordstrom.
This downtown Vancouver location will be smaller than the Park Royal store (100,000 sq. ft.) and the recently opened location at CF Toronto Eaton Centre (112,000 sq. ft.), which also occupies part of a former Nordstrom space.
Conceptual artistic renderings indicate that Simons will feature two street-level entrances. One will be located at the West Georgia Street plaza — one of the former Nordstrom entrances — adjacent to the street-level access for the Canada Line at Vancouver City Centre Station. Another entrance will be positioned mid-block along Granville Street.
The new downtown Vancouver store is designed by McKinley Studios, with architecture by LemayMichaud. Its interior continues the brand’s signature approach — blending high-quality architecture, curated art, and immersive retail design — while incorporating subtle references to Vancouver. These include nods to Brutalist architecture and 1960s aesthetics through the use of raw materials, sculptural forms, and warm, modern accents. Each Simons store is tailored to reflect a distinct local character.
Downtown Vancouver’s Simons store is scheduled to open in Fall 2027. The expansion represents a capital cost of over $55 million and will create about 150 jobs.
Simons’ offerings span upper low-tier through mid-tier into lower upper-tier clothing and apparel (for men, women, and children) and home. It blends major established international third-party brands with its own wide portfolio of owned labels designed in-house. In some ways, its business model is a hybrid mix of Uniqlo, Primark, Gap, Banana Republic, COS, H&M, H&M Home, Zara, Nordstrom, and Holt Renfrew.
The company notes its decision to expand is driven by strong performance both locally and nationwide. The chain has exceeded expectations, reaching more than $830 million in sales in 2025. Simons at Park Royal has also delivered consistent high double-digit growth since opening over a decade ago, including more than 30 per cent year-over-year growth in 2025. Beyond its physical stores, Simons maintains a robust e-commerce business, which accounts for approximately 35 per cent of the company’s sales in B.C.
There remains a significant department store void in Canada following the closure of Hudson’s Bay Company nearly a year ago.
Construction has been actively underway within the former Nordstrom space for over a year, beginning with the demolition of the former department store interior and the subdivision of the large footprint into four separate retail units. Each retailer will have its own street entrance.
In November 2025, Aritzia announced plans to open a new downtown Vancouver flagship store in the northwest corner of the former Nordstrom space. The store will span 40,000 sq. ft. across four levels, including a basement-level mall corridor unit — most recently occupied by Hugo Boss — to create a direct interior mall entrance.
Aritzia will also feature a prominent street-facing entrance at the intersection of Robson Street and Howe Street (across from Robson Square), along with a giant exterior digital screen display and a restaurant on the third level, located within the same general area as Nordstrom’s former Bistro Verde restaurant. The Vancouver-based clothing and apparel retailer is targeting an opening in 2027.
With Aritzia and Simons together occupying about 132,000 sq. ft. of space, roughly just under 100,000 sq. ft. will be allocated to the two yet-to-be-announced retailers.
Simons will become the fourth department store chain to occupy at least part of this building, which was originally constructed in 1973 for the sole use of Eaton’s. After Eaton’s closed at the turn of the century, the space was taken over by Sears Canada, which also eventually closed in 2012.
After the departure of Sears, mall owner Cadillac Fairview undertook a major renovation of the building, significantly altering its iconic exterior. Nordstrom opened across the first three levels in 2015, while the basement level was turned into an indoor mall corridor expansion and the upper four levels were converted into approximately 300,000 sq. ft. of premium office space. These offices were initially largely occupied by Microsoft Canada and Sony Pictures Imageworks’ global headquarters.
After roughly a decade, both technology firms have recently vacated the premises. Lululemon is now taking over the full 300,000 sq. ft. of office space as part of its Vancouver global headquarters, with the first employees expected to begin moving in later in 2026.
Although Nordstrom’s Canadian division delivered poor overall financial results, its location at CF Pacific Centre was an outlier, ranking as the strongest-performing store in the entire chain across both Canada and the United States. Ultimately, however, the Vancouver store’s success was outweighed by the underperformance of Nordstrom’s other Canadian locations, and it was part of the chain’s complete withdrawal from the country in 2023.
Originally published on Daily Hive.
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