“It’s with great enthusiasm that we at BTB REIT announce that we have fully leased the ground floor of our property located at 1329–1333 rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest and 1405 rue Crescent. Many congratulations to Manon Parisien at Aurora for her involvement in this project.” — Excerpted from BTB REIT’s LinkedIn page

Club Pilates is a California-based chain of membership fitness studios that entered the Canadian market in October 2018 with units in Calgary, Vancouver and South Surrey. Today, the twelve-year old concept counts three units in British Columbia, three in Alberta and two in Ontario and a search is underway for additional Ontario locations, particularly in the Toronto and Vaughan markets. Don Gregor and Karen Szulc at Aurora Realty Consultants is sourcing the Ontario sites and Aurora Realty’s Perri Zimmerman in Vancouver is responsible for Western Canada.

In mid-October, upscale Italian fashion accessories company Furla will open its first store in the Canadian market. With a network of over 1600 points of sales worldwide, the Bologna, Italy-based company, in partnership with Montreal-based Halcyon Brands, will open a 1495 square foot corner location near Holt Renfrew in Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto.

Luxury outerwear brand Mackage has opened its first-ever standalone UK store with a pop- up in Chelsea, London. The Canadian brand will sell its range of men’s and women’s outerwear from a store on Sloane Street for six months. Prior to the standalone store, Mackage operated in the UK through concessions with luxury department stores such as Harrods and Selfridges.

Nazia Surti introduced the Beauty First day spa in 2012 as a kiosk format in the Burlington Mall in the affluent Burlington suburb west of Toronto. That location became a 2000 square foot spa in the mall in late 2017 and with the opening at Dixie Outlet Mall in Mississauga and in the Yonge Eglinton Centre in North Central Toronto, both in 2018, the chain now counts six full-service spas in malls in Southwestern Ontario.

Further to last weeks report on West Edmonton Mall in Retail Insider, Mackage has opened in North America’s largest shopping centre. The Mackage store reflect’s the brand’s beautiful store design that includes black marble that contrasts with warm woods. The store showcases Mackage’s fall/winter 2019/20 outerwear and fashion collections for both men and women, as well as accessories. 

In October, two inline retail spaces for Hillberg & Berk will open in two entirely new markets. That includes a 1,063 square foot store at the Coquitlam Centre in suburban Vancouver, which will boast a prominent location next to the mall’s Sephora store and across from high-traffic retailers including Uniqlo and H&M. In Winnipeg, Hillberg & Berk will open its largest storefront to date in October at CF Polo Park, which will span 1,453 square feet. That store will be located next to the mall’s Coach store and near other popular retailers including Michael Kors, H&M and Lululemon. 

The history of Tepperman’s home furnishings store started as a dream when Nate Tepperman began his peddling career selling door-to-door in Windsor, Ontario in 1925. Today, Tepperman’s has become one of Canada’s largest home furnishing stores with a unique way to do business going back to the company’s roots.

Based in St. Cesaire, southwest of Montreal, Ludik Candy Designer is an importer and distributor of a wide selection of confectionery products. Introduced in 2006, Co-Founders Marie-Ève ​​Gladu and François St-Laurent have built the company’s wholesale format to a position where its products are carried by over 2500 independent retail stores across the country as well as its private label lines in several national retailers. In 2013, the company introduced a retail format operating under the KandJu banner.

Italian luxury brand Furla is seeking retail space in Canada for new stores, as the company expands its direct-to-consumer operations into new markets. Furla has partnered with Halcyon Brands for a joint venture in Canada and brokerage Aurora Realty Consultants for its brick-and-mortar expansion into the Canadian market.