La Maison Simons Opens 10th Location [With Photos]

Popular Quebec City-based large-format fashion retailer La Maison Simons opened its 10th location last week at Les Promenades Gatineau. The 80,000 square foot store is the first of two for the Ottawa Capital Region, as Simons looks to eventually operate as many as 30 Canadian stores coast-to-coast. The new Gatineau store, as with all new Simons stores, features a one-of-a-kind art installation. 

The new store reportedly cost Simons $21 million to build, including an aluminum mesh art installation. Created by artist Julie Tremblay and called Morphodynamique, the two-piece artwork is located along the store’s central skylight. The rest of the store is bright and modern, based on prototype designs of its West Edmonton Mall store which opened in October of 2012. 

In September, a 45-seat French-Canadian fare restaurant called Eve will open in the store. It will be the second restaurant in a Simons location, following the August 2013 opening of Soupesoup within Simons at Galeries d’Anjou in suburban Montreal. 

Simons’ second Capital Region store opens August 11, 2016, at Ottawa’s Rideau Centre. The 100,000 square foot store will eventually be one of as many as 30 Canadian locations, as Simons is spending in excess of $200 million on the first part of its national store expansion.

Simons’ next location, measuring 100,000 square feet, opens on October 15 at West Vancouver’s Park Royal. In 2016 it will open a 113,000 square foot Mississauga Square One location and in 2017, Simons will open a 92,000 square foot location at The CORE in downtown Calgary, as well as a second Edmonton location, measuring about 100,000 square feet, at Londonderry Mall. In 2018 it will open a store at Toronto’s Scarborough Town Centre and in 2019 at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre. CEO Peter Simons says that the retailer could eventually open locations in Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, and the Maritimes. 

Founded in Quebec City in 1840, La Maison Simons is unique in how it pairs its substantial private-label fashion with a handful of higher-priced designers. Despite its large floorplates, Simons stores lack cosmetics departments and the large footwear areas typical in similar-sized department stores. Simons currently operates 10 stores, including nine in the province of Quebec and one in Edmonton. The company has over 2,000 employees and sells in excess of $350 million annually. 

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web: August 18, 2015