MUJI Announces 3rd Vancouver-Area Store 

By Craig Patterson

Minimalist Japanese retailer MUJI has just announced that it will open a store in April of this year at CF Richmond Centre in suburban Vancouver. It will be the third store in the Vancouver Area for MUJI, and the eighth in Canada when it opens. 

The CF Richmond Centre MUJI will be located next to the mall’s Victoria’s Secret store, in a retail space spanning more than 6,250 square feet on one level. The lease deal was coordinated/negotiated by Martin Moriarty and Mario Negris of CBRE Vancouver, as well as Arlin Markowitz from CBRE Toronto.

CF Richmond Centre is one of Canada’s most productive shopping centres, according to Retail Council of Canada’s 2017 Canadian Shopping Centre Study. Landlord Cadillac Fairview has applied to the City of Richmond to expand the mall at its southern end which formerly housed a Sears store. The redevelopment would include multiple residential towers as well as new retail space. 

Japanese retailer UNIQLO also just announced that it will open this spring at CF Richmond Centre in an 8,010 square foot retail space, as per the floor plan above. 

MUJI entered Vancouver for the first time last year when it unveiled a 7,770 square foot space to massive crowds in August of 2017 at Metropolis at Metrotown in Burnaby. An impressive 14,507 square foot store opened on Robson Street in Vancouver in December of 2017, making the store MUJI’s largest outside of Asia. 

MUJI recently made two major store announcements for Canada, both in Toronto. In March of this year, MUJI will open a 6,800 square foot store at Scarborough Town Centre — its fifth in the Greater Toronto Area. MUJI’s original downtown store also recently relocated to a temporary space while the permanent location is significantly expanded. 

That downtown Toronto store, located at the Atrium, was MUJI’s first in Canada when it opened in November 2014. Its second Canadian location, spanning 5,225 square feet, opened at Mississauga’s Square One in November of 2015, followed by the October 2016 opening at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre (6,375 square feet) and the Summer 2017 debut of a 6,000 square foot space at CF Markville, north of Toronto. 

In an interview last year, MUJI’s Canadian President, Toru Akita, said that he expected MUJI to operate between 15 and 20 stores in Canada by the year 2020. Given its accelerated pace of openings, this goal would appear to be achievable.

Craig Patterson, now based in Toronto, is the founder and Editor-in-Chief Retail Insider. He’s also a retail and real estate consultant, retail tour guide and public speaker. 

Follow him on Twitter @RetailInsider_, LinkedIn at Craig Patterson, or email him at: craig@retail-insider.com.