THUNDER BAY -- The departure of a retail giant in the city means unanswered questions for Intercity Shopping Centre.
Early Thursday morning, Target announced it plans to close all 133 of its Canadian stores, including the Thunder Bay location in the mall.
Stating it wouldn’t see profitability until 2021, Target Canada is applying for protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
They plan to liquidate all Canadian operations. About 17,600 people are employed by Target Canada.
Intercity’s director of marketing Shannon Young issued a press release stating they learned of the news Thursday morning and will be watching with interest the results of Target’s application.
“For the time being, it is business as usual at our centre,” she said in the release, adding they will provide additional information in the coming weeks and months.
In a memo addressed to tenants of Intercity obtained by TBNewswatch on Thursday, Young states that many questions remain and they will be working with their retailers and Target to plan and manage a smooth transition.
“As we learn more, we will be able to plot the future of the highly desirable space that Target currently occupies,” she says in the memo.
“This is a troubling development for Target and its Canadian employees, and our best wishes go out to them at this difficult time.”
Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce president Charla Robinson also said Target leaving is concerning for Intercity.
“Now they’re going to have a big space to fill,” she said, adding they’ll have a significant campaign on their hands to try to fill that space.
Target has been in Canada for less than two years and Robinson believes one of the reasons it didn’t perform as well as expected was because the Target Canada brand wasn’t what people thought it was going to be.
“While there was some anticipation about a lot of the brands and the products you could get at Target in the (U.S.), when they opened in Canada that didn’t seem to be the case, specifically on the clothing side,” she said.
When the store opened in Thunder Bay in July 2013, it was expected to employ about 170 people.
Robinson said the news of the store leaving hits the employees the hardest.
“A lot of those employees transitioned when Zellers closed to Target so they’ve been through some uncertain times in the last few years and now this is another uncertainty as to what they’re going to do,” she said.
“I really feel for the employees but hopeful there is a silver lining in the availability of that space. Perhaps that provides an opportunity for another retailer to look at this market and go into that space.”
Mayor Keith Hobbs said in an email statement he wasn’t surprised by the news and that he believes Costco will replace those lost jobs with high-paying jobs and more of them.
