History
Plans for the project were announced in 1969 by Berhold Investments Limited, a Swiss development company. Berhold had acquired the property from Canadian Interurban Properties Limited and Dollar Land Corporation Limited. Berhold was an affiliate of Fidinam Ontario Limited, the Canadian subsidiary of Fidinam of Lugano, Switzerland.[5] Fidinam served as a consultant on the project.
In December 1971, Fidinam announced that the Hudson's Bay Company had signed as the major tenant of the office tower. The other main tenant in the office would be the Workmen's Compensation Board of Ontario.[6]
Completed in 1974, the International style office skyscraper has served as the headquarters for the retailer Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). The company remained the main tenant until 2022, although the company relocated its head office to the Simpson Tower in 1978. The department store opened with the tower and was the first location of The Bay within the former city of Toronto.[7] It overtook the Winnipeg location to become the flagship branch of The Bay (despite being actually smaller in size than the former) and maintained this distinction until the conversion in 1991 of the larger Simpsons store also located in Toronto.
In 2013, it was announced that the 342000 ft2 Hudson's Bay/The Bay store could undergo a CA$100 million renovation to become the Canadian flagship location of Saks Fifth Avenue, the American luxury department store chain which is now also owned by Hudson's Bay Company (HBC).[8] However, it was subsequently announced that HBC would instead be renovating its flagship Hudson's Bay store at Yonge and Queen to include a 150,000 square foot Saks Fifth Avenue, and would leave the Yonge and Bloor location as a Hudson's Bay store.[9]
In August 2014, the centre became the subject of controversy when its property manager, Brookfield Properties Ltd, admitted to regularly confiscating bicycles that were locked to a pole on a municipal right of way on Bloor St. outside of the mall.[10] The City of Toronto assigned by-law officers to investigate.[10]
In 2021, the iconic "The Bay" signage that was displayed on top of the office tower for nearly 50 years was removed.[11][12] The following year, the Hudson's Bay Company announced that the Yonge and Bloor department store would close at the end of May 2022, and the site is expected to be redeveloped in conjunction with a major overhaul of the Bloor–Yonge TTC station.[13] The store finally closed on May 13, 2022.[14]
