The Bay in Burlington Centre set to close next summer

The Bay in the Burlington Centre is set to shut its doors for good in June 2024.

The company says the store, which opened in 1991, is no longer necessary due to the size of the community it serves. 

“HBC continually looks at opportunities to optimize its real estate portfolio,” said Tiffany Bourré, divisional vice president of communications, PR, and heritage for the Hudson’s Bay Company, in an emailed statement. “Given the proximity of Burlington Centre just 3.5 km to Mapleview Shopping Centre, Hudson’s Bay has made the decision to close its Burlington Centre location in June 2024.”

The Burlington Centre Bay is the largest store in the mall, taking up approximately 17 per cent of the mall’s total area and employing 100 full and part time employees. 

Workers were informed of the store’s closure sometime in the last few weeks. 

The 145,000-sq. ft., two-storey store is also home to the relatively recently revived Canadian department store brand Zellers, which originally shut down in 2013. The Burlington Centre Zellers pop-up, which opened in March, is being relocated to the Bramalea City Centre in Brampton, said Bourré.

There are a total of 25 Zellers locations inside of Bay stores across Canada. Bourré says that a pop-up Zellers store will open at Mapleview later this summer, though no specific date was provided. 

“While these decisions are difficult, they are the right ones for our business, reflecting market changes and our vision for the future,” Bourré said in the email. “We are committed to treating every associate with respect and fairness through this process, and transfer opportunities will be explored where feasible.”

This is the latest in a series of shut downs for The Bay, which previously closed down operations in Montreal, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Banff, and the Bloor/Yonge location in Toronto, which was the brand’s former flagship store.