Hudson’s Bay plans to sell around 28 leases to the real estate investment company Ruby Liu, which plans to launch a new department store.
The Canadian retailer is selling its leases for locations in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia, and the deal is set to be completed after court approval.
The news comes on the heels of the bankrupt retailer selling its brand assets to Canadian Tire for C$30 million.
Hudson’s Bay filed for the Canadian equivalency of bankruptcy in March after struggling to stay afloat amid mounting pressures from a challenging market. In the bankruptcy filing, Hudson’s Bay blamed the recent tariffs for its weak financial performance.
The retailer said in a press release: “The company remains in discussions with other qualified bidders in respect of certain other lease locations and will communicate the outcome of those discussions, as appropriate, in the future.”
As part of its plans moving forward, the store will close down all its remaining stores and lay off 8,000 staff members by June 1.
Additionally, 899 more staff members are set to be laid off on June 15, and 120 will remain to assist with the winding down of operations.
The company has already begun the liquidation process and winding sales across Canada.
Hudson’s Bay previously employed over 9,600 people across 96 stores and ran its operations for around 355 years.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
