2 Bloor East (originally the Hudson's Bay Centre) is an office and retail complex at the intersection of
Bloor Street
Bloor Street is an east–west arterial road in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Bloor Street runs from the Prince Edward Viaduct, which spans the Don River (Ontario), Don River Valley, westward into Mississauga where it ends at Central Parkway. East ...
and
Yonge Street
Yonge Street ( ') is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Great Lakes#Geography, Upper Great Lakes. Ontario's first colonial administrator, ...
in
downtown Toronto
Downtown Toronto is the main city centre of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located entirely within the district of Old Toronto, it is approximately 16.6 square kilometres in area, bounded by Bloor Street to the northeast and Dupont Street to the nor ...
,
Ontario
Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
, Canada, at the east end of the
Mink Mile.
Brookfield Properties owns and operates the centre. The centre is composed of a 35-storey office tower and a retail concourse. From its opening in 1974 until 2022 it had a
Hudson's Bay department store as its anchor store.
Description
The tower stands at 135 metres in height. It contains 35 floors and , and its address 2 Bloor Street East, at the northeast corner of the intersection of Yonge and Bloor Streets. The extensive retail concourse was anchored by a flagship store of Hudson's Bay/The Bay (known as the "Toronto, on Bloor Street" store at 44 Bloor Street East, the main brand of HBC. The mall contains over 45 specialty shops, boutiques, services and eateries.
The complex includes a hotel tower, opened in 1976 as the Hotel Plaza II, a sister hotel of the nearby
Park Plaza Hotel. The hotel suffered a deadly fire in 1982. It was later renamed the Toronto Marriott Bloor Yorkville Hotel. It closed in 2019 for major renovations and reopened in 2022 as the W Toronto Hotel.
The complex also has an
RBC Royal Bank branch, a
Jack Astor's Bar and Grill, apartments, and condominiums.
The centre has space for 1,200 cars in its underground and above-ground parking lots, multiple entrances located on Yonge, Bloor Streets, Park Road and Asquith Avenue and is surrounded by several parks and the
Yorkville neighborhood which is known for upscale shopping.
The building is connected to the
Bloor–Yonge subway station, the
TTC's major east-west/north-south transfer point. There are also below-grade connections to the
Holt Renfrew Centre and Cumberland Terrace, which continues westward to 60 Bloor Street West and
Manulife Centre. The pedestrian tunnels stretches along Bloor Street West to the
Bay subway station, making this Toronto's largest
underground network after
PATH
A path is a route for physical travel – see Trail.
Path or PATH may also refer to:
Physical paths of different types
* Bicycle path
* Bridle path, used by people on horseback
* Course (navigation), the intended path of a vehicle
* Desir ...
.
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
Lugano ( , , ; ) is a city and municipality within the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is the largest city in both Ticino and the Italian-speaking region of southern Switzerland. Lugano has a population () of , and an u ...
, Switzerland. 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.
Completed in 1974, the
International style
The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...
office
skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...
has served as the headquarters for the retailer
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...
(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. 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
Hudson's Bay/The Bay store could undergo a renovation to become the Canadian flagship location of
Saks Fifth Avenue
Saks Fifth Avenue (Colloquialism, colloquially Saks) is an American Luxury goods, luxury department store chain founded in 1867 by Andrew Saks. The first store opened in the F Street and 7th Street shopping districts, F Street shopping distric ...
, the American luxury department store chain which is now also owned by Hudson's Bay Company (HBC).
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.
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.
The City of Toronto assigned by-law officers to investigate.
In 2021, the iconic "The Bay" signage that was displayed on top of the office tower for nearly 50 years was removed.
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. The store finally closed on May 13, 2022.
References
Note
External links
2 Bloor East official website*
{{Toronto skyscrapers
Modernist architecture in Canada
Hudson's Bay Company
Brookfield Properties buildings
1974 establishments in Ontario
Skyscraper office buildings in Toronto
Retail buildings in Canada
Office buildings completed in 1974