It's Going Down: HBC to Open First Full-Line Saks on Queen St.

Photos via Saks Fifth Avenue

According to Reuters this morning, Hudson's Bay Co. just announced its plan to open a full-line Saks store at the Hudson's Bay flagship store on Queen St., a shift from the earlier reported plan to open its first Saks at Yonge & Bloor.

HBC, which completed its $2.4 billion purchase of U.S. luxury chain Saks Inc late last year, said the approximately 150,000 square-foot, multi-level Saks will likely open in the fall of 2015 and will be co-located with the current Hudson's Bay store.

The report states that Hudson's Bay will also sell its downtown Toronto flagship retail complex and the Simpson's Tower located at 401 Bay Street to an affiliate of the Cadillac Fairview Corp for $650 million. As part of this deal, Saks has also agreed to lease space at Sherway Gardens for another full-line Saks store. 

So? How do you see this whole luxury department store showdown panning out? Will Holts survive it all? Will our iconic HBC and all the Canadian history it represents survive, for that matter? And is Ke$ha's 'Timber' really as prophetic as I imagine?