For the downtown YMCA/YWCA, it’s a new home. For the Bay Centre, it’s part and parcel of an evolving community approach to retailing. The news in early May that the “Y” had signed a lease to move into the 36-year-old centre by early next year — if not sooner — was greeted largely with a sense of relief. Darlene Hollstein, the Bay Centre’s general manager, recalls “that serendipity moment” when it all came together. “We knew the YMCA’s been looking for some space for some time. We had one of our long-term tenants leave the space, and they reached out, then we reached out,” she says. “It made a lot of sense. They’re a great community partner, and we’re very much focused on working with groups that are very community minded.”
The YMCA/YWCA was forced to make the move when its landlord, Concert Properties, decided to build a two-tower condominium and rental housing project at its Broughton Street location. Its new facility is the 20,000-square-foot space on the Bay Centre’s top floor, which had been previously occupied by GoodLife Fitness for 15 years. It won’t have a pool, gymnasium or racquet courts, but should have most of the other programs, classes and equipment. Moreover, members will get free parking. “From a Y’s perspective, it’s a really great piece of real estate for them. It has windows up there, views, stuff like that,” Hollstein says. The Y’s move is just the latest in a rapidly changing retail world.
Over her 23 years as GM at the four-storey shopping complex, Hollstein has seen the impact of online shopping, real-world events like the COVID pandemic and now the demise of the 355-year-old Hudson’s Bay Company that, as the centre’s anchor tenant, had occupied 229,000 square feet of space. “I’ve had three anchors since I’ve been here, so Eaton’s, Sears and of course the Bay, and now I get to reimagine that space hopefully again,” she says. “We opened [the centre] with a lot of national and international brands, and over the years because of the focus on local and really throughout the pandemic, we switched pretty big into more local and regional offerings.
We’re over 35 per cent local, which is something you generally don’t see in bigger shopping centres, but it’s definitely something we’ve leaned into over the years.” Hollstein couldn’t go into details about what will happen to the Hudson’s Bay space, but says it’s more likely to be broken up than not. Luckily, the design of the building would lend itself to that as downtown Victoria’s first big shopping mall is reimagined once again.
