A Victoria Hudson’s Bay store filed a default notice to its landlord, according to court documents.
The Victoria retailer is mentioned in a petition from Penticton mall Cherry Lane Shopping Centre, to evict a Hudson’s Bay Company store that allegedly owes the mall $546,255 in unpaid rent. The retailer allegedly stopped paying rent to the mall in April.
The Penticton Hudson’s Bay has refused to vacate the mall and filed a lawsuit of its own, claiming that the mall failed to provide a safe environment during the pandemic.
That Hudson’s Bay issued a default notice – a document notifying the landlord it had not complied with obligations in the lease, including an obligation to adopt “extraordinary marketing initiatives.”
READ ALSO: Hudson’s Bay sues Penticton mall over alleged lack of action amid pandemic
And according to the petition, filed by the Penticton mall’s lawyer, Jamieson D. Virgin, that notice is a stock letter that was also sent by the department store to a Victoria landlord.
That notice alleges, among other things, that the landlord of the Victoria premises is required to maintain and operate that premises as a first class regional shopping centre.
The lawyer for the Penticton petition states that, as is the case in the Okanagan, “there is no such requirement in that lease.”
There are two Hudson’s Bay locations in Victoria, located at Mayfair Mall and The Bay Centre. It is unclear which mall received the default notice. Ivanhoe Cambridge, owners of Mayfair Mall, said they are unable to comment on matters relating to tenants.
LaSalle Investment Management, owner of the Bay Centre, did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
The matter follows lawsuits filed by Quebec landlords suing Hudson’s Bay for unpaid rent and alleging the the department store hasn’t paid its bills since April.
READ ALSO: Landlords sue Hudson’s Bay for unpaid rent, retailer says malls aren’t ‘first class’
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