Onni Group Buying Vancouver Hudson’s Bay Building For $112.5M

The Hudson’s Bay Building at 674 Granville Street in Vancouver. (CBRE and Marcus & Millichap)

Vancouver-based developer Onni Group is buying the landmark Hudson’s Bay building in downtown Vancouver, as first reported by The Realist on April 29, but the price has not been disclosed in court documents despite the court approving the transaction last month.

However, The Realist has obtained a land transfer document dated June 24 revealing that the purchase price was $112,500,000.

The land transfer document states that the purchaser is 1588088 BC Ltd., which is the nominee corporation that Onni said it would be using for the purchase, according to court documents.

The sale was brokered by Jim Szabo, Duncan MacLean, Vincent Minichiello, and Daniel Wang from CBRE Vancouver’s National Investment Team alongside Marcus & Millichap’s retail specialists Mario Negris and Martin Moriarty.

As previously reported by The Realist on December 4, price guidance was set at $225 million, meaning Onni Group paid exactly half of the price guidance.

BC Assessment currently values the property at $171,148,000 in an assessment dated to July 1, 2025, a drop from the previous assessment of $194,674,000 and almost exactly a quarter of the $675 million the property was reportedly sold for in 2018 before the deal fell through.

The Realist has reached out to Onni Group several times since late-April, but Onni has declined to comment each time, citing pending closing, and could not be reached this morning.

It’s unclear what Onni Group’s plans are for the site, but the heritage facade will likely have to be retained. It’s unclear whether residential uses will be allowed, but the building immediately next door at 610 Granville Street is a 30-storey condo tower developed by Wall Financial called The Hudson, the retail podium for which transacted last year for $89 million, as I first reported for Storeys.

City of Vancouver records indicate that no rezoning or development application has been submitted, although multiple film permits and temporary street occupancy permits were submitted and issued throughout the earlier part of this year.

An excerpt from the Hudson’s Bay Building listing brochure. (CBRE and Marcus & Millichap)

The Edwardian-style building at 674 Granville Street was constructed in 1913 and was one of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s “original six” flagship department stores.

According to the sales brochure, the 1.76-acre property consists of 617,628 sq. ft of gross leasable area across seven levels above ground and two levels underground, with an average floor plate size of 70,000 sq. ft.

It was Hudson’s Bay’s flagship store in Vancouver up until June 1, 2025, when most of Hudson’s Bay’s stores closed after the company filed for creditor protection.

The property was not solely owned by the Hudson’s Bay Company, however. In February 2015, HBC announced that it was forming a joint venture with RioCan REIT (TSX: REI.UN) that would see each partner transfer some of their real estate assets into a new JV entity. HBC contributed 10 properties it owned — five via freehold and five via leasehold — while RioCan contributed a 50% interest in the Georgian Mall and Oakville Place shopping centres in Ontario, plus a cash contribution.

As I previously reported for Storeys, RioCan-HBC Limited Partnership took out a $202 million mortgage on 674 Granville Street — the largest of the JV’s outstanding mortgages — that had a maturity date of April 30, 2025.

After the creditor protection proceedings for HBC turned up no buyers to rescue the company, RioCan initiatied receivership proceedings against the JV entity — RioCan-HBC Limited Partnership — and began the arduous process of disentangling itself from what the Ontario Superior Court described as a “fully intertwined” relationship.

As The Realist outlined in April, the sales process for the Hudson’s Bay building was launched on December 3 and deadlines for bids was set at March 30. According to the court-appointed Receiver, 32 parties signed confidentiality agreements. It’s unclear how many parties submitted formal bids, but the Receiver and Onni Group entered into the purchase and sale agreement on April 23 and the transaction had an outside completion date of June 30, with an extension option.