Former HBC Rideau location acquired by company linked to Claridge Homes

Workers change The Hudson's Bay sign on Rideau street on Jan. 16, 2016. JAMES PARK/ Ottawa Citizen Photo by James Park /Ottawa Citizen

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The former Hudson’s Bay store in downtown Ottawa has been acquired by a numbered company associated with Claridge Homes Chief Financial Officer Neil Malhotra, according to recent court documents filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

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Malhotra, acting as chief financial officer of the company, 2808771 Ontario Limited, signed an agreement to purchase the five-story Rideau Street property on March 19. The price of the property has been redacted from the court documents.

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Little information about the limited company is available online. It was incorporated in January 2021 and lists an office location in Ottawa.

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Malhotra declined a request to comment on the agreement.

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The 335,000 square foot property spanning across 73, 85 and 87 Rideau St. had been on sale since late 2025, a few months after the Hudson’s Bay Company filed for creditor protection.

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In June 2017, Hudson’s Bay announced it would cut 2,000 jobs in North America. The department store chain had three stores in Ottawa, including the Rideau Street location and stores in the Bayshore Shopping Centre and the St. Laurent Centre.

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The Rideau Street store was the site of the Freiman department store until the 1970’s, when it was taken over by the HBC.= It has been vacant since last June, when HBC ceased all its operations.

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In 2024, HBC opposed a plan to designate the facades of some Rideau Street buildings as heritage, arguing that the  designation would make the building less marketable if HBC wanted to sell or redevelop it. Still, the property received the designation, which means its exterior attributes are protected.

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HBC filed for creditor protection on March 7, 2025. Later that year, the court-appointed receiver, FTI Consulting Canada, hired real estate company CBRE to manage the marketing and listing of the Rideau Street property.

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CBRE declined a request to comment, and FTI Consulting Canada did not immediately respond.

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In the documents submitted to the court, CBRE had 16 parties sign confidentiality agreements related to the Ottawa property, and two parties toured the location.

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CBRE also managed the marketing for the three other locations mentioned in the court documents. These include former Hudson’s Bay locations in Windsor, Calgary, and Vancouver.

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Currently, the receiver is only seeking court approval for the purchase of the Ottawa location. A hearing is scheduled for Monday.

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While the other locations also have signed purchase agreements, the documents state that the receiver will seek court approval for them “in the near future.”

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