One of Canada's largest grocery chains plans to convert a shuttered Toys R Us location on West Broadway, known for a neon sign once visible from nearly 20 miles away, into Vancouver’s first FreshCo discount food store.
Sobeys has filed for a development permit to redevelop the space at 1154 West Broadway, which Toys R Us closed permanently last year. The toy chain had gradually withdrawn from the Vancouver market over the past several years.
The conversion of Toys R Us into a 30,000-square-foot FreshCo designed by WA Architects requires city planning approval following a public comment period that closes Jan. 20.
The planned FreshCo opening — along with the preservation of the landmark sign from the 1950s on the building — are bright spots on the retail landscape as cities struggle to fill hundreds of shuttered retail locations across Canada.
The 80-foot-tall vertical BowMac sign, originally built for the Bowell-McLean car dealership in 1958, was the largest and best-known of thousands of neon signs that earned Vancouver the distinction of being the neon capital of North America in the 1950s and 1960s.
Toys R Us partially covered part of the original sign with its logo on a raised steel screen as part of a compromise when the city designated the sign as a heritage landmark in 1997.
Sign change
Under the redesign, the former toy store’s logo will be replaced with illuminated FreshCo letters on the steel mesh, which will be painted neon green to match the grocer’s brand, according to the Sobeys application.
Discount grocery stores have proliferated across the country in recent years, even as Toys R Us and other legacy retail chains, such as Hudson’s Bay, have closed hundreds of locations as consumers shift their purchasing habits toward buying more items online.
The West Broadway location would be Vancouver's first FreshCo store in metropolitan Vancouver. Sobeys, which also operates the Safeway, IGA and Thrifty Foods brands in British Columbia, opened the first FreshCo in Mission, near Abbotsford, in 2019.
The national grocery chain has since opened nine more FreshCo locations across the Lower Mainland, including stores in Richmond, Delta, Surrey, Maple Ridge, Abbotsford and Chilliwack.
Three of the locations are specialized Chalo FreshCo stores that cater to the Asian community, as Sobeys looks to compete with other ethnic specialty grocers, such as T&T Supermarkets, an Asian-focused chain owned by Sobeys' rival, Loblaw Cos.
Canadian billionaire Doug Putman, known for buying distressed retail brands and attempting to turn them around, acquired 103 Toys R Us Canada locations in 2021. Putman’s plan for reviving the chain has faced challenges over the past year, with dozens of stores closed or listed for sale last year.