British ColumbiaAn Ontario court has ruled against a B.C. billionaire who spent the summer fighting for the right to occupy and start businesses in the former Hudson’s Bay properties.Judge says landlords for the properties do not have to accept Liu as a tenantTara Deschamps · CBC News · Posted: Oct 24, 2025 7:13 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 5 minutesLiu, seen here in a file photo from June 2025, made her fortune in Chinese real estate before immigrating to Canada. She has argued that landlords were battling her because she’s an “outsider” and not their preferred tenant. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)A B.C. billionaire who spent the summer fighting to move into former Hudson’s Bay properties found herself on the losing end of an Ontario Superior Court decision on Friday.Judge Peter Osborne ruled that landlords for the collapsed retailer will not be forced to accept Ruby Liu as a tenant.In his judgment, Osborne said he had “significant concerns” about Liu’s ability to meet the terms of the leases she wanted.HBC declined to comment on his decision, while a spokesperson for Liu did not immediately respond to messages from The Canadian Press. Both parties have the ability to appeal the decision, though neither has announced plans to. Major landlords including Cadillac Fairview, Oxford Properties and Ivanhoé Cambridge were opposed to Liu buying 25 former Hudson’s Bay leases for $69.1 million.Osborne’s decision was months in the making and came after he waded through 25,600 pages of arguments from a who’s who of commercial landlords and investors. It was back in March that Hudson’s Bay, riddled with $1.1 billion in debt, filed for creditor protection. Unable to find a buyer, it later liquidated its 80 stores and 16 more from Saks, and then turned its attention to assets such as its leases, intellectual property and art.A lease-bidding process netted a dozen bids for 39 properties. YM Inc., which owns mall brands like Bluenotes, took five for $5.03 million. A landlord took one for $20,000.But the biggest bid came from Liu, who dreamed of opening a new department store chain named after herself. She wanted up to 28 leases to accomplish the feat and in May, the Bay announced it was willing to sell them to her.Three of them easily won court approval because they were at properties in B.C. malls Liu owns — Woodgrove Centre, Mayfair Shopping Centre and Tsawwassen Mills. WATCH | Who is Ruby Liu?:Who is Hudson’s Bay benefactor and billionaire Ruby Liu? Ruby Liu, a billionaire with a big vision, now has legal permission to take over the leases of three former Hudson’s Bay department stores located at three malls already under her ownership. For more on the new Bay benefactor, we’re joined by retail analyst Carl Boutet.The remaining 25 became one of the most hotly contested issues in the Bay’s winddown. Almost as soon as the Bay announced they’d sell the leases to Liu for $69.1 million, landlords met with her and came away with a wide array of objections.Most said they found her unprepared. They said she had no business plan, and a team of inexperienced executives who had spent time as real estate agents and early child educators rather than retail leaders. Furthermore, they said that Liu’s plans for dining, entertainment and recreation weren’t allowed under the leases she wanted to take over.When Liu did produce a business plan, it estimated she could have at least 20 of her stores renovated — from the rundown state the Bay left them in — and operating within 180 days of signing leases. Landlords thought the timeline was unachievable and argued her $400 million budget for the project — money they doubted she had readily available because her malls were $19 million in debt over the last two years — also wouldn’t suffice.Liu, who made her fortune in Chinese real estate before immigrating to Canada, maintained her three malls prove she has what it takes. She argued landlords were battling her because she’s an “outsider” and not their preferred tenant.The Bay and Pathlight Capital, the lender that stood to recoup the most from Liu’s deal, said the landlords objected because they wanted their properties back. If they got control of them again, they could lease their most venerable spaces to their pick of tenants — and could charge far more than the below-market rents in the Bay’s leases, some of which last for decades. WATCH | Ruby Liu’s on how she plans to transform former Hudson’s Bay locations:B.C. billionaire Ruby Liu shares her vision for former Hudson’s Bay locationsB.C. billionaire Ruby Liu is hoping to expand her mall empire by taking over 28 former Hudson’s Bay retail space leases. She joined CBC’s Gloria Macarenko with a translator to share her vision for the department stores, in her first interview with English-language media in Canada.A return of the properties would also allow landlords to break the spaces into multiple smaller units for use by multiple tenants or redevelop them into mixed-use or residential spaces.In making his decision, Osborne had to consider section 11.3 of the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, which allows the court to assign leases to a potential tenant against the objections of landlords. The section asked him to ponder whether Liu is an “appropriate” buyer who will be able to meet the lease obligations and whether her deal has the support of the monitor, a court-appointed, independent third party which regularly reviews the Bay’s creditor protection. Monitor Alvarez & Marsal had said it thought Liu could meet all her financial obligations but added there’s a “very real risk” she will not be able to succeed with the “monumental” task, because she is inexperienced and unprepared.ABOUT THE AUTHORTara Deschamps is a business reporter with The Canadian Press
B.C. billionaire Ruby Liu loses court fight to take over Hudson’s Bay properties
