European sports chain Decathlon is replacing Saks Off Fifth in a spot over two floors at the Montreal Eaton Centre.
Hudson's Bay Company says it and mall developer Ivanhoe Cambridge have mutually agreed to no longer open a Saks Off Fifth location.
The Toronto-based department store chain owner tells The Canadian Press that plans for the location have been abandoned "due to a number of factors," but refused to reveal what those factors are.
A spokesman for the Montreal Eaton Centre owner confirmed that the store would not be opening, but also did not provide a reason why.
France-based sporting goods store Decathlon will open in the Saks space next fall, the first for a downtown location in Canada.
"This location in the downtown core, which is a relatively new approach for us, will enable us to deliver even more effectively on our brand promise, which is to make sport accessible to as many people as we can," Tristan Vende of Decathlon Canada said in news release.
Ivanhoe Cambridge leasing vice-president Jean Landry said the opening of Decathlon is one of the highlights of its $200-million revitalization project for a property that once housed the Eaton's department store and adjacent mall.
Decathlon operates more than 1,400 stores in 42 countries and generates almost $13 billion in annual sales.
In addition, European-based Time Out Market will open in Canada for the first time in the mall. It will offer 16 food options, two bars, a demo kitchen, cooking academy and retail shop.
HBC announced in late 2015 that the purveyor of discount designer clothing and other goods would open at the centre in 2018, as part of the brand's Canadian expansion.
The company said that the store would take over about 4,165 square meters (44,850 square feet) in the Montreal Eaton Centre and Complexe Les Ailes spaces that merged in 2016.
HBC says it operates 18 Saks Off Fifth locations in Canada in cities including Ottawa, Winnipeg and Niagara-on-the-lake, Vaughan and Pickering, Ont.
