MONTREAL - A big sale took place at the landmark Ogilvy's department store on Ste-Catherine in the Golden Square Mile: the store itself was sold Friday.
Ogilvy's, which is 145-years-old, is known for its high-end fashion as well as its roaming bagpiper and elaborate Christmas-time window displays.
The store was purchased by Selfridges from a group of Quebec investors, including the real estate fund of Solidarity Fund QFL, shopping-centre developer Devimco Inc. and BB Real Estate Investment Trust, owned by the Bombardier-Beaudoin family.
That Quebec consortium had purchased Ogilvy's in July 2010. Prior to that, it had been owned by a Toronto-based investment fund and by the CBC Employee Pension Fund.
Selfridges is owned by the Weston family of Toronto, which controls Loblaws and owns Holt Renfrew in Canada. It has stores in several countries such as Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands.
The chairman is billionaire W. Galen Weston, ranked the second-wealthiest person in Canada.
"Selfridges group is really expanding in the Montreal market, a market in which it believes," said Denis Boucher representative of the Selfridges group.
The price was not revealed. The sale is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to be finalized this fall.
Ogilvy's previous owners include Pyxis Real Estate Equities Inc., a private Toronto property investment group controlled by David Jubb, which paid $50 million for it in 2000.
Other past owners include Daniel Fournier, (who controlled Equidev Inc.) and partner Ralph Hibbard. The duo purchased the store in the mid-1980s.
The store was founded in 1866 at what was then Mountain and St-James, by the Scottish-born James Angus Ogilvy. It has occupied its current location at Ste-Catherine and Mountain St. since 1912. Among its many charms is an elaborate chandelier from onetime-landmark Her Majesty's Theatre.
Ogilvy's has 135,000 square feet and about 40 specialty boutiques.
