Cindy VanBuskirk (Darren Brown, OBJ).

Following the recent announcement that both Banana Republic and Old Navy are opening new stores at the Rideau Centre, significant changes are being made to the downtown mall to accommodate the new fashion tenants.

The Disney Store, located on the second floor and a tenant for 10 years, has reached the end of its lease and will not be renewed in order to make way for Banana Republic. Neighbouring store Bikini Village was also taken out of its current space to make way for Banana's new 6,800-square-foot store.

"The lease came up and we, as we do whenever a lease is coming up, we evaluate the tenant and opportunities to re-let the space and we make tough decisions sometimes," said Cindy VanBuskirk, director of marketing and leasing at the Rideau Centre. "This was a tough decision. We opted not to renew the Disney store, we were able to make a deal to relocate Bikini Village who did have some term left on their lease."

As for the Disney Store, now owned by The Children's Place Retail Stores Inc. of New Jersey, there simply was not a suitable alternative space available. Ms VanBuskirk is unsure if it will reappear again in the shopping centre's expansion plans.

"When we got Disney here at Rideau Centre it was quite a coup, it was the first store in the market and very exciting but the cachet that Disney has, has been a bit diluted in terms of the videos and merchandise being available at mass merchants like Wal-Mart," said Ms VanBuskirk. "They were a solid performer...(we had) a long term tenant that we were very happy with (but) you've got a list as long as your arm of quality prestige tenants that you need in your shopping centre that you don't have space for, so you make a tough decision and the shopping centre is better served with Banana Republic than it is with the Disney store today."

Market Research Corp. general manager Barry Nabatian thinks it is a smart move on the part of the Rideau Centre to prioritize Banana Republic over Disney.

"I'm not at all surprised that they have not renewed Disney's lease because it really hasn't done well in our region. The capital region is a little bit too sophisticated, we have the highest level of education in Canada here and Disney in a way is passé," said Mr. Nabatian. "They need to bring Banana Republic, and of course, Old Navy will do very well there."

Old Navy will be occupying 24,000 square feet on the second floor. Some smaller tenants will be downsized or moved elsewhere in the mall, including Athlete's World.

Even the escalators from the first floor next to Shopper's Drug Mart that service customers travelling up to Athlete's World and HMV will be removed to make room.

"Two escalators in that area are coming out to facilitate this deal," said Ms VanBuskirk. "We did a lot of research and studies on escalator patterns and usage in the shopping centre before we made a decision to proceed with the Old Navy deal because our owners wanted to be satisfied about how people move and could the escalators at centre court handle the traffic. The escalators (in that area) were the least used in the property."

Mr. Nabatian agrees that eliminating the escalators is a smart move that will add much-needed space at the mall. However, despite all the work being done to accommodate Banana Republic and Old Navy, he believes they will soon be looking to the expanded portion of the mall for space.

"I don't know whether the location for those two is the best location within the centre. It is right now but I suspect once it is expanded the newer part is going to have so much better lighting, colour and design that maybe they will relocate them after a year – it is quite possible. It would seem to me that especially for Banana Republic they would want the best part of the mall."

Some more tenant movement will likely happen at the Rideau Centre before expansion plans get underway but Ms VanBuskirk was unwilling to disclose details at the moment.

Plans are still underway to make some announcements in the summer as to when construction on the expansion will begin, what the design will be and which tenants will be coming on-board.

"There are tenants that are coming to market that need to be accommodated. Our expansion and the timing of our expansion at present works very well for four or five very key tenants that are coming to the market," said Ms VanBuskirk. "They are on hold waiting to see when our expansion is actually going to take shape. If it delays, we run the risk of having them open somewhere else."