Home fashions megastore set for '92 debut; Toronto's HomeWorld will include 200 retailers - HomeMarket Trends

Discount Store News, Jan 8, 1990

Home Fashions Megastore Set for '92 Debut

Toronto's HomeWorld Will Include 200 Retailers

TORONTO -- A harbinger of a megastore approach to home fashions will break ground this year just outside Toronto, and the results will certainly be studied by both Canadian and American retailers.

HomeWorld, a multistore, multifloor, 580,000-square-foot monster, will open during 1991. It will contain over 200 stores, selling "absolutely everything for the home," according to the project's developers, McKenn Development Corp. and Ledenhall Properties Ltd., both of Toronto.

"This continues the natural evolution of [home fashions] retailing," said McKenn president Philip Heller. "Presently, most retailers of home-related goods tend to cluster together anyway, because they cater to the same public."

Product areas will include domestics, kitchen fixtures, lighting, appliances, art and antiques, landscaping, building supplies and fixtures, and interior decorating services. Allied areas could include consumer electronics, home office products, entertainment software and much more, according to Bruce Patterson, director of development for McKenn. Additionally, a Designers Walk installation offers exclusive products not available on the retail market.

In many ways, it will mimic the design centers in major cities that cater to designers, architects, interior decorators and other home fashions professionals.

Among HomeWorld's innovative retailing methods will be free-lance designers available on an hourly basis to advise shoppers, suggest construction and fixturing strategies, and tie in coordinated products. In addition, HomeWorld will feature an on-going series of DIY seminars and fashion exhibits.

In a departure from most "mall" approaches to home fashions retailing, HomeWorld will not only allow but encourage head to head competitors, Patterson said. "We want to give the consumer the opportunity to comparison shop," he said. "Apparel shoppers have that choice, so why shouldn't the home fashions consumer have the same option?"

The project has been two-and-a-half years in the planning, and the concept is still evolving, Patterson noted.

"According to our research, there are over 250 individual categories of goods that relate to the home," he noted. "It's time that those categories were gathered under one roof to allow consumers to adequately shop for the best in merchandise."

While HomeWorld will not, due to limited space, address the lowest parts of the market, it will welcome retailers at most price-point levels. "This isn't a designer-only concept," Patterson said. Negotiations are ongoing with two or three major mass merchants, he added.

If the $160 million facility is a success, its developers plan to roll the concept out to the United States. "We've already looked at some major U.S. markets," he said.

Construction will begin late in 1990 and grand opening is expected to occur late in 1991 or in spring of 1992.

The recent free trade agreement between Canada and the United States should help HomeWorld attract top American retailers, Patterson noted. A full video presentation has been developed by HomeWorld's marketing department for interested retailers.