Concord Pacific is intent on making its Carlyle development at the corner of Alberni and Thurlow Streets fully high-end by ridding itself of low-end tenant Dollar Tree at the end of April.
"We were happy there and were starting to do quite well," Dollar Tree Canada president Joseph Calvano told Business in Vancouver April 3.
Concord Pacific's offer to leave, however, was simply too good to refuse, he added.
Word of Dollar Tree leaving its 12,000-square-foot premises comes on the heels of the Keg Steakhouse and Bar permanently closing its longtime location next door on March 29.
Keg CEO David Aisenstat told BIV that he believes the space will become a retail location and not another restaurant, as previously had been expected.
Tenants so far in the Carlyle complex include global diamond mining and retail giant De Beers and New York-based Tory Burch. Concord Pacific expects to reveal in the next few weeks who some of the other tenants are who will fill the increasing number of empty units.
Rumours swirl that Gucci could occupy the prime 4,700-square-foot corner unit, said Craig Patterson, who operates the Retail Insider retail analysis website.
He believes that Chanel and Christian Dior were once looking for space in the complex but that those deals never closed.
Dior then announced plans to open a store at the Hotel Vancouver.
Dollar Tree Canada meanwhile is doing brisk business at what will be about 200 stores by the end of May, Calvano said.
He expects to then open a further 40 to 50 stores across the country in the next year.
