The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that the closure of Hudson's Bay Co. marks the end of a historic retailer and leaves landlords across Canada with millions of square feet of vacant space. The Globe's Susan Krashinsky Robertson writes that after filing for creditor protection on March 7, HBC had 80 stores, including Saks Fifth Avenue and Saks Off 5th locations. A court process to sell off leases attracted 12 bidders, with mall owner Weihong Liu set to acquire up to 28 leases, pending approval. Canadian Tire has also bid on some leases, but no bids were received for 62 properties, which HBC is preparing to return to landlords. Cushman & Wakefield's John Crombie says, "That's going to drop a huge amount of square footage on the marketplace." It comes at a difficult time in retail: There were 536 major store closings in Canada last year, Mr. Crombie adds, and in the first half of this year alone, there have been almost 500. Mr. Crombie adds: "For the landlords, it's the capital cost associated with either tearing it down, or doing smaller boxes. Because frankly, you're never going to find anybody to fit those shoes. So you're going to get stuck with a huge capital outlay to reconfigure your mall."