CDN has learned through a published report that Microsoft Canada (Nasdaq: MSFT) will bring the Microsoft Store to Toronto’s Yorkdale mall, which is situated north of the city.
Microsoft announced last year at its Worldwide Partner Conference in Los Angeles another 75 locations of its Microsoft stores were in the works.
Currently Microsoft has 11 locations, including the one featured in this video below in L.A.
Former Microsoft Canada president Eric Gales told CDN at the time that Canada, more specifically Toronto, was also part of that expansion plan. Gales, who was replaced by Max Long as president recently, was unable to provide details on the future Toronto store.
But the published report found that building permits have been approved for Microsoft for a store inside the 1,404,646 square foot shopping mall. Yorkdale is Canada’s fifth largest mall and its top store in terms of traffic is the Apple Store which opened its doors back in 2005. That was a Canadian first for Apple and Yorkdale.
This past Monday Microsoft released its competing tablet device called the Surface which will be pitted against the popular iPad.
Yorkdale, which is owned by Oxford Properties, is in the middle of a major expansion. Yorkdale officials stated in early 2011 that they would be adding another 145,000 square feet to the site and opening approximately 40 new stores and 800 underground parking spaces. This current expansion is slated to be complete by the of end this year. No word on if that’s Microsoft Canada’s intended opening date. The company is currently putting the finishing touches on its Worldwide Partner Conference for Toronto, which starts July 8. The company expands more than 18,000 channel partners and other executives to attend the week long event.
Check out this video for a first hand look at one of the Microsoft Stores.
