The largest Saks Fifth Avenue in Canada and the first in Quebec will open inside an existing Hudson’s Bay location in downtown Montreal in the fall of 2018, the company announced Thursday.

The move is an endorsement of the store-within-a-store concept that debuted in Toronto in February, when the first Saks Fifth Avenue in Canada opened inside the historic Hudson’s Bay store on Queen Street W., said Marc Metrick, president, Saks Fifth Avenue.

“This is clearly a signal that we really like what we’ve done, we like how it works for both brands and we love the performance that we’re getting out of both brands with the co-location,” said Metrick, in an interview on Thursday.

He said the Saks store on Queen Street continues to exceed expectations, on the heels of what was the most successful opening in the luxury retailer’s history.

Liz Rodbell, president, Hudson’s Bay and Lord & Taylor, said adding Saks Fifth Avenue to the Hudson’s Bay site has been extremely successful.

“It’s made that location even more of a destination in the Toronto market,” she said.

The Saks Fifth Avenue store in Montreal will front on Boulevard de Maisonneuve, where the existing concrete stucco will be replaced by a new white façade. Saks will take up approximately 200,000 square feet of the existing 650,000 square foot space currently occupied by a Hudson’s Bay store (La Baie d’Hudson), which also fronts on downtown rue Ste-Catherine.

The Bay store frontage on rue Ste-Catherine will also be updated and renewed, while retaining the building’s important red-brick façade and heritage.

“We are going to be putting in new awnings and opening up some of the windows. It will look beautiful. The whole classicism of the building is just going to be refined and brought forward,” said Rodbell.

“I just am terribly excited about renovating this iconic building and delivering a world class premier department store experience for our . . . Montreal customers. It’s a great moment for us to be able to announce this.”

The Saks will include a Quebec-themed Saks Fifth Avenue food hall that will, yes, serve poutine, said Metrick, although no local partner has yet been selected for the project.

In Toronto, Saks Fifth Avenue has partnered with local luxury food retailer Pusateri’s.

The Montreal Saks will feature a women’s designer shoe salon, designer ready-to-wear apparel, handbags, accessories, beauty and men’s. It will also feature private suites and personal shopping consultants.

Metrick would not say whether the company plans to introduce more co-locations at Hudson’s Bay stores in Canada.

“We always are going to want to take an opportunistic approach,” he said. “We’re always going to want to take the real estate that we have and make the most of what we can.”

“Montreal is a great luxury market,” said Maureen Atkinson, senior partner, research insights, J.C. Williams Group global retail advisors.

“It’s very much a francophone world — you go out and you spend money on food and you spend money on looking good.”

She said Saks Fifth Avenue also needs to build to a critical mass in Canada.

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“They do need more stores. They really need more volume.”

Saks Fifth Avenue operates 38 full-line stores in 22 U.S. states and two in Canada, at the Eaton Centre and Sherway Gardens. Plans for a store in Calgary have also been announced.

Parent company HBC ended the second quarter on July 30 with a reported net loss of $142 million as it grapples with an increasingly vast department store empire operating under numerous banners in Canada, Europe and the U.S., along with real estate ventures.