MISSISSAUGA, CANADA-Target, based in Minneapolis, has selected 105 Zellers stores in Canada that it plans to turn into its brand-name big box stores, as part of Target’s $1.9 billion entry into the country. Earlier this year, the firm agreed to pay that amount for the leasehold interest for up to 220 of the Toronto-based Hudson’s Bay Co.’s 275 Zellers stores in Canada.

The 105 stores are owned by 22 different landlords. Target has negotiated new leases with these companies, a Target spokeswoman tells GlobeSt.com, and will now pay half the fee, about $950 million, to Hudson’s Bay. Target will pay the other half of the fee in September, after which it can select the rest of the Zellers stores it wishes to convert, the spokeswoman says.

Target is now working on renovation plans for the first 110 locations, estimated at about $10 million per store. The properties will remain open as Zellers until the renovations begin, and the first Targets will start opening in 2013.

The properties are in all 10 provinces, mostly in Ontario, and more than a dozen each in Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec. RioCan Real Investment Trust owns the most of the stores at 21 locations, while Ivanhoe Cambridge owns 14, Morguard owns 12 and Bentall Kennedy owns 10.

Richard Baker, governor of Hudson’s Bay, said in a statement that the sale will allow the firm to invest substantial capital into its department store and specialty store business to continue to drive growth. The company, founded in 1670, will still operate 55 Zellers stores in Canada, as well as its other brands the Bay, Home Outfitters and Fields.

The Target spokeswoman tells GlobeSt.com that the firm has been involved in moderate growth, opening 13 stores in 2010 and plans 22 new stores this year in the US. The Zellers deal just came along at the right time that the firm was looking to move into Canada, she says. “We’ve really been focused on riding out this recession, such as remodeling 300 to 400 stores per year,” she says. The company has 1,752 stores in 49 states.

Target has also signed a lease for its new Canadian headquarters. The company is taking 180,000 square feet here in the AeroCentre V building, and will occupy the offices in early 2012.