Quote:
Originally Posted by cdnguys
Yes the city tried to open a dialogue with the REIT - it’s not a priority by the REIT from what I understand. I’m not concerned about McDonalds leaving - there is only so much income to be spent on food uptown and I’d rather see it go to locally branded businesses. Despite B Sq failing over the last 15 years, I can tell you overall uptown selection of shops and restaurants are 400% better over the 30 years I lived uptown. Back then the only fancier place to go was Chizzlers or Vito’s
|
The Brunswick Square situation really puzzles me. I'm obviously missing something but what is the motivation for an owner to sit with an empty facility like this for year after year?
As to uptown restaurants there have been some really good ones over the years going back to the 80's. The problem has always been that they struggled due to lack of consistent support for fine dining. The Continental in Market Square (1980's) was superb but couldn't survive here. The owner (Italo) opened a restaurant in Charlottetown and prospered for 35 years until he retired. Someone in the hospitality industry once told me the problem with Saint John was that there was no tradition of business/expense account lunches. He blamed it on Irving have such a stranglehold on business here. Without that income stream it's hard for restaurants to prosper.