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Posted May 2, 2009, 10:46 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Vancouver
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Vancouver Sun story about the renewal of Cambie Village.
http://www.vancouversun.com/Cambie+Street+merchants+back+business/1557930/story.html
Quote:
Cambie Street merchants get back to business
By Derrick Penner, Vancouver SunMay 2, 2009 12:01 PM
Salon owner Ali Amarshi’s biggest pet peeve is that too many people still think “construction zone” when they hear “Cambie Street.”
“Every time there’s a story [about Cambie Street in the newspapers] they run a picture of the hole in the ground. But it’s not that any more,” Amarshi said out in front of his shop, Soda Hair Inc., on a sunny day this week, with a backdrop of wide new sidewalks and four lanes of clean blacktop smoothly carrying traffic behind him.
Along this stretch of the thoroughfare between 17th and 18th Avenues, there is no longer any evidence of the canyon-like trench dug for construction of the Canada Line rapid transit. (There is still a traffic bottleneck between Broadway and 12th Ave. where construction is nearing completion.)
Notwithstanding unresolved legal claims over compensation for the disruption and lost sales that Cambie merchants suffered — as well as some skepticism about future benefits — the shopping district is getting down to what will be its new normal.
“Business is still slow,” Amarshi admitted, “but it’s picking up gradually.” He hopes that focusing on the positive future rather than battles over the past will help polish Cambie’s image and help encourage the return of more shoppers.
Some stores left, some opened
There have been many casualties of the construction. Some stores closed, others famously relocated during the disruption, and a new strip of big-box retailers has sprung up near the south end of the Cambie Street Bridge, significantly altering the district’s retail character.
But Amarshi notes that new businesses have occupied many of the vacant spaces, bringing some new vibrancy to the district known as Cambie Village.
Amarshi is a recent arrival to Cambie, having moved from a location at Heather and 16th a year-and-a-half ago during construction, so he was prepared to endure some tough business conditions while he built up a clientele.
Nevertheless, Amarshi was sold on the neighbourhood, which he views as a friendly, family-oriented community that will eventually be good for business.
“The [neighbourhood] support is great for every merchant here,” he said.
Sidewalks through Cambie Village were widened during the construction process, new trees planted, and a healthy sprinkling of street benches has been placed along the blocks, making them more inviting for pedestrians.
As construction first tied up and then tidied up the street, other new merchants and proprietors are being drawn back by Cambie Village’s attributes: A stable residential neighbourhood as an immediate market, with the traffic of a major thoroughfare to bolster the customer base.
Craig MacMillan is one of those entrepreneurs. He is opening Stella’s on Cambie, a restaurant and Belgian beer house that is an offshoot of his popular Stella’s on Commercial Drive, at the corner of 17th and Cambie, in premises once occupied by the Tomato Fresh Food Cafe.
Entrepreneur bullish on Cambie
The Tomato moved to an off-Broadway spot in Kitsilano because of the business it was losing during the Canada Line construction.
MacMillan, however, remains bullish about his prospects, having secured a favourable lease at the end of the construction.
“This is a fairly well-to-do neighbourhood, and a real main artery for Vancouver,” MacMillan said. “When we had the opportunity to get this space, we jumped on it.”
As Stella’s has been under construction, aiming for a May 11 opening , MacMillan said he has noticed the street filling up a little more quickly with traffic every week, which also makes him optimistic.
“You’re talking to people on a sunny day,” he added. “A little bit of vitamin D on the eyeballs makes everybody feel better, no matter where they are in the city.”
However, that optimism is tempered with caution, or outright skepticism among other business owners with longer history on the street, the ones who have endured the construction that began in November 2005.
The sidewalk improvements and new streetlights along the strip are esthetically pleasing, said Melinda Michalak, manager of the Black Dog Video shop near 18th and Cambie. But “as far as business goes, there hasn’t been any positive benefit from it yet.”
Her bigger concern is the recent closure of the Capers Community Market at 16th, a store that was closed in that company’s merger with organic-grocery giant Whole Foods, which just opened a large store at Cambie and Eighth.
Company ‘stayed positive’
“It is good to see vacant stores finally filled, the restaurants and such,” she added. “It was looking a little depressing there for a while.”
The fact that the nearest Canada Line stations to the centre of Cambie Village are seven and eight blocks away from him leave Cambie Cycles owner Brock Davis wondering what the future will hold for his shop.
“[Business] may get back close to where it was before,” said Davis, who has been on the street since 1985. “But it probably won’t because we’re sort of in the backwater. ... Down [near Broadway] there is a bit of a hubbub.”
To the north of Broadway, looking across the street at several of the new big-box stores — Home Depot, Canadian Tire and Best Buy — Shea Robinson of Robinson Lighting and Bath Centre said it is exciting to see construction near its completion.
“I think time will tell” whether the Canada Line’s development will make up for the last three years, Robinson said. “It was certainly a tough few years, and we saw decreases each year as customers were less apt to travel to this area.”
However, Robinson added that his company has “stayed positive throughout the process.”
Robinson said the foot traffic at the Canada Line stations at Broadway and the Olympic Village, which bookend the big-box district, will be a bigger deal for the Canadian Tire, Whole Foods and Best Buy stores, but he is hopeful the exposure will help raise the profile of his store.
“It all generates traffic,” Robinson said, “not to mention the Olympic village and the other developments happening in the area.”
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Personally I'm looking forward to seeing how this one.
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