UPDATED: New Winners store will help revitalize Sparks Street, experts say
David Sali, OBJ
Published on March 09, 2015
The arrival of discount retailer Winners to the space formerly occupied by Zellers at 156 Sparks St. should help breathe new life into the stagnant downtown pedestrian mall, retail experts predict.
The Mississauga-based chain, which sells clothing, footwear, furniture and housewares at more than 300 stores across Canada, confirmed Monday it will move into 23,000 square feet of space in the basement of the old Zellers location this fall.
Toronto-based restaurant and beer chain Bier Markt opened its first Ottawa location on the ground floor of the property last year. About 4,000 square feet of prime ground-floor space still remains to be leased at the site.
Barry Nabatian, director of market research at Shore Tanner & Associates, said those tenants, as well as other new businesses that have recently moved to Sparks Street such as the Expedition Shoppe and Nate’s Deli, are just what the doctor ordered for a shopping area in dire need of revitalization.
“That’s four good, needed types of stores that are there,” he said. “Hopefully, with the construction on the north side almost finished, Sparks Street will be reinvented again.”
Ian Lee, an assistant professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, said Winners will appeal to budget-conscious consumers who work in the shadow of the Parliament Buildings and don’t have time to walk all the way to the Rideau Centre to do some lunchtime browsing.
“It’s providing good value at low prices,” he said. “I thought it was a good move.”
The former Zellers space at the corner of Sparks and O’Connor streets is part of a parcel of properties owned by Morguard. U.S. retailer Target acquired the lease on the property in 2011 as part of its purchase of 220 leases from Zellers. While most of those properties were converted to Target stores, some were sold to other retailers or returned to landlords.
While Mr. Lee agrees Winners will give the area a much-needed boost, he said it won’t solve the most fundamental issues plaguing the pedestrian mall, which has long had a reputation for being a ghost town outside of daytime business hours.
“They’ve never been able to solve the problem of after 6 o’clock,” he said. “I don’t think that they can address that problem. That’s a structural problem – nobody lives on Sparks Street.
"Its liveliness is going to be a function of the stores that are there operating in the daytime appealing to the downtown workers who work there Monday to Friday. Something like this I think will help contribute to a slight rejuvenation. Unless you literally build condos on the Sparks Street Mall … the only thing you can do is encourage some businesses to locate there to cater to the daytime workers.”
Mr. Nabatian has a more positive outlook, noting that several real estate projects are either planned or already in the works for the area, including Ashcroft’s proposed 18-storey tower that would feature a hotel and luxury condos at 106-110 Sparks.
“The people who move there are affluent, single and two-person households,” he said. “A number of the businesses there are doing extremely well.”
He points to GoodLife Fitness at 199 Queen St., just west of the new Winners and Bier Markt locations. The gym draws an average of 1,600 clients a day, he noted.
“A lot of those people, afterwards they go to the Bier Markt and other places,” Mr. Nabatian said. “They’re walking on Sparks Street, and if the right type of stores are there, they’ll shop as well. I think that Winners will be one of those right type of stores.”
The mall’s biggest problem, he said, is it lacks a clear vision. With a number of governing bodies – including the National Capital Commission, the federal Public Works department, the city, the Sparks Street BIA and the Sparks Street Mall Authority – all having a say in how the shopping district is run, it’s hard to get everyone on the same page when it comes to planning, marketing and cashing in on its untapped potential.
“I just don’t know how well they communicate with each other,” Mr. Nabatian said. “Sparks Street has got to be run more or less like a shopping centre. In other words, everybody has to agree on what they want it to be.”
The mall’s central location near 160,000 downtown workers should make it a retailer’s dream, he added.
“That is phenomenal,” he said. “How much better can a location be?”
Winners, whose parent firm TJX Companies also owns the HomeSense chain in Canada, currently has 11 stores in Ottawa and Gatineau, including an outlet that recently opened at Lansdowne Park.
http://www.obj.ca/Local/Retail/2015-03-0...evitalize-Sparks-Street%2C-experts-say/1
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