Family bike shop will likely be bulldozed for Queensway bridge repairs
Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: October 3, 2019
They’re planning to flatten Gord Martin’s bike shop so that cars and trucks can drive across town. Gotta be an irony in there somewhere.
Martin has owned and run Cyco’s on Hawthorne Avenue a few steps east of the Pretoria Bridge for 23 years.
The first he heard of the plan to flatten his shop was when a stranger walked into the shop on Wednesday and told him it was a done deal. The Ontario Ministry of Transportation needs Cyco’s and two businesses beside it, the Royal Oak and a Greek on Wheels outlet, to build a replacement for the Queensway bridge over the Rideau Canal.
The ministry says in an email that the plan is not finalized, but it briefed city councillors about it this week and has called it their preferred option.
No one has yet contacted Martin, though he notes that “there were whispers that they would have to do something about these bridges eventually.”
“It’s horrible. We’ve been here for 23 years and we are part of this neighbourhood. Our business is built for where we are right now,” he said. The shop rents and sharpens skates in winter and has a large base of regulars for bicycle tuning and repairs.
“We would have to start from scratch somewhere else,” he said. “It will be the end of our business.”
There’s also his investment to consider. “This is a very expensive industry. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are sitting in this store,” including his current retail stock of approximately 100 bicycles, but also specialized tools and many, many parts. The shop covers three floors.
“We are a full-service shop. We rent bikes, we fix bikes, we sell bikes.” With rentals for canal skating nearby and some work in ski tuning, “we really have two seasons.”
“It’s taking away retirement (plans). Even if I wanted to sell the business, I can’t. They have just nullified the business. For me, this is a very scary time.”
He had to go home and tell his wife, who runs a day care from their home. No one slept much Wednesday night.
He said he will fight the expropriation if officials don’t “play friendly … Hopefully they will do the right thing. They’re going to take my livelihood away and everything I’ve worked for.”
Dave Moody has worked in the store since 2008 and hoped to go on to manage it some day.
“I love that it’s a family business. I’m a friend of the family,” he said. “I’ve always been in retail and customer service, and I enjoy dealing with people every day. And I like the mechanical side about it too when I tune up bikes and work on bikes. It’s fun.”
He was repairing a tiny purple bicycle as he talked.
Bikes are not all alike, he said. “Every bike is different and unique in terms of what parts and components are on it. The older the bikes, the trickier they are.”
MTO is also acquiring the properties at 58 Main St., currently home to Organic Salon, and 60 Main St., home to Gordon and McGovern Construction. The bridge builders will use the adjacent Ballantyne Park during construction.
Construction is scheduled to begin in 2024-25.
Staff at Greek on Wheels and the Royal Oak didn’t want to be interviewed.
“Those three business are among the most-used businesses in our community,” said Phyllis Odenbach Sutton, president of the Old Ottawa East Community Association. “They will be a really big loss.”
She said the ministry has said there are alternatives to taking this land, but those are worse — for instance, taking over the field at Immaculata High School.
“They keep telling us there is no other reasonable alternative, but once you lose those small businesses, they’re gone.”
On Thursday Martin was diagnosing a chain that keeps slipping on one bike, and showing a customer how they welded a weak point in his frame.
One year ago a tornado missed the Martin family’s log home in Dunrobin by a whisker, and he felt pretty lucky. Now his business will probably be demolished instead.
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Wow, they're going to wipe out the majority of the remaining buildings on the north side of Hawthorne between Colonel By Drive and Main Street. Shame.
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