Economic pressures will drive out less attractive businesses
Wendy McLellan
Province
CREDIT: Jon Murray, The Province Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association’s Karen Peterson Ivanick sees serious change going on.
In some blocks, you have to look pretty hard to see the changes because the cheap pizza joints, smoke shops and grungy panhandlers are still clearly visible.
But after years of neglect, Granville Mall is slowly shedding its bedraggled, unfriendly past and moving toward a long-overdue redevelopment, especially in the blocks closest to Robson, despite the street’s seedy appearance.
Rents are rising, vacant lots are disappearing under concrete forms and there are clear signs more retail activity is coming.
“It’s definitely a street in transition,” said Vancouver developer Kerry Bonnis, one of those responsible for many of the changes along Granville Mall. “The street has always had an edge, and it’s not our intention to eradicate that.
“Our intention is to put as much retail as possible in this location, which should bring more people here all through the day and night.”
Bonnis‘ company, D. Bonnis and Sons Ltd., owns the development at 790 Granville (at Robson), which opened in the fall of 2003.
It was the first sign of real change on the street, adding a large retail complex to the corner with a Future Shop and Winners as well as 13 smaller stores to draw shoppers east along Robson.
His company also owns the Commodore ballroom and four other properties in the 800-block of Granville. It recently bought three vacant lots in the 900-block that will be turned into retail stores.
He’s currently negotiating with a major retailer looking for space near the Commodore.
“It’s an exciting time,” Bonnis said. “All of this new streetscape downtown will be more interesting. There will be a lot more for people to do.”
North of Robson on the corner of Granville and Dunsmuir, The Hudson will add two more levels of retail plus a residential tower to the street when it is completed next spring.
And one block further north, Simon Fraser University is building its new graduate school of business in the old Bank of Montreal building at Pender Street.
South of Robson, the Capital 6 cinema will close later this year when the new Famous Players complex opens on Burrard Street. The building, recently purchased by Macdonald Development, is to be retail at street level, with condominiums on the Seymour Street side plus a music school and recital hall for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
With new stores and new developments, rents are increasing along Granville, especially in the blocks nearest Robson. That economic pressure will inevitably drive out the less attractive businesses along the street, said Don Vassos, senior executive vice-president of CB Richard Ellis.
“Retailers are migrating south,” said Vassos, whose company leases properties for retail clients. “Rental rates have moved quite substantially in anticipation of the street being cleaned up.”
He said properties along Granville that used to rent at about $25 per square foot are now as high as $80 in the blocks close to Robson. And new buildings are commanding even higher rents.
The city is also planning a long-awaited redesign of Granville Street‘s downtown stretch.
“We’re going redesign it from stem to stern — new lighting, sidewalks, different materials. We’re going to make it look attractive,” said Jeffrey Patterson, a senior planner for the city.
“If people think it’s attractive, and the retailers like it, Granville will be a better place. When you talk to retailers, the sense is that finally there’s a turnaround on Granville.”
But it’s not going to happen overnight.
Even if city councillors agree on a design by early summer as planned, the street will be ripped apart for RAV construction — including as many as three stations along Granville — for at least 18 months.
“We’ve wanted a redesign forever,” said Karen Peterson Ivanick, president of the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and a longtime retailer on Granville Mall.
“A lot of people think having this main street in such disrepair is holding back the city. You can’t build something in 1975 and then abandon it.”
Peterson Ivanick, who owns Anatomic Adornments body-piercing shop in the 800-block of Granville, said updating the street, along with the redevelopment under way, is gradually taking the area away from drug dealers and pawn shops and making it a safe, funky place in the heart of the city.
“There is real, serious change going on that is quite meaningful,” she said. “Leases are up for renewal and retailers that can’t get onto Robson are making the first couple of blocks of Granville the next best thing.
“That will push the smaller stores further south and pretty soon, there will be only good stuff going on. I think it could be a beautiful street. We’re just a few years away from being super hot down here.”
John Fluevog, who has sold high-fashion shoes on Granville Street for 30 years, agrees the street needs a facelift, but he doesn’t want it to become another Robson.
“I want it to have some independence,” he said. “There is pressure from all sides right now and smaller retailers are being squeezed.
“I think it will become, fortunately or unfortunately, more of a mainstream shopping venue in the middle of the city. At least it will keep the distinction of being an entertainment zone.”
© The Vancouver Province 2005 |
