By Christina Rowe
Some people may soon be shopping closer to home.
The National Capital Commission recently announced its intention to rejuvenate Sparks Street Mall, a project which may include the creation of housing on the street.
It’s no secret to staff and shoppers that the mall suffers a lack of circulation after 5 p.m., when government workers file out of downtown office buildings.
The outdoor strip becomes increasingly bare as the tourist season, its most profitable time, comes to an end.
With winter quickly approaching, merchants say business drops even further.
“You can shoot cannonballs down the streets on a January evening,” says Reza Ghaffari, accountant for Canada’s Four Corners.
Housing development could be an integral ingredient in curing Sparks’ drought.
Bringing residents to the core is essential to the viability of the area, and housing may help, says NCC spokesperson Diane Dupuis.
The Sparks Street improvement plan is yet another project intended to restore the downtown core to a buzzing retail and entertainment sector.
While the plan is only in its preliminary stages, Dupuis says the commission has a number of ideas to revive the area, and is working with the private sector, the business community, the city and the region.
The most important issue, Dupuis says, is making Sparks a place where people can work, live and play, 14 hours a day, seven days a week.
The commission may be introducing housing above stores and in empty lots along the mall, says Dupuis.
“(We want) a mixed use for the area because people want to make it more lively, more animated, more viable,” she says.
The NCC also plans on addressing parking and traffic issues that would follow the creation of housing, Dupuis adds.
“To turn the upper level floors of these buildings into lofts is not a bad idea at all,” Ghaffari says. “If more people live downtown, then more people will circulate around here.”
But some merchants fear housing could mean more construction — an unappealing prospect to many people living and working in the core.
“I think residential (housing) on the second floor is a good idea as long as it doesn’t bung up the mall with more construction,” says Nick Alsford, manager of Armstrong Shoes on Sparks Street. “It’s too noisy, too much mess. Construction is necessary, but it hurts business.”
With the recent loss of Marks and Spencer, merchants and shoppers say it’s the lack of a large retailer that’s hurting Sparks.
“We lost a lot of our retailers here. Marks and Spencer’s gone so maybe we need some bigger retailers, bigger names,” says office worker Juliana Gomes.
Alsford agrees: “A good anchor on the mall would be great, but try and get a good anchor,” he says. “No big major retailer is going to come down to this mall . . . not the way it is right now.”
No large retailer has jumped at the chance to move to Sparks Street, even with the Marks and Spencer location available, says Sheryl Bennett-Wilson, a member of the mall management board.
The mall is “waiting to see if a major retailer does nibble at that (location), and if one did come in I think everybody would be thrilled,” she says. “I think management will support anything that will benefit the mall.”
Revitalizing Sparks is one of the NCC projects planned as part of its “vision” for the core.
Dupuis says the commission will update people on its plans for Victoria Island and the Chaudière Islands, the extension of Bank Street to the Ottawa River, the link to Gatineau Park, plans for the E.B. Eddy lands in Hull, and the long-promised development of Lebreton Flats.