By Jessica Crowe
A Bank Street merchant says condominiums slated to go up at the corner of Bank and Gilmour Streets are forcing him to make a move out of his current location that will hurt his business.
Glen Saunders, co-owner of the Ironwood Café at 374 Bank St., says he was led to believe his business was going to remain in the building where the Bank and Gilmour Place condos will be built.
He says the building’s owner, Craig Callan-Jones, told him a lease agreement might be worked out.
Saunders says Callan-Jones also said the restaurant could be moved to the corner unit, at 366 Bank St., where the Voyageur Restaurant is now located.
A one-storey and a three-storey building currently occupy the site.
In early 2001, the one-storey building, where the Ironwood Café is located, will be demolished for new construction.
Saunders says a move out of the Bank and Gilmour building will cut into his restaurant’s value.
He says the money he’s invested in improvements, like wood panelling, tile floors and refrigeration units, will be lost when he leaves.
“Right now, my business is worth so much on paper, but really, it’s worth almost nothing,” he says.
Saunders says an eviction notice, stating the restaurant had to be out of the space by Dec. 31, 2000, came as a total surprise. He calls the way Callan-Jones delivered the notice as “underhanded,” leaving it with an employee and not discussing it with the owners.
“No explanation, just vacate the premises,” says Saunders.
Though Saunders has found a new and larger location on Somerset Street, he says the rent is three times what he pays now. He says he can’t close the business he shares with his brother, who has a family to support.
“My brother has four kids to feed, so what can I do?”
Callan-Jones says he is well within his rights as a property owner to evict commercial renters such as Saunders. Though he is only required to give 60 days notice of eviction, he says he gave his tenants 90 days notice.
While Callan-Jones says he tried to find a way to keep the Ironwood Café in its current spot, it can’t stay since the section of the building it’s in will be torn down.
David Rimmer, owner of After Stonewall bookstore located in the three-storey building,at 370 Bank St., has leased his spot until 2003. He says he’s unsure what will happen when building begins in January and is afraid construction will obscure his storefront and hurt business.
Rimmer says he’s in one of the most affordable spots to rent commercial space in downtown Ottawa.
Sandwiched between two very expensive areas, the Glebe and the north part of Bank past Somerset, Rimmer says he enjoys the same customer traffic but at a cheaper rate.
A representative of McLaughlin Property Management, which handles the Bank and Gilmour site, says construction will take place at the back of the building and After Stonewall’s storefront won’t be affected.
Despite the disruption to his renters, Callan-Jones says condo developments like the one going up at Bank and Gilmour are good for surrounding businesses.
He says moving people into the downtown core makes it easier for them to frequent local merchants.
Marnie Bennett, a marketing consultant for Teknicity, the Bank and Gilmour Place developer, echoes this sentiment.
She says businesses on Sparks Street did poorly in the past because they relied on pedestrian traffic, and there weren’t enough people who lived close enough to walk.
She says with more people living downtown, pedestrian traffic is greater, and the atmosphere of the neighbourhood is livelier.
“By moving people downtown, you have vitality,” she says.