The former Goldstein’s Freshmart on Elgin street closed down in 2007. Its building remains boarded up.
A lack of parking, high rent and shortage of building space are preventing the construction of additional grocery stores in the Centretown area, commercial real estate experts say.
Two of the area’s former grocery stores stand boarded up, forcing residents to travel farther to get groceries.
Richard Smith, a commercial real estate sales representative for Royal Lepage Performance Realty, says the former Goldstein’s Freshmart near Elgin and Cooper streets, and a building on Bank and Sunnyside are unlikely to house stores anytime soon.
With at least 10,000 square feet, the buildings could host grocery stores, but the realities of the grocery industry make it unfeasible for potential retailers.
“They closed for a reason,” says Smith. “The rent is just prohibitive to the business they’re in.”
“The drawbacks are the parking,” says Michael Kelly, a commercial real estate broker for CLV Realty Corporation. “Without the support of parking they have to depend on traffic.”
Without a steady flow of cars and pedestrians coming into downtown, the profitability of additional stores — besides Hartman’s on Bank Street — is questionable.
Smith agrees.
“Hartman’s has pretty much captured that area and I don’t know if you could support two downtown grocery stores.”
Hartman’s does well because of walk-in sales from high-rises in the area. Other areas of Centretown he calls “downsized” because they contain fewer families.
“It’s the national trend, grocery stores are closing up and moving to the suburbs,” says Gene Williams health director at the Somerset West Community Centre.
It’s an issue his organization is trying to address with other Ottawa area partners. The centre has been trying to develop a food co-op to replace the former Loeb store on Booth Street that has been closed for nearly two years.
The store was once a fixture of the Dalhousie community, but residents now have to travel to Hartman’s for groceries, as do residents on Elgin Street.
The lack of grocery options is detrimental to those on a fixed or lower income, says Heather Hossie of Just Food, an Ottawa community group that works on issues of food security.
She says she expects low income residents will now rely on convenience stores in the area.
“There are issues of health concerns there.”
Kelly says the Centretown area could probably support a smaller fruit and vegetable stand. “It would be nice to have a Farmboy downtown but they just can’t find the space.”
Farmboy, an eastern Ontario based grocer specializing in fresh foods including organic produce, has stores in Ottawa but none in the downtown core.
Smith says today’s grocery retailers need 25,000 square feet of space to build a store.
“That building size would be hard to find," he says, because most property owners split up buildings, renting to a number of customers to pay for high downtown rents.
“How many coffee shops or pubs can you have?” Kelly asks of Centretown.
He says loosening building restrictions could bring bigger sized buildings into the downtown, potentially opening up a new home for a grocery store.