It’s the gap-toothed nature of the retail landscape on Government Street that seems to have prompted most of the recent concern about its vitality.
There are 13 vacant street-level spaces in the eight blocks between Humboldt and Fisgard streets. But even if they were filled, as most likely will be by the time peak tourism season begins again, there are worries the showplace promenade has lost its lustre.
Here are some observations from a few hours wandering up and down the street, on a sunny January day this week.
• January is the very bottom of the seasonal cycle, so winter store closures are completely routine. But the number this winter seems higher than usual.
On one key block between Bastion Square and Broughton Street, you walk past a pub, a closed clothing store, a vacant former food outlet, a vacant former gift shop, a jewelry store and a souvenir shop. (There’s another vacant storefront on the other side of the street, as well.)
• There are more than 50 retail shops open along the eight blocks. Most people picture souvenir-gift shops as the dominant theme. There are more than a dozen in that broad category, many aimed squarely at people who want to buy anything with the word “Victoria” on it. There are almost as many clothing stores in the same stretch, a mixed bag of mostly small boutiques, with only a few big-name draws.
• The two big landmark buildings that anchor either end of that eight-block stretch are both dead and have been for years.
A redevelopment plan for the closed Victoria Plaza Hotel got underway, but business problems stalled it out. It looks like an abandoned hulk now that kills most of that block.
Much better news at the vacant Customs House on the south end. Builder Stan Sipos has plans that could completely re-energize that side of the block, with a retail-office-residential design that would make it a featured address.
During an impromptu tour, he said the street has been on a gradual slow decline, partly due to the buildup of attractive alternative properties outside of the core.
But it might have bottomed out, he said. Bouncing back depends on attracting quality retail and making room for more people.
• The single most striking thing on this day was the panhandler situation — exactly one spotted during several trips up and down the street. People gnash their teeth about the “gauntlet” of panhandlers that visitors have to run during peak season. It’s the most sensitive topic when the street’s general health comes up. The vast majority of interested parties are circumspect about the issue, because of the complicated root causes. But privately, there is perennial frustration about the impact of panhandlers.
One off-day during the low season isn’t a finding of any sort. All that can be said is that it’s a much more pleasant stroll without them, than with them. But whether poverty-fighting efforts have cut the numbers can’t be judged until the summer.
• Pubs and restaurants seem to be a bigger pull than shops. The city’s entertainment district expanded over to Government in recent years and it’s the best thing that’s happened there. They bring their own troubles late at night, but if it’s liveliness the city is after, the more eateries with patios the better.
• Traffic was light, but the sun brought a few hundred people out over the noon hour, just enough to make the streetscape interesting. Vehicles fill the relatively narrow street with noise and are an irritant. Barring vehicles on all or part of it comes up regularly, and the idea surfaced again in these pages this week. It would be a very complicated move that would affect all of downtown, but it’s worth a try.
• A street-specific tax break would probably cost more in arguments than it would be worth in benefits. Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps raised it simply as an idea this week.
But it’s questionable whether it would filter down to the retailers, or do anything for the street itself. And it would open a door that property owners in the entire downtown core would try to walk through.
