The Downtown Development Commission (DDC) held its Annual General Meeting this morning at the HMS Briton Room in the Murray Premises.

Speaking to members of the Business Improvement Area (BIA), Chairman Bill Mahoney highlighted some projects from this past year, which included special events, capital works and tourism initiatives.

Mahoney stated “Last summer’s Buskers Program was a very successful project, gathering both local and national media attention. The project accomplished it’s goal of encouraging performers to showcase their talents Downtown, while providing an atmosphere and a sense of excitement not available elsewhere in the City.”

Downtown became even more tourist-friendly in 2003. Mahoney explained that the DDC partnered with the City of St. John’s to develop The Ambassador Program. The Ambassadors, volunteers identified by bright red vests, were on hand to greet cruise ships and other visitors to Downtown. Ambassadors answered questions, gave directions, and provided a friendly smile to tourists in the Downtown area.

To address winter accessibility and pedestrian safety issues Mr. Mahoney said that the DDC, in partnership with the City, started a Sidewalk Snow Clearing Pilot Project in 2003. “The Sidewalk Snow Clearing pilot Project was developed to address problems created by vacant lots and delinquent property owners in the Downtown who do not clear snow from their sidewalks.” The program was very successful with over a dozen clearings last winter. Sidewalk snow clearing was very well received by BIA members and it is set to continue in the Fall of 2004.

Looking toward the up-coming year, Mahoney announced that the DDC’s newly formed partnership with the Grand Concourse Authority will be very strategic to developing future plans for Downtown. “This partnership with the Grand Concourse Authority will focus on improving transportation in the Downtown core as well as developing more green spaces and rest areas throughout the area”. Mahoney is confident that the Grand Concourse Authority can help the DDC fulfill its mandate of making Downtown a more attractive place to live, work, shop and visit.

If plans for a 12 storey extension of the Delta Hotel go ahead, then the “New Downtown” is going to look a bit different. As well, if plans for 60 new hotel rooms on the east end of Duckworth Street and 140 new hotel rooms further west on Duckworth Street go ahead then the old downtown is going to look a bit different, too. Add 40 “boutique” hotel rooms in the King George V heritage property on Water Street and St. John’s is going to witness an unprecedented surge in hotel development.

The impacts are many if every hotel project that has entered the City’s approval process gets built. Investment will approach $64 million. The stock of hotel rooms will jump by more than a third. Part of the skyline and some streetscapes downtown will change. Finally, according to one industry veteran, “there will be disruption in the market place.” That is a polite way of saying supply will run ahead of demand, price competition will be fierce and some old and new operators will go bust.

Jean Pierre Andrieux says, “We can’t get five cents from commercial banks”. Andrieux has developed the 28 room Harbour View Hotel on Water Street and is about to begin construction of a 60 room addition that will front on Duckworth Street. Remember where Mrs. Bailey’s news stand was located? Well, pretty soon it is going to be the site of a four-storey Marriott Courtyard hotel. Andrieux’s lenders include the Business Development Bank, Banques des Iles in St. Pierre and GE Capital Corporation. Andrieux believes that “Older, unbranded properties will have difficulty.” He is betting that commercial travelers will connect with the Marriott brand name, suites with kitchens, heated floors and granite finish in the bathrooms. The size of his bet is about $9 million.

Each developer has conducted market research and each lender has scrutinized the numbers. Though the information is closely held, the studies generally agree that the hotel occupancy, at about a rate of 70%, grew slightly in St. John’s last year. In contrast, cities in the rest of Canada saw an occupancy drop. The studies also project continued growth due, in part, to expansion of offshore petroleum activity, increase in convention/meeting activity and business associated with the government/finance/university/health care sectors.

“The economic indicators are very positive,” says Cathy Duke of King George Properties Inc. the on again/off again development of the King George V heritage property on Water Street seems to be on again. Duke says construction of a 40 room boutique hotel will begin in May and be finished in nine months. Duke says a $100,000 a room is “a good number”, which means partners Rex Anthony, Guido Del Rizzo and Leo Power are looking at a price tag of $4 million. Their competition in the boutique business is the 28 room Murray Premises Hotel and the 21 room Spa at the Monastery property on Patrick Street.

Fortis Properties Inc. has demonstrated an appetite for acquisitions and growth and the 125 room expansion of the Delta Hotel on New Gower Street is another example of that strategy. The Delta Hotel is connected to the Mile One/Convention Center complex and is positioned to benefit immediately from an increase in convention traffic. The price tag is $15 million.

The Delta development is at a center of what an earlier City planning report called “The New Downtown.” For some, it represents a further realization of a plan that was hatched more than 30 years ago with a proposal by Canadian company, Trizec, to build a complex of high-rise towers combining hotel and office space on the west end of New Gower Street. For politicians who supported the Mile One/Convention Center project, the Fortis Properties investment comes as a long-awaited payoff. “It’s an example of public investment in infrastructure”, says Shannie Duff, Chair of Council’s Planning Committee. “We didn’t just build Mile One for a hockey team,” says Duff, “we built it to attract convention business.” It is still early but the Fortis investment suggests Councilor Duff may be right.

For those who thought the era of Duckworth Street hotels ended when the Welcome Hotel burned down, take heart, a 140 room hotel on Duckworth Street has just come off the drawing board and entered the City’s approval process. Langton Green Development is proposing to build an “all-suite” hotel on the north side of Duckworth Street between Church Hill and the CBC Radio building. The price tag is $18 million.

It is premature to try and pick winners and losers in the hotel marketplace, but one industry veteran handicaps it this way: Fortis Properties is a formidable competitor and it won’t be surprising if their $15 million expansion of the Delta causes some smaller developments to review their investments, delay construction or shelve plans altogether. However no one seems to be cutting and running yet. Asked about the challenge of a big Delta expansion, one developer said, “Bring it on.”

Bring it on indeed. The Provincial government may be facing bankruptcy the rest of the province may be in the midst of an economic crisis but in St. John’s there is no shortage of people willing to bet that the future is bright and they are willing to bet millions on it.

Excerpt from Current, May 2004 Issue No. 34 by Roger Bill

Lorne Loder moves up the street and proves business is good downtown.

Ballistic, the cool and very successful clothing and skateboard shop, has finally outgrown itself. After nine years in the intimate original building, the boards, the gear, the purses, the sunglasses and stickers are starting to crowd the many customers and demand to try on the shirts, jeans and fantastic little dresses is creating line ups at the dressing room doors. Owner Lorne Loder has seized the opportunity and is moving the store up Water Street into a new huge two storey location.

Prior to opening Ballistic in 1995, Loder lived between Toronto and Guatemala selling imported stuff at concerts like Lollapalooza and Earth Song. There were stores in Toronto with BMX or snowboard and skate gear, but when he came home to St. John’s he realized that there was nothing like that here and the demand existed.

Loder’s second realization was the demand for shoes. He points out that everybody, even if you are not much of a fashionista, has a good few pairs of shoes. He opened Stomp on the other side of Water Street in 2001. He plans to merge Stomp and Ballistic in the new Ballistic with the shoes, clothing, swim wear, club wear, casual wear and accessories for girls and guys on the first floor and snowboards and other gear (surf boards and even wet suits) on the second floor.

Something Loder’s stores have always done is appeal to a very wide age range. Kids as young as ten who are enamored with the décor and skate gear at Ballistic mix with regular customers in their 60’s looking sophisticated and sporty in the great quality cargo pants. Loder expects that combining Stomp and Ballistic will open up his clientele even more, that Stomp shoppers, unconvinced that graffiti heavy Ballistic would have anything to compliment those fabulous shoes, will realize that they, in fact , do.

Loder is excited about the aesthetic of his new store as well, planning to create an inviting, sophisticated look, with display windows on either side of the door, hardwood floors, thirteen foot ceilings and a staircase takes you to the second storey where four mannequins will look out of each of the four second storey windows. The concept is his own and he and Mark Whelan are executing the design. He wants the store to be inviting, to make people curious – an attractive addition to the downtown shopping district. Loder has never considered moving his location from downtown citing that downtown is the only place he wants to be. The recent and sudden closure of Wenches and Rogues has not shaken up downtown business owners who he says are confident. People are shopping downtown and business is strong.

The new, bigger Ballistic will open in the old Capital Formal Wear building when renovations are complete. Watch for great moving sales at the old Ballistic location this month, as well as a Grand Opening party in early June.

Excerpt from Current by Adriana Maggs May 2004 Issue No. 34.