On a warm weekday downtown, Chris Stevens has opened the doors to her tiny shop on Lower Johnson Street while she carefully cuts a brim for one of her custom hats.
St. Evans Hattery is only 40 square feet — a closet, really — fronting a heritage building with tall windows. There’s enough room for a customer or two to step inside, have a chat and watch Stevens at work.
“I’m really lucky to have found this space … probably the smallest retail space in North America,” says Stevens, who used to sell at markets and make her hats at home, which provided only limited exposure.
“Here I can work and talk with people, sell some hats … it’s really a great situation for me.”
Stevens opened her outlet in June, one of many business owners in the core who continue to see downtown as a “vibrant and funky place” to make a living.
She’s well aware of the issues facing downtown businesses. The rents can be high for single entrepreneurs, more people are shopping online than ever before and a tight economy is still restricting spending.
Downtown businesses also have to deal with street crime like vandalism and shoplifting, along with parking issues and sometimes confusing bike lanes that irk vehicle-oriented shoppers.
About 20% of Downtown Victoria Business Association members gave downtown a failing grade in a survey released last month, the highest percentage since the survey began in 2019.
Many small and medium-sized businesses rely on locals as customers, according to Jeff Bray, CEO of the DVBA, with 66% of all downtown customers coming from within the Capital Regional District.
That reliance on regional customers highlights why customer perception, drivability and safety were the central challenges identified by businesses, he said.
But the survey showed bright spots, too.
Five per cent more business licences were issued in 2023 than in 2022, and the tourism, marine and technology sectors are thriving, the report said. New office space and more housing units are being developed in the core.
The report said the streetfront and retail vacancy rate dropped by about 1% last year from 2022, to 9.2%. Meanwhile, the number of people living downtown is on the upswing, with six rental and two condo projects under construction.
In 2022, 262 condos and 405 rental units were built. The 2021 census found about 11,000 people were living downtown.
Stevens said she has a lot of faith in downtown continuing to rebound.
As two major businesses prepare to leave Lower Johnson — Lululemon is moving to the Customs Building on the Inner Harbour and Baggins is closing and going online in October — she said landlords could help to rejuvenate the area by cutting larger spaces into smaller stores like her own.
Noting that the Lululemon space is over 10,000 square feet, she said if a landlord split it for independent makers who could pay $1,200 a month “that’s doable for a lot of makers.”
She said the downtown needs more collective spaces where entrepreneurs can both make and sell their products, because renting two places is simply too expensive.
“We need to have landlords and the local government supporting small businesses to make spaces more accessible,” said Stevens. “As it is, they’re expensive and they’re only accessible to chains … that kills a downtown.”
Stevens pays $750 a month for her 40-square-foot shop, and with operating costs shared with other tenants, the total comes to about $1,180 monthly, “which is expensive, but manageable,” she said.
“So going from the markets to this, I have to sell at least three extra hats a month to have it make sense,” said Stevens. “I’m hoping to get to a break-even point this year, but I’m not sure it’s going to happen. If it doesn’t happen in two years, I am going to have to reevaluate.”
So far, however, it’s been nothing but a positive experience, she said.
The Downtown Victoria Business Association recently released a promotional video, Heart is Full (When You’re Downtown), on YouTube.
The two-minute choreographed production features dancers and singers — including several local business owners like Trish Tacoma of Smoking Lily — celebrating throughout downtown, hitting major shopping districts like Government Street, Lower Johnson, Chinatown, Bastion Square and upper Fort Street.
Cineplex theatres locally will be showing full versions and clips of it throughout the summer.
While downtown businesses have to deal with everything from economic challenges to social issues and crime and parking snafus, many continue to thrive through perseverance and the idea that the core is a unique place that’s worth the investment.
Here are some of their stories — and ideas on how to make downtown better:
Golden opportunity
Brooke Meeker saw a golden opportunity to expand her business from Mission into downtown Victoria in December when she took over a 1,000-square-foot space in the historic Yarrow Building on Fort Street.
After a major renovation of a former insurance office, Meeker opened Goldenball Mercantile in time for Christmas. “We love the city and we wanted to capture the larger audience of Victoria locals and also the booming tourism business,” said Meeker, adding both of her sons go to the University of Victoria and work at the store.
“We are loving our downtown location.”
She said what makes Goldenball special is her efforts to source high-end and unique products that can’t be found in other stores.
“I will not carry products that other stores in the same city carry. I carry brands that I have loved for years, and also brands and products that have a unique story or long history,” said Meeker. “I search far and wide for the best of things.”
She supports local and B.C. artists and brands, but “scours the globe for incredible products and brands made by fabulous visionaries.”
Case in point are the Foxford wool blankets she carries, which come from an Irish wool mill started in 1892 by a Catholic nun who enlisted the help of a Protestant mayor and a Freemason wool-mill owner. It’s the longest operating wool mill in Ireland.
“This is just one example of why we don’t sell a product, we tell a story. Let the story sell the goods on its own merit.”
Meeker spent 30 years in the industrial mill business, manufacturing high-end cedar shingles for the roofing market. Her family has been in the cedar business since 1908.
The stores are now her passion project, offering everything from a $3,000 painting to a $7 magnet.
Meeker said her main issue with downtown is lack of signage directing high traffic off Government Street into the side streets. She wants to see city council allow more sandwich boards or signs pointing to businesses.
More than shaves and haircuts
The increasing population of downtown residents has been a good thing for Bachir Zoghbi, owner of Central Barbers.
He has expanded from six chairs to 14 and opened a women’s section while adding services such as waxing, shaves, facials and eyebrow threading.
On any given day, Zoghbi has eight staff on the floor. Employees hail from several countries, including Ukraine, Lebanon, Mexico and Korea.
“Downtown has a great vibe,” says Zoghbi, who took over the 40-year-old business in 2017. “It’s definitely growing, so we are offering more services because of that.
“The response has been great and I’m pretty happy with how things are going.”
Running a business downtown is not without problems, however. He said he has to clean up the sidewalks most mornings and the bike lanes along Fort Street are causing confusion for some customers.
Some clients, particularly seniors who like early-morning haircuts, no longer have an hour of free parking on the street because enforcement starts at 8 a.m.
“So they have to spend more money, and that’s not good for seniors who only have so much to spend,” says Zoghbi.
He said the city should revert to later parking enforcement and help businesses clean up the mess left by unhoused people living on the street.
Lingerie, and a drink
Hands up anyone who has waited outside a department-store change room for long periods while a significant other is trying on items.
At Mel Lingerie, located on the outside of the Bay Centre, owner Melissa Dean tries to keep everybody happy.
Those waiting can have a beer because the studio is licensed. Or if you bring the kids, there are toys and books and staff who don’t mind keeping them busy during the time-consuming business of measuring for bras and other items.
The studio is also open for night parties, such as bachelorettes and birthdays.
The business opened in 2020 — during the pandemic — and Dean says there’s no place she would rather be than downtown.
But there are challenges. She’s had a break-in and suffered from shoplifting.
Like other businesses, she has found it hard to find staff. Parking is next to impossible, too, so the one thing she feels she can do is approach city hall about getting specific street-parking spots for businesses like hers that are destinations and rely on appointment-based customers.
“You see restaurants getting whole areas outside their businesses for seating, so why not other businesses?”
Dean said solving the parking problem would help her to build and keep her clientele and likely to continue to expand her product lines and revenue.
Born and raised in Victoria, Dean calls downtown a special place where local businesses benefit from each other’s presence and variety.
Unlike a mall setting, downtown provides “fresh-air breaks” between stores, said Dean. “You can go shopping and then go have something to eat on a patio or go to a museum or watch the float planes land.”
Colour and energy
Makara Adkins is an artist and businesswoman — and a force of nature.
She’s prone to dance around Good Vibe Space on Lower Johnson, a store she co-founded for makers that’s an explosion of colourful artwork and products.
The LoJo Gallery that Adkins operates upstairs and one door down from Good Vibe is also alive with colourful works of art, with brick walls open for special events and showings. A recent show of artwork by Adkins and others is aptly called Dopamine, after the chemical found in brain cells that give us feelings of pleasure and satisfaction.
“I like to focus on creating space that invokes happiness, a little escape from all the heaviness that’s going on and I do that through colour items that create nostalgic emotions,” she said. “My real message is to inspire people through art and creativity. I’m living my dream and hopefully it shows other people it’s possible. I’m transmuting the energy, as my dad used to say.”
Adkins, who previously worked in film and television as an actor and in other roles, said when work on Vancouver productions halted during the pandemic, she moved to Victoria with hopes of creating a shop.
She started taking consignments from makers, who had no markets to showcase their wares during the pandemic.
Now the works of more than 50 makers are on display at Good Vibe, which sells prints, ceramics, clothing, jewelry, beauty products and other locally or Canadian-made items, along with some international products.
“It’s a great way to fill up the store with a lot of merchandise and support our artist community,” said Adkins, who buys from some makers and provides products on a consignment basis for some new makers. “It’s a win-win.”
Adkins said Victoria is fortunate to have heritage-style buildings that make the city’s downtown unique. Despite some empty spaces on Lower Johnson, she said she’s excited to see newcomers arrive with fresh ideas
“I love this neighbourhood … change is a little scary but also really very good.”
The latest on The Latest Scoop
Home décor and gift store The Latest Scoop is opening an outlet on Government Street at Trounce Alley, a companion to its Mayfair Shopping Centre location.
The Latest Scoop says it offers a “curated selection of pretty things for you and your home” — fashion, home décor, accessories, furniture, stationery and giftware.
The company buys in Paris, Italy, New York, Bali, Los Angeles and Spain to always have new arrivals weekly, based not on brands, but on “what we find to be beautiful, inspirational, and meaningful,” brand founder Deborah Nichol told Retail Insider, a national retail industry magazine.
The store will be the 12th for the Vancouver-based company, which tests new markets with pop-up stores before committing to long-term leases, and has found Victoria is a strong market for a second store.
“You get a chance to feel it out,” Nichol told Retail Insider.
“It’s like a test drive. If you buy a car you want to test drive it and that’s sort of what we do with retail locations. And to be honest, we go in with full integrity of becoming full-time stores within that community and we just want to make sure that the neighbourhood understands us and we’re a good fit.”
Smokin’ success story
A week after the Downtown Victoria Business Association’s promotional video, Heart is Full (When You’re Downtown) was released on YouTube, Trish Tacoma — who is featured in it — arrived at her Chinatown boutique to find the door tagged in graffiti.
“It was a small amount and we just dealt with it,” says the owner of Victoria-based clothing designer Smoking Lily.
Tacoma is one of downtown’s biggest boosters. After 28 years in the core, the odd bit of graffiti doesn’t faze her. She’s built her custom clothing and silk-screening business into a well-known local brand, with its kitschy name and edgy silkscreen designs and clothing lines.
Smoking Lily spent 19 years in the 40-square-foot space currently used by St. Evans Hattery on Lower Johnson, but now occupies a retail store in the historic Yen Wo building on Government Street and a design studio on Wharf Street. She employs 13 staff.
“What makes us unusual and unique is that we silkscreen images onto our fabrics and we design our clothes from there,” says Tacoma. “We’re a small-scale business. We make everything in our studio. We’re hands-on, low-tech about it. Every piece we make is very much made with love, that’s a unique aspect.”
She said people like shopping at her store for the one-of-a-kind designs, especially women ages 30 to 50. They’re looking for clothes that fit well and are unique, said Tacoma.
“You can have an octopus-printed dress or anvils on your skirt or the periodic table on a T [shirt], so it speaks to the personality that people are looking for in their clothing that they can’t find elsewhere.
“It’s made with attitude and love.”
That periodic-table design, incidentally, was on a Smoking Lily dress famously worn at a news conference by Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, during the early days of the pandemic in March 2020. The publicity prompted the designer to ramp up production of the dress to meet a surge in demand.
Smoking Lily has a zero-fabric-waste policy, making use of every piece of fabric it uses. The company’s children’s line and accessories are made from leftover bits from other projects. Whatever is too small to sew is made into craft kits or used as stuffing for floor cushions and other projects.
Tacoma said the biggest concern for her business is not the downtown location but the recovery of the overall economy and the high inflation that has people of all walks of life cutting back on spending.
“I don’t think we would want to be anywhere else other than downtown,” she said. “It’s a diverse community and, really, quite an exceptional downtown.”
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