Business owners interested in sussing out a prime location on Sparks Street were taken on a tour of four properties for lease on the pedestrian mall, with organizers hoping for some matchmaking magic.
The Sparks Street BIA and Mall Authority, National Capital Commission, and Public Services and Procurement Canada hosted an open house along the downtown pedestrian street last week in the hopes of attracting more businesses to the area.
The open house brought hopeful business owners on a tour of 71 Sparks St., 175 Sparks St., 179 Sparks St. and 191 Sparks St. The properties at 175 and 179 Sparks St. are housed in heritage buildings, both with high ceilings, exposed brick walls and large front windows in 2,452 square feet and 2,723 square feet, respectively. 191 Sparks St. is a 2,093-square-foot space with large street-facing windows, near the new home of the Terry Fox statue. The location at 71 Sparks St. has 1,656 square feet with a small lobby area and a larger finished space.
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Kevin McHale, executive director of the Sparks Street BIA and Sparks Street Mall Authority, said events such as these showcase the spaces available in the downtown core and challenge the idea of what people think Sparks Street is all about.
“There’s a common assumption that Sparks Street is great at lunch hour and horrible at six o’clock and I’ll disagree with that,” McHale said.
Over the past few years, he said, the street’s busiest day of the week has been Friday and its busiest time is 4 p.m. The street’s weekly foot traffic increased nearly 24 per cent in 2024 compared to last year, according to the BIA’s data.
Chris Hetherington, chief of leasing at the NCC, said the organization wants to flip the script so that Sparks Street differs from Manhattan’s Wall Street, which is busy in the day but quiet at night.
“There is a high hope that the strip will become a food and beverage destination from early in the morning to late at night,” Hetherington said.
McHale pointed to Riviera, a high-end restaurant focused on the dinner rush, and the Rabbit Hole, a restaurant and speakeasy bar that touts a chic dress code needed to enter after 10 p.m., as prime examples of how Sparks Street is carving out a nighttime presence.
“You can look down Sparks Street at eight o’clock and say, ‘Yeah, it’s pretty empty.’ But stick your head in the restaurants and they’re full,” he said.
McHale also noted that it isn’t just the late-night crowd that’s hanging around Sparks.
“One thing we’ve noticed is that there has been a culture shift and there’s a real coffee culture that is emerging. That means residents are coming back to use the area as their front lawn,” he said.
That’s not the only shift that McHale has noticed post-pandemic.
“We’re seeing groups like running clubs and biking clubs using Sparks Street as a starting point or an ending point. We didn’t see that 10 years ago, so that’s fantastic,” he said.
He wants people to start thinking about downtown like they did “in the old days.”
“How do we get folks to start using their downtown where you would do your work but then you could go down for the day or on the weekend? I think we really just want to make sure that people see this as a desirable place to come and the BIA and mall authority have roles in doing that,” he said, pointing to events such as Winterlude as additional draws.
McHale says that all types of businesses are welcome to occupy the vacant spots and that a study of the downtown’s businesses may be on the horizon to further support their decisions.
“We’re not trying to prescribe anything to any of the property owners … What we want to try and do is get a balance. You never want too much of one thing. Potentially, in 2025, we’re hoping to study the downtown core so we can say, ‘Okay, there is a demand for this type of service or cultural institution’ and provide property owners with that data and maybe give them a new idea of what to look for for their spaces,” he said.
With the possibility of a LeBreton Flats redevelopment project, Hetherington says Sparks Street will be a natural gathering place for people before and after main events at the new arena.
The Sparks Street BIA and mall authority is working to expand its footprint from the six street blocks it currently occupies to a total of 29 blocks that consist primarily of mid- and high-rise buildings, many of which are government buildings managed by Public Services and Procurement Canada.
McHale says the additional member businesses will strengthen the idea that downtown is the place to go. A flyer handed out at the open house event said the expansion of the BIA will “extend these essential services to the heart of the downtown core that is currently underserved and underrepresented.”
The new BIA would expand west to Bay Street, south to Laurier Avenue West, east to Metcalfe Street, and along the west side of Elgin Street north of Slater Street. Once approved, the expansion will take effect Jan. 1.
Along with the expansion will come a name change for the BIA, which has yet to be announced, but the BIA says it is engaged in research and a rebranding exercise to develop a brand identity that better reflects the expanded area.
In the meantime, the BIA and mall authority is working to create connections between prospective businesses and property managers to fill vacant lots and work toward making the pedestrian street a desirable location in the downtown core.
“We’ll make the introduction (between the businesses and property managers). We’ll let them have the negotiation and see if it’s a fit. Then we think about how we can support that business once they’re in and … we can really start building that idea that coming downtown for a visit is an experience,” McHale said.
