Broadway Avenue businesses hoping for rebound year

Spring is finally here and for Saskatoon businesses along Broadway Avenue, the warmer weather brings the optimism that things will pick up in the area after some challenging years.

“We’ve had a couple of rough summers on Broadway,” DeeAnn Mercier, executive director of the Broadway Business Improvement District (BID), said.

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Businesses on Broadway are coming off a rough patch.

“Rents escalated when times were good and sort of peaked in 2013 and 2014,” Keith Webb, with Colliers International, said. “Then the economic downturn sort of started in ’15 and nobody really recognized it.”

Broadway also took a hit in 2016 when the corridor was closed for construction throughout the summer, limiting foot traffic and leaving businesses unable to recover.

The construction tapered off in the summer of 2017, but the area still saw shut down side streets leading to Broadway due to water main repairs.

According to Colliers, retail vacancy rates in Saskatoon climbed to 4.5 per cent in 2017.

“Now you’ve got lots of tenancies there that are trying to make sure they can operate in the rent levels they’re paying and are probably doing fairly well,” Webb said. “But there has been some failures and there’s going to be some more.”

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Broadway had four vacancies last summer, but each have been filled.

The BID is expecting a busy summer ahead, with a few new businesses opening their doors, including Wanuskewin Heritage Park’s new shop.

“There’s a new shoe store and handbag store that’s going to be opening up in a month or so,” Mercier said. “On Broadway and 11th Street, a building will be going up there. The proposal is for a microbrewery and restaurant.”

A new sushi restaurant is in the works as well, replacing Sushiro; the latest Broadway business to close its doors.

“Sushiro has been here almost two decades, which is a long time; they’re an institution on Broadway, so it’s very sad to see them go,” Mercier said.