A popular retail and hospitality strip along Whyte Avenue in Edmonton is experiencing a transformation these days with several opportunities for new tenants or new property owners.
As pedestrians stroll along the main few blocks along this high street, they will notice a number of for sale and for lease signs throughout.
Kevin Glass, Senior Associate with Marcus & Millichap, which has listed the Army & Navy Department Stores building for sale, said the pandemic beat up Whyte Avenue for a couple of years.
“We saw an exit from a decent amount of kind of any of the larger brands. They felt they didn’t need to be there. Leases were up. So they were just moving out. So there was definitely a fair amount of closures and challenges for one to three years,” said Glass.
“From our end of it, the feel we have on Whyte Avenue is that there definitely was a slow down, a hit and a lot of challenges through that period and that was pretty evident.
“I think in the last year we’re still dealing with looking at a lot of some of the challenges that were there. But the energy levels have shifted. There’s been some new restaurants opened. There’s decent life even just a bit off Whyte there . . . You’re definitely seeing new energy. There’s a few different deals that are happening that are in progress right now. We’ve had some good interest on the redevelopment of that Army & Navy building. If you can take that building and activate that again that’s a big chunk there. That makes the feel change a lot. It’s not just one single small unit. We’re working through some stuff there. I can’t really share too much. It’s still pretty early. There’s been interest. We’re zeroing in on something here that hopefully will come to fruition and ultimately will help bring back life to that specific area.”
Glass said from a high level it would be easy to look at all the signs and wonder if the avenue is dying but there are new businesses opening along the popular strip and people continue to visit the area.
“There’s demand there still. It’s not like a complete there’s air out of the tire,” he said. “It just takes time to fill some of those bigger vacancies and to make that impact.
“I think there’s some good optimism that we’re on the trend upward and that we’re going to keep filling those holes and bring that vibrancy back.”
Glass said the key selling point of Whyte Avenue is that it’s pretty much Edmonton’s high street. It’s a walkable, pedestrian friendly area with the university nearby, residential nearby, arts and culture, and the farmers’ market as well.
“You’re not going to really replace or duplicate that in any other spot in Edmonton. Even if there’s been some hard times through COVID you’re still looking at that as a bit of a beacon of that high street,” he added.
Cherie Klassen, Executive Director of the Old Strathcona Business Association which includes Whyte Avenue, said there were 30 new business licenses in the first quarter of this year in the business district.
In 2023, the vacancy rate was 10.5 per cent which was a six per cent decrease from the same time in 2022, which is measured for close to 400 businesses in the business improvement area.
“There’s certain blocks that we’ve seen especially since COVID that have had sort of a little impact with businesses closing down. I’ll use the Army & Navy block as that’s probably the most prominent. It’s a big building and once that was vacant, and that goes back to pre-COVID, that really makes the block look like it’s empty,” said Klassen.
“There is good news though. We’ve been tracking our vacancy rate since 2020 and it’s been steadily going down.
“So I think sometimes perception versus reality isn’t almost the most accurate but understanding that when you do have big buildings that are vacant for a long period of time it doesn’t give the greatest perception.”
She said new residential developments are also underway in the area.
“There’s good things coming,” added Klassen.
“A large part of what we’ve done at the business association has been research into understanding why people come here and repeatedly visitors tell us they come here to experience anything that the area has to offer. They will park down here, spend the day and just walk and discover. So we know we have a lot of destination type shoppers and a lot of people that are coming to explore which is an amazing type of customer base and visitor base.
“We really want to cultivate a space that is a destination and create spaces for people who want to come and linger and hang out and spend lots of time and spend the whole day here. We know that when people spend more time here they spend more money.”
Klassen said “why Whyte Avenue has always kind of risen from the ashes when there’s been an economic downturn” is because it has a number of elements that make it attractive for consumers and businesses – its location, the streetscape, diversity of businesses, amenities nearby.
Is this a paid article? It provides no information, just optimistic whims of leasing agents. The take away is, Whyte Ave is empty but not for long. Nothing new actually opening, but trust us?
Marc, brokers are generally aware of the demand for space and what tenants may be looking for space in an area — sometimes what you see isn’t what’s all there (or what’s to come). We experienced that here in Toronto when the Toronto Star reported the Bloor Street was essentially “dead” — all the while behind the scenes, lease deals were being done and now the street is almost ‘full’, with few spaces for new retailers.