ByWard building tenants worried about future under new management

Tenants at the city-owned ByWard Market Square building are worried after the new management group told council last week it is looking to bring a "new national brand specialty retailer" to the building.

"A big corporation? I am very surprised," said Claude Bonnet, owner of Le Moulin de Provence, an anchor tenant at the north end of the city-owned building at 55 ByWard Market Square.

"Because the vision for this market was to keep the small retailer. We always try to keep the franchise away. If we have the big corporation, it means it will be killing the small ones. It's going to be a disaster, for sure."

• ByWard Market management corporation off to rocky start
• Former planning chair to oversee city's market makeover
• Is handing over struggling public markets a good deal for city?

A number of other tenants said they had heard something about the idea of bringing some sort of national retailer, but knew few details — which have led some of them to assume the worst.

"Probably that is what they want in this area," said Alicia Diaz, who co-owns Continental Bagel with her husband. "And all of these family businesses are going to be banned from the market. That is what I think."

'Things are going to change in this building': Hume

That's not true, said a spokesperson for Ottawa Markets, the municipally owned corporation that since the start of 2018 has been overseeing the operation. That includes outdoor vendors at the Parkdale and ByWard markets, as well as 25 indoors tenants at the Market Square building, and seven more on the ground level of the city's parking garage at 70 Clarence St.

But changes are coming to the market — eventually Peter Hume, a former city councillor and voluntary chair of Ottawa Markets said.

And everyone may not like them.

In a report to council last week, Hume said business at the market's outdoor vendors is dropping and the current revenue model for the ByWard building won't work to revitalize either the outdoor or indoor markets. The regulations and zoning are out of date, and the market building needs a different retail mix, Hume told council.

While no one will be thrown out of the building, a new vision may not encompass everyone currently in the building.

"We have to look at it in a way that means that things are going to change in this building," Hume told CBC. "And yes, someone may look at it and say, 'That doesn't include me.'"

Bring in national specialty retailer

It was Hume's suggestion that Ottawa Markets wanted to sign a "national brand specialty retailer" someday that concerned — and confused — tenants in the market building.

Hume explained that the board isn't looking for just any chain store, but wants to attract a "retailer that embodies the mandate of food and comes from a market background."

He used the example of Sur La Table, the specialty cookware retailer that opened at Seattle's Pike Place Market in 1980, but which now boasts more than 100 retail locations in the U.S. and has an online shopping business. 

It's hard to know how many retailers would fit that very specific bill — a food-based specialty company with a history in public markets — or whether Ottawa Markets could attract that sort of store to the market building.

Zoning too restrictive

And even if it were possible, the city would first have to change the restrictive zoning for the building.

The current zoning only allows food retailers and small arts and crafts stores. In fact, many restaurants and take-out shops in the building don't comply with the zoning at all, but were somehow allowed to open. Other uses — such as offices for the mostly empty second floor — are also not allowed.

Hume told council that Ottawa Markets will be looking to update the zoning in the near future. And he told council the current building's infrastructure is not adequate, as washrooms are not accessible or safe.

The new municipal corporation has only been operating for six months and has been busy. They have hired executive director Jeff Darwin and property manager Ashley Hopkins and balanced its 2018 budget. 

Tenants at ByWard Market Square building complain of being kept in the dark

9 years ago

Duration 0:45

Alicia Diaz, who co-owns Continental Bagel, and Claude Bonnet, who owns Le Moulin de Provence, say they don't get many updates about future plans for the building.

But that is cold comfort to those who'd like a more certain future.

"No one wants to talk to us. What is the real situation?" said Diaz of Continental Bagel. "If they give us a deadline, we can work on that deadline, but they are not, so we are in limbo."