Brockville, The Little Engine that Could
Brockville is a small town that is trying to grow into a medium sized city. To kick start the economy of the town, the town councillors attracted names like Wallmart, The Real Canadian Superstore, Starbucks, Future Shop, Reitmans, and other big names.
Over the last five years, I have seen empty spaces gradually get built over. Most of it uptown. Downtown is like a ghost town, business's come and they go. Storefronts are empty, and there is no place to go. Right now, there is only one grocery store, and a couple of pharmacies.
Encouragingly, there is a big multimillion dollar project happening, right now, called the Tall Ships. The town expects it to attract tourists, and help rejuvenate the downtown area.
We'll see. It is half completed now, and hopefully it encourages, continued growth in the downtown area.
Tall ships is a condo development on the Brockville Waterfront. On the main level there will be a 15,000-square-foot aquarium, a fresh water diving information centre, with a special mooring for tall ships.
The project will be built by Thomas Fuller Construction at a cost of 60 million dollars, and named The Maritime Discovery Centre.
Over the years, Brockville has experienced several plant closings, and the exodus of many downtown business, leaving residents with nowhere to do their shopping.
Using the proximity to Highway 401, and the cities parkway and waterfront, the town has been able to make a small turnaround.
Business's are coming into Brockville again; however, it is still stealing from the downtown area. Most of the business's that have opened in the last five years has been uptown, not downtown.
Hopefully, after the completion of the Tall Ships building, more business will open up downtown. What Brockville needs to do downtown is to encourage, building owners to lower their rents for their storefronts, and add more parking spaces.
Unless Brockville does more to keep business downtown, it will fizzle and die.
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