| 17th Avenue joins ranks of premier retail venues Thursday 7 December 2000 Geoffrey Scotton, Calgary Herald Grant Black, Calgary Herald / Michael Kehoe of Fairfield Commercial outside stores in Mount Royal Village on 17th Avenue S.W. The area has been ranked one of the top 10 retail streets in Canada. A growing renaissance in Canada's street retail shopping scene has helped to propel Calgary's 17th Avenue S.W. into the top echelon of this country's street shopping locations. A report by Calgary-based retail real estate specialist Michael Kehoe released Wednesday shows the 17th Avenue S.W. strip, which brands itself Uptown 17th Avenue, has moved into ninth position among the country's street retail venues when measured by rent per square foot. "It's caught the attention of the national fashion retailers, like Le Chateau. They all seem to want to be in that area, it's very much in fashion right now," Kehoe said, citing the opening of the Montreal-based chain's 17th Avenue S.W. location in February 1999. "It's part of the overall trend, that high street retailing is back in vogue (along with) the pedestrian nature of 17th Avenue and the high disposable income in that area," Kehoe, principal of Fairfield Commercial Real Estate Inc., added. Toronto's Bloor Street West, Vancouver's Robson Street and Montreal's Ste. Catherine St. are the country's top three street retail spots. Seventeenth Ave. joins another Calgary retail area, Stephen Avenue Walk, which maintained its fifth place ranking among the country's retail hot spots. "That's a good sign, that it's showing consistent productivity," said Kehoe, whose firm has helped to place many of Stephen Avenue's tenants, particularly those in renovated heritage buildings, and has a very strong presence in the area, which has a number of freshly renovated properties available. "The current momentum is going to lead us to bigger opportunities down there. There's some large blocks of space that are coming available, and we're hopeful to attract some national and international retailers, particularly in the fashion category," Kehoe said. He noted Calgary's strong showing is reflective of not only growing interest in street retail shopping but an extremely vibrant overall retailing sector across the city. "Calgary is totally on a roll right now as far as retail. The top regional mall productivity right now in Canada is in Calgary. It's all of them, Market Mall, Chinook, Southcentre, all these malls are right at the top of the food chain," said Kehoe. "Street retail is riding the wave of Calgary's economic prosperity right now," Kehoe said. Richard White, executive director of the Calgary Downtown Association, said increased activity in areas such as 17th Avenue S.W. and Stephen Avenue is being mirrored in other neighbourhoods, such as Kensington, Inglewood and Marda Loop. "Calgary is starting to come of age. When you go to Vancouver, all they have is Robson Street, whereas in Calgary within a three-kilometre radius of the downtown core you've got Inglewood, 4th Street, 17th Avenue, Kensington and the Beltline and all of them are quite healthy," said White. "Some of the success of downtown is actually moving to some of the other areas of the inner city," White added. "In many ways, 17th Avenue is going to be the southern boundary of downtown." Barbara Stein, manager of the Uptown 17th Avenue Business Revitalization Zone, said her area's ranking comes after lots of hard work to create a comfortable shopping, dining and entertainment environment. "I take a lot of pride in the fact that we are one of the hot spots. We're not a shopping mall and that's what makes us quite desirable, I think, for the discerning shopper, " said Stein. Facts Top 10 urban retail streets (rent per square foot in Canadian dollars) 1. Bloor Street West, Toronto, $150 2. Robson Street, Vancouver, $150 3. Ste. Catherine St., Montreal, $150 4. Government St., Victoria, $65 5. Stephen Avenue, Calgary, $60 6. Queen St. W., Toronto, $60 7. Queen St. E., Toronto, $40 8. Spring Garden Road, Halifax, $40 9. 17th Ave.S.W., Calgary, $40 10. Whyte Avenue, Edmonton, $30 |