Saint John’s Brunswick Square No Longer Grande
SAINT JOHN – Brunswick Square, the shopping centre located in uptown Saint John, is about to have another vacancy.
The mall’s Starbucks will be closing its doors on Nov. 5.
Starbucks Canada spokesperson Madeleine Löwenborg-Frick wouldn’t give specific details about why the location was closing.
“We continue to experience high growth in Canada and are proud of our success,” Löwenborg-Frick told Huddle in an emailed statement. “As a normal part of doing business, every year we open many new stores, we close some, and relocate a few others. We consider many factors when we make these decisions. When we decide to close a store, we go to great lengths to minimize negative impacts: we offer affected store partners roles at other stores, we communicate to customers and community neighbours in advance and advise them how we will continue to support them moving forward.”
Starbucks will be the third shop to close its doors in Brunswick Square this year, with Hallmark and Suzy Sheir closing this past winter. In Summer 2015, the Source also closed its location.
In Spring 2015 Brunswick Square was purchased by Slate Asset Management from Newfoundland and Labrador-based Fortis Inc. Stephen Hefferton, Slate’s director of Atlantic operations, said he couldn’t comment on why Starbucks was leaving. He said Slate is creating a long-term strategy and reinvesting in the property, including plans to renovate the parking garage, the adjoining Delta Hotel and the food court. He says the company is also in discussions with possible new food and retail tenants.
“We can’t control some of the decisions retailers make. Retailing can be a bit of a fickle industry,” he said. “But what we can control is our investment in the property and try to invest properly to make it a location that works for consumers and retailers.”
Like shopping centres everywhere, Hefferton says Brunswick Square is also facing the challenge to stay relevant to customers in a world that’s increasingly turning to online shopping.
“There are trends and it’s ever-changing. Retailers themselves are ever-changing and of course, we’re in a world now with online retailer format changes,” he says. “I think historically it’s always changed and will continue to change and I think part of our investment strategy will be centred around what we believe to be the correct investment in the mid to long term.”
Nancy Tissington, executive director of Uptown Saint John, an organization representing the city’s uptown businesses, says news of the Starbuck’s closing came as a shock.
“It’s a sad state of affairs,” she said. “It’s hard to see an international company leave our uptown. It’s disheartening when I feel that we’re heading in the right direction for growth, I would have thought they would have been able to sustain being here.”
“If they already had faith in us, what happened that led them to move? They’re not franchises. They’re corporately owned stores … I would have thought they would have wanted to keep their presence here and if nothing else. You see Starbucks in every major city, even more than one in an urban core, let alone just one. Now we’re going to have none. It’s difficult to comprehend that.”
Tissington isn’t privy to what’s going on behind the scenes at Brunswick Square. She says the hollowing of urban shopping centres isn’t an issue unique to Saint John, but says seeing so many stores closing with no announcements on new ones opening is concerning.
“It’s one of those things where it’s more like a ‘hurry up.’ We should start to see some things quickly because what we’re seeing right now is the hollowing out of the mall without any enticement of something coming soon put up,” she says. “I would say Starbucks was kind of one of the main anchors in there … To lose that without [a hint of] what’s coming in next and [with other spaces] still sitting empty, there’s not really a strategy to show something is coming. When you look at malls you usually see that.”
“Hope is not a strategy, but I’m hoping that they’re going to have some good news over there soon, because all we’ve heard over there in the last six months is [businesses] leaving.”
Yet, outside on the street, it’s been a different story. Over the past several months a number businesses have opened within a few block radius such as Picaroons, Real Food Connections, Ella, Lordon, Eighty-Three Bar Arcade and Hopscotch Whiskey Bar. Yuk Yuk’s, Italian By Night and Five and Dime are all slated to open in the coming months. She says more and more business see the benefit of having an outdoor storefront.
“I had a national [company] that has visited us recently and has spoken to me and a few other people in the area and they are absolutely not even thinking about going inside,” she says. “They want to be outside and have some good visibility. They don’t want to be in the mall. It’s figuring out what the right mix is.”