Furniture Store Expands to Saint John’s Parkway Mall

SAINT JOHN — Décor and furnishings store My City Life is expanding, taking over the former Maple Leaf Queen’s Buffet location at the Parkway Mall on McAllister Drive.

Renovations started in mid-March and co-owner Mike Melvin says he’s hoping to open the doors on June 1.

“When we started this business, we had 300 square feet and I thought ‘ok, we’ll never need more than that,’” Melvin says of the original My City Life location on Princess Street. “But then the phone calls kept coming in.”

He says there’s been no shortage of people asking him if he’s interested in buying or consigning their items, so much so that he managed to fill a 14,000-square-foot warehouse space. After expanding My City Life’s footprint at Brunswick Square, by occupying three separate spaces within the mall, Melvin and his partner Carey Morris decided to take the next step and look for an additional bigger space that would allow them to showcase even more items.

But that’s not all. In addition to the nearly 10,000 square foot space at the Parkway Mall opening, Melvin is in the process of securing a space in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia and hopes to open a location there in the fall. This is in addition to the location in Bedford.

But for now, dealing with opening one new store is enough for Melvin to have on his plate.

“I want [My City Life] to be Marshalls meets the Antiques Roadshow,” he says. “We’re not just going to have used goods, we’re going to have new goods. We have a new line of furniture, new décor, just mix it all together.”

He says it was a struggle to find a space to open the second location despite looking in Fredericton and Moncton for possible spaces to occupy. He says many commercial retail spaces, especially in malls, have restrictive covenants with leaseholder about not allowing retailers of used goods. That obstacle made finding a home for the new My City Life stores significantly more difficult.

Melvin has been documenting the renovation journey on My City Life’s newest location on the company’s facebook page, giving a tour of the new space before the renovations began, and updating followers as walls get knocked down and restaurant equipment removed.

“We have a lot of sinks and stainless steel tables,” he says of the former buffet. He says he’ll be spending the next month or so selling these items off as the renovations continue.

Melvin says when the Parkway location opens, he will close the smallest of the three spaces My City Life occupies at Brunswick Square, but leave the other two open to continue serving the uptown clientele. Providing a brick-and-mortar location for Uptown Saint Johners to buy home décor was the inspiration for the business.

“We were living in in the building at Princess Street [the original My City Life location] ….when we were trying to shop to find decor and furniture for apartments, we realized it was difficult,” he recalls of the beginnings of the business in 2019.   “There was no one store you can go into in the Uptown area at the time that had all of the things we were looking for.”

During Covid the business thrived, as people looked for a way to downsize their belongings without hosting a neverending stream of people coming into their homes to look at pieces of furniture or décor items. Placing them on consignment with My City Life gave sellers a way to showcase their items, without dealing with all the people.

Melvin says when it comes to things like home décor people prefer being able to see the items in person rather than order them online.

“For me I prefer to see it, touch it, feel it … so I can decide if it’s the right piece for me. It’s hard to do that from a picture.”

There isn’t much by way of consignment stores in the Maritimes, and Melvin says he has plans to have My City Life fill that market gap – starting with this new store. He says he’s welcome to hearing from venture capitalists who share in his vision for the store, if they are looking for opportunities to contribute to the success of My City Life in everything from signage for the new store, to the continued expansion of the business.

“It’s the handshakes, it’s the hugs from the people who we are helping,” Melvin says. “That’s really our big motivator.”

“My five-year plan is to have a store in every major centre in the Maritimes, within 10 years I want to be outside of Atlantic Canada and within 20 years I’d like to be across the country.”

“My goal is to help as many people as I can and the way to do that is to try to open as many stores as I can.”

Alex Graham is a Huddle reporter in Saint John. Send her your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].