'There's just no one down here anymore': Sports4 moving from downtown, blames lack of foot traffic
It's the end of an era for one sporting goods store at Bank Street and Laurier Avenue.
"We faced the reality that things weren't going to get better and it's time to move," said Sports4 owner Jim MacFarlane. "There's just no one down here anymore."
For 41 years, it was a prime location but not anymore.
"Lunch hours, it used to be packed with people. It's now barren," said MacFarlane. "It's a tough environment to run a business in and we hoped for change but it hasn't gone that way for us."
Sports4 has already opened its new location in the Glebe. By the end of September, the shop at 151 Bank St. will be no more. There is no word yet on what will take its place.
"I am sad," said MacFarlane. "Forty-one years is a long time and it's going to be so weird to not come here."
This is becoming a larger problem: a hollowed out downtown not recovering quickly enough from the pandemic. The Bank Street BIA is trying to be optimistic.
"When the W.H.O. said the pandemic's over, it doesn't mean it's going to shift back to where it was before. It's not," said executive director Christine Leadman. "We have a changing downtown. For revitalization of the core, there needs to be investment in the core."
It comes on the heels of the federal government's plans to dispose of 10 buildings in the national capital region, including L'esplanade Laurier in downtown Ottawa.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Grandparent scam: London, Ont., senior beats fraudsters not once, but twice
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
Deaths of 4 people on Sask. farm confirmed as murder-suicide
The deaths of four people on a farm near the Saskatchewan village of Neudorf have been confirmed a murder-suicide.
CRA no longer requiring 'bare trust' reporting in 2023 tax return
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
Full parole granted to man convicted in notorious 'McDonald's murders' in Cape Breton
The Parole Board of Canada has granted full parole to one of three men convicted in the brutal murders of three McDonald's restaurant workers in Cape Breton more than 30 years ago.
Incident on Calgary's Reconciliation Bridge comes to safe resolution
Nearly 20 hours after a man climbed and remained perched on top of the Reconciliation Bridge in downtown Calgary, the situation came to a peaceful resolution.
Sunshine list: These were the Ontario public sector's highest earners in 2023
Ontario released its annual sunshine list Thursday afternoon, noting that the largest year-over-year increases were in hospitals, municipalities, and post-secondary sectors.
George Washington family secrets revealed by DNA from unmarked 19th century graves
Genetic analysis has shed light on a long-standing mystery surrounding the fates of U.S. President George Washington's younger brother Samuel and his kin.
'We won't forget': How some Muslims view Poilievre's stance on Israel-Hamas war
A spokesman for a regional Muslim advocacy group says Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's stance on the Israel-Hamas war could complicate his party's relationship with Muslim Canadians.
Why some Christians are angry about Trump's 'God Bless the USA' Bible
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is officially selling a copy of the Bible themed to Lee Greenwood’s famous song, 'God Bless the USA.' But the concept of a Bible covered in the American flag has raised concern among religious circles.