Closing or Moving: What is Going to Happen to Downtown Fredericton?

Read’s Newsstand Café, Second Spin Records, Damda Restaurant, and Owl’s Nest Bookstore have all closed this year in downtown Fredericton, while Aitkens Pewter moved outside of the city centre.

In August, Aitkens Pewter moved its shop and its store into a single location on MacLeod Avenue. The five-decade old business had its shop in the Vanier Industrial Park for the past three decades, and the store has had many different addresses in downtown over the years.

“The ease at which you can buy things online and have them delivered to your house. It’s easier to do that than it is to maybe fight with traffic in the downtown area, to deal with parking, with snow, ice,” says owner and founder Martin Aitken.

Aitkens Pewter sells its products, which go from jewelry to butter knives, on its website. Aitken says that online sales are becoming more important and that Aitkens Pewter could one day sell on Amazon. But, the in-store sales are still the business’s main source of revenue, according to Aitken.

Owl’s Nest Bookstore will also take advantage of the online market. The store which closed in September will look to sell its remaining used books on the internet.

“Ok so, it moved from a building that is two storeys high and almost half a block long to a 28 by 36 home pretty much in boxes stacked literally from the floor to the ceiling,” says owning family member Elli Croft about the books which are now in her parents’ house.

Croft says that this year’s flood, the traffic, and the lack of parking may have led to the closure of the bookstore.

Bruce McCormack, the general manager of business promoter Downtown Fredericton, says the City is currently looking to make downtown parking more accessible to customers of all ages.

But to McCormack, the city centre is not dying.

“We (Downtown Fredericton) like to look at it positively because we think it is an opportunity for new businesses to come in.”

Many are moving in, and most buildings will not remain vacant for a long time. Sport store Radical Edge will take over Owl’s Nest Bookstore’s building, and the New Brunswick Community College of Craft and Design will move into Aitkens Pewter’s old address on Queen Street.

Also, some businesses who have lived through five decades, such as McTavish Source for Sports and Tony’s Music Box, do not plan on closing anytime soon.