The Spring Garden Road area has been going through changes, and we can probably call the opening of the new Halifax Central Library in late 2014 the catalyst.
The exciting part is how so many businesses moved around in the last five years but stayed in the area, like candy shop Sweet Jane’s moving from Doyle Street to a prime corner of Queen and Morris streets. Or businesses like sock and undergarment store Sock it to Ya and stationery shop Duly Noted moving to Doyle Street.
Some moves were precipitated by businesses being displaced, but BMO and the TD Bank found new Spring Garden homes, while their old addresses are now The Doyle.
The Doyle became home to a new Lululemon store and introduced a stand-alone store for Canadian designers Judith and Charles, and the first North American location for U.K. based retailer Oasis.
Now, The Doyle will be home to Lily’s Lingerie, All Dressed Up, Chester and Felicity, Be Gorgeous and Dugger’s, as its block is also getting ready for redevelopment and will have retail space when it’s finished.
The municipality has played a role in the change. HRM installed a protected bike lane on South Park and is installing traffic signals where Sackville Street, Queen Street and Dresden Row have long been tricky areas for left turns and pedestrians alike. When finished, HRM will realign some streets with new one-way traffic patterns.
HRM has also had public consultations regarding its Imagine Spring Garden Road project, the next phase of which is to engage the community on the topic of public art. The city has already demonstrated vision with temporary stoplights and more public space for pedestrians.
Other spaces that have changed the way the whole area looks include an empty lot being converted to a busy seasonal beer garden by the folks from Stillwell, which will stay open into autumn this year.
A block north, the former CBC and YMCA buildings have come to life as Pavilion and Curve, and are already home to a location for international matcha tea cafe Tsujiri, which opened this week. These buildings also house the recently opened Highlander Spa, which focuses on men, and a new CUA branch that moved from Spring Garden Road. Pavilion will also soon be home to the much anticipated John W. Lindsay YMCA.
Through all this change many charms remain, like the Lord Nelson Hotel and the Public Gardens, and you can find Bud the Spud parked in front of the old library during the day, with Korean street cart Jong Lee there many evenings.
Spring Garden Road, often described as the busiest pedestrian street east of Montreal, is poised to be even busier.
Here are some additional recent retail happenings:
Last week I mentioned that The Red Stag was closing, but come September 1 the folks from Black Sheep start renovating and will be moving their Dresden Row eatery to that location for the new year.
The Sutton Place Hotel in the Nova Centre is opening on September 8. CHOP Steakhouse expected to follow soon after as the house restaurant.
The new Payzant Home Hardware is now open in Cole Harbour. It replaces the former Rona, which closed earlier this year as Rona’s parent downsized.
Congrats to our new Payzant's Home Hardware Cole Harbour location which just opened this morning!
Posted by Payzant's Home Hardware Lower Sackville on Monday, August 31, 2020
A new international flavour has come to Halifax as Moroccan focused restaurant Casablanca has opened at 1532 Queen St. just off Spring Garden.
Major retailers continue to shrink as Suzy Shier and Rw & Co are both closing their locations in Dartmouth Crossing.
Sobey’s is doing a test run of its Voila online click and collect grocery service. It looks like the local test stores are Herring Cove Road and Wyse Road. It`s invite-only for friends and family but is expected to be rolled out to the public by Labour Day.
