Brewery and board game shop closure illustrates challenges for local businesses in Vancouver

Good morning,

I always get excited about doing restaurant reviews. There’s nothing I love more than sharing some of Vancouver’s best new, old and hidden gem locations. This week I’m planning to visit around 10 different spots I’ve had on my list.

Will they be good? Bad? The best place in the city? I will keep you posted.

Today we’ve got a story on challenges facing small businesses, as well as whether the province’s touted plan to build housing is enough.

Let’s get to it

— Geoff Sharpe, Vancity Lookout editor

Editor’s note: On Friday I referred to the Jericho Coalition’s proposed alternative project for Jericho Lands that would create dwellings for 7,200 residents, compared to 13,000 homes and  28,000 residents from the Jericho Lands proposal. The correct number for the Jericho Coalition proposal was 7,200 homes and 16,000 people. We regret the error. 

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WEATHER

Monday: 7 🌡️ 2 | ⛅

Tuesday: 6 🌡️ 3 | ☁️

Wednesday: 7 🌡️ 3 | 🌧️

WEEKLY LOOKOUT

Fun city: City council will decide this week on making liquor licensing rules more flexible. This would include changing the mandatory spacing between different liquor establishments, allow other businesses to serve liquor more easily, and ending the moratorium on new liquor licences in the Granville Entertainment District. Council is expected to pass these changes. [Global]

Park board fallout: Former park board commissioners are speaking out against proposed changes to the board. The biggest challenge for Ken Sim from this decision in the coming months will be that he no longer has a majority on the park board, which could make pushing any policy related to parks much harder. [CityNews]

BUSINESS

Brewery and board game shop closure illustrates challenges for local businesses in Vancouver

Callister Brewing in East Vancouver announced this weekend they were shutting down their East Vancouver location after 10 years in business, according to CityNews. The same week, a popular board game cafe the Turquoise Goat also announced they were shutting down, according to Vancouver is Awesome. So what can these two businesses shutting down tell us about the state of local business in Vancouver?

What happened: Both businesses cited financial difficulty as part of the reason for shutting down — Callister because their rent would’ve been increased by 45 percent, and Turquoise Goat from undisclosed “financial circumstances.”

• Beer specific: The B.C. Craft Brewers Guild has said around 15 percent of its members could shut down in 2024, unless members receive extensions on pandemic loans, according to Global. Studio Brewing in Burnaby also recently shut down.

The problem: A combination of interest rate hikes and rising inflation are dealing a double whammy to small businesses. Smaller, family-run businesses in Vancouver cannot afford to stay in town, or stay open, as property prices rise.

• Vancouver is especially problematic for property and lease prices, but they aren’t the only ones. Callister Brewing told CityNews they couldn’t find any affordable location within Metro Vancouver. 

Zoom out: One effect of this is to reshape existing cities in unintended ways. Chinatowns across cities in North America are disappearing as property prices rise and developments grow according to Global. In Vancouver, 20 legacy businesses out of 100 in Chinatown have closed in the last five years, the popular Kent’s Kitchen being one of them. 

What it means: A combination of all these issues is causing cities to lose many of the vibrant parts that made them worth living in, as the need for increased living space, and rising property values, push out small businesses that can’t afford to be there. Cities end up having more McDonald’s and fewer Callister Brewing and Turquoise Goat-like businesses. It’s an ongoing balance that cities will have to address. 

Looking ahead: The province’s densification of places around SkyTrain stations is a great step towards increasing housing, but could we see the displacement of small, family-owned businesses and restaurants that cannot afford to stay?

VANCOUVER NUMBERS

🏗️ 18: The number of storeys proposed for a tower near the future Mount Pleasant SkyTrain station. Formerly it was three single-family lots. It’s part of the Broadway Plan, whose goal is to increase density on the Broadway subway corridor. [Urbanized] 

📆 20: The number of years that the Chinatown Memorial Monument has stood in the neighbourhood. [CBC]

🌧️ 30: The amount of rain in millimetres this week that could fall in Vancouver on Friday next week. [Daily Hive]

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HOUSING

Are 250,000 new homes enough?

The province announced and passed a number of housing policies that they say will spur the creation of new homes across the province. But just how many will be created, and is this enough to deal with the housing crisis? 

What happened: The premier recently announced that a panel of economists has modelled the new housing plans which they say could create around 250,000 more homes in the next 10 years, according to the Vancouver Sun. 

• Background: The province passed a number of bills to spur the creation of more housing, including restricting short-term rentals, transit-oriented housing development, and enshrining up to four units on a normal residential housing lot. 

Potential problems: Every policy has potential downsides. Specifically for the transit-oriented development plan, a city planning expert warned that many renters could be displaced — one out of three renters in Vancouver live in these areas. 

Land use planning analyst Brendan Dawe noted that while the number seems large, it represents around 30-50 percent of what’s needed. 

Zoom out: The study authors cited examples from New Zealand. But the data there has been mixed. After massive upzoning reforms, similar to BC, the city created many more new homes, but prices did not fall. There were some positive developments — home prices rose slower than other jurisdictions, rental prices also rose at a lower rate than other jurisdictions, and multi-unit houses grew much more rapidly than detached homes.  

The Lookout’s view: Always be wary of government self-congratulations — it’s not that they’re misleading, but studies are just that… studies. They aren’t homes actually built. Until we see the policy actually have a direct impact, we should hold off on any self-congratulations. More always needs to be done!

THE AGENDA

⛴️ If you tried catching a ferry this weekend, you might’ve noticed many sailings were cancelled due to wind. In other bad news, Coastal Renaissance, which has been sidelined since August for repairs, won’t be back to service until March. [Global]

🏠 A tiny home village is nearing completion at 875 Terminal Ave. It will house 18 people and will help those who are homeless. The total cost of the project was $1.5 million. [Global]

💰 The most affordable one bedroom unit in Vancouver is Renfrew-Collingwood while the most expensive is Dunbar-Arbutus at $3,514. [Vancouver is Awesome]

🔬If you’re looking for a deep dive into the rift between ABC parks board members, Dan Fumano over at the Vancouver Sun has an excellent breakdown. Apparently tensions were simmering for months between opposing ABC members. [Vancouver Sun]

👮 The Vancouver Police Department’s pricey contract was approved by the union, with 97 percent of members voting in favour. A first-class officer will earn around $122,000 per year. [Global News]

🛢️ The Coast Guard cannot say for certain what caused a diesel sheen over the water in False Creek. They are currently investigating, especially as to whether it came from land-based outfalls, which would’ve been deposited from heavy rain. [Global]

🚆 High-speed rail from the US to Vancouver took one small step forward. The US government announced $6.1 billion towards high speed rail, with part of that running through Seattle, Portland and Vancouver. [Vancouver is Awesome]

👶 If you’re on a waitlist for a daycare spot, you will no longer pay a waitlist fee, as the province plans to ban those fees starting in April, for any facility that receives money from the province’s fee-reduction initiative. [Global]

🏒 The Canucks beat the Carolina Hurricanes in a comeback win on Saturday 4-3, to take their record to 18-9-1. [CTV]

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Rather than the normal photo of the day, I thought I’d share this rendering of Jericho Lands. Certainly a more creative approach to density than we’ve seen from other parts of Vancouver. Renderings change, but it’s wonderful to see so much green space included. What do you think?

COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS

• Don’t be that one dangerous driver on the drive to Whistler. Here’s how to be safe and prepare for the Sea to Sky Highway. [Vancouver is Awesome]

• If you’re looking for good French pastry shops, Reddit users say Thierry, L’atelier Patisserie, Batard and Fife are all great options. [Reddit]

• If you’re looking for a holiday-themed craft beer from around BC, this list has you covered. 

• If you like Christmas lights, this map will help you find the best ones in Metro Vancouver. [Vancouver Sun]

• Want to have your announcement featured? Learn how here.

VANCOUVER QUIZ

Congrats to everyone who correctly guessed the Vancouver Wordle — the answer was BOARD.