It seems at least once a year, councils in our listening area discuss ways in which they can make their downtown core a more attractive place for people to set up shop and for people to come.
Quinte News did their annual downtown storefront counts in our three closest municipalities, looking to see how many stores are vacant in the downtown core.
Belleville is once again leading the pack, but it’s not a title the city necessarily wants.
The former Royal Bank of Canada site still remains vacant in Belleville’s downtown core. (Photo: Amanda Smith/ Quinte News)
When it comes to downtown storefront vacancies, Belleville has 35 vacancies in their 105 downtown storefronts, and some of those have been vacant for years. This is an increase over last year when there were only 32 vacant stores, but when compared to 2017, there were 37 vacancies.
The City just finished their final stage of the downtown revitalization project which saw roads, sewers and other infrastructure work in the downtown core completed after the four phase project began in 2015 and wrapped up in 2018.
Trenton and Picton are continuing to trend in the opposite direction on the other hand.
Just west of the city, Trenton has 12 vacant storefronts of their total of 84, which is down from 14 last year. In 2017, there were only 10 vacancies.
A for lease sign appears in the papered up window of a building in downtown Trenton. (Photo: Amanda Smith/Quinte News)
Across the bridge in Picton, of their 144 core storefronts there are only six stores without an occupant, down from 11 in 2017 and 2018.
For sale and for lease signs were few and far between in Picton’s downtown core. (Photo: Amanda Smith/Quinte News)
Each municipality is pushing for a ‘vibrant’ and ‘thriving’ downtown core. Each is pursuing that end goal in a different way, but the end goal for each remains the same; create a downtown space where people want to be.
