Gaps

Main Street malaise

Nearly a third of Wellington’s Main Street storefronts between East and West Streets are sitting empty. One has been vacant for years. Three properties are up for sale. Something is shifting in the County’s second urban core.

Many trace the slump to Scotiabank’s departure in June. When the bank left, it took more than financial services. It removed a reason to come into the village—and a reason to stop at another business along the way.

“The bank is a tent pole for any community,” said Sarah Bobas, proprietor of Wellington’s Everything Store.

“The County should proactively identify prospective businesses to open in the County and directly recruit them to invest here,” said Bobas. “We have much to offer. But who is telling our story?”

Now Wellington’s only bank is gone. The effects are rippling along Main Street. The challenges are more deep-rooted.

For a century, the village has served both the surrounding community and the visitor economy. The bank’s departure threatens to tip that balance further toward a greater dependence on tourism.

Change on Main Street is not new. Evan Nash is the fifth generation to operate Nash Home Hardware. Once focused on supplying farms and agriculture, the business has shifted toward consumer goods as its customers’ needs have changed.

But he fears Main Street’s darkened storefronts will deter the very investment, ideas and entrepreneurs needed to revive it.

Tyler Beatson operates Oak Clothing Co on Main Street. He acknowledges the village is changing but is confident most empty storefronts will be filled. He wonders, however, how the village finds its footing when keeping a building empty may make more financial sense for a landlord than lowering the rent.

Markets change. Customers change. Successful businesses adapt.

Wellington will adapt, too. The question is what kind of Main Street will emerge—and whom it will serve.

WHAT CHANGED?
Everyone agrees the bank’s closure signalled a shift on Main Street. But other factors play a significant role. Rising land values in the village and other urban centres in Prince Edward County have put upward pressure on commercial rents, as property owners seek rental income that reflects those higher values.

But unlike those other communities, Wellington has been at a standstill for three years, caught in a standoff with a developer.

Under a deal with Shire Hall, the developer controls all remaining capacity in the village’s wastewater plant. That leaves no room for other development—no new homes or businesses outside that agreement. Until the impasse is resolved, the village remains stuck.

No new homes. No new businesses. Nothing. The village is stagnating.

No new homes also means less dynamic energy in the village. Another developer continues to prod municipal officials so he can start his project to build about 200 new homes— mostly townhomes—behind the Legion.

The village needs 30 to 50 new homes per year just to regenerate. That was the pace of growth during the first two decades of this century. It bred vitality and energy.

The state of retail has changed dramatically over the past 20 years. Things we went to town to buy now appear on our doorstep.

THE RISKS
Bobas, Nash and Beatson all share a concern— to varying degrees—about the village’s trajectory. All three are watching events in Elora, Ontario, where an investor now owns nearly a quarter of the commercial real estate in the village’s four-block downtown core, according to The Globe and Mail.

That investment has divided the community, with some welcoming the revitalization and others concerned about the future of historic buildings, growing tourism pressures and rising property values.

Perhaps the greater risk is a continued decline: more empty storefronts, less investment and fewer reasons for residents and visitors to spend money in the village.

WHAT TO DO?
Attracting a credit union to open a branch in Wellington could make the biggest difference. The village and surrounding region are populated by seniors who have little interest in banking entirely online. They appreciate and value personal service.

“When Wellington’s population does begin to grow again, and it will, we need to be ready to serve them,” observed Ty Beatson.

A credit union may find an opportunity to thrive in a market where a big bank appears to have counted on residents having little choice but to follow them to Picton.

Shire Hall could take a more direct role in recruiting a credit union to the village. Rather than waiting for a crisis, it could identify growing credit unions and reach out.

Readers may have ideas—and connections. Ours is a well-connected community. Could we even establish our own community savings and loan company? It is worth a conversation.

Others would like to see either carrots or sticks, or both, applied to property owners who leave their buildings empty rather than accept lower rents. For example, a vacancy tax could make it more expensive to leave storefronts empty, encouraging owners to find tenants rather than hold out for higher rents. The County would need to establish whether it has the authority to introduce such a tax.

But such a tax could also backfire. If the problem is weak demand, costly renovations or municipal delays, it could add another burden without bringing a single new business to Main Street.

WHAT IT MEANS
Communities ebb and flow. Investment comes in and goes out. Communities change.

No one in Wellington is looking for Shire Hall to solve the village’s challenges. Most would settle for the municipality to merely restore access to sidewalks it has blocked and abandoned for months. But the County devotes resources and energy to economic development, it should lend some of these resources to the challenges on Main Street.

The municipality must also examine its own role in the village’s stagnation. Increasingly strict regulations discourage investment, while slow responses allow opportunities to slip away. Its most consequential step, however, would be to free up waterworks capacity for new homes and businesses. There are ways to do this, but Shire Hall and the incoming council are urged to make it a priority.

Ignoring the problem and hoping it goes away has helped bring us to this point.