Despite some major events, including the Grey Cup and a series of Taylor Swift concerts, fewer people visited downtown Vancouver in 2024 than the year before.
According to numbers released by Downtown Van, the business improvement association for the city’s core, total visits dropped 7.8 per cent year over year.
In its State of Downtown Van 2025 report, the organization did highlight some things it can brag about.
“We have four key areas of strength. Number one is tourism, two (is) major events, three, transit ridership and TransLink are strong, and four, our office vacancy remains amongst the lowest in North America,” said Jane Talbot, Downtown Van’s president and CEO.
The storefront vacancy rate for the area is 14.9 per cent, which Talbot described as problematic.
For Granville Street, the storefront vacancy rate jumps close to 30 per cent.
As the Bay continues to wind down operations with its liquidation sale, there will soon be a huge retail hole in the city’s core.
Across the intersection of Granville and Georgia streets, the former Nordstrom’s store remains empty after nearly two years.
Large department stores are considered anchor tenants and provide spinoff benefits to other nearby businesses.
“It affects whether people want to come down and just spend time on the street,” Talbot said. “And it affects whether people just want to come down and enjoy a restaurant. If there’s a lot of vacancy, it just doesn’t pull people in.”
According to one expert, current unease about the economy does not create an environment where entrepreneurs can feel confident about taking on a new downtown lease.
“If you’re going to plow a lot of money into fitting out a shop, that money is money you can’t get back once you’ve made that decision,” said Professor Tom Davidoff, of UBC’s Sauder School of Business. “So you only want to jump and do that when you’re quite confident that this is going to be a success.”
Talbot is hopeful Lower Mainland residents will still find reasons to visit downtown and provide an economic lift for small businesses.
“We really need people coming down. We really need support for our small businesses, our storefront businesses,” she said. “Our restaurants need a lot of support right now.”
