More businesses in Marda Loop have started throwing in their towels as the city continues to work on upgrading the area, a six-month process delayed by nearly two years. Read More
Some have seen their businesses lose more than 50 per cent of their customers. Some ploughed through the ordeal, stretching their capacities — until they couldn’t
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Some have seen their businesses lose more than 50 per cent of their customers. Some ploughed through the ordeal, stretching their capacities — until they couldn’t
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More businesses in Marda Loop have started throwing in their towels as the city continues to work on upgrading the area, a six-month process delayed by nearly two years.
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Stores and restaurants have blamed months-long road blockages and the resulting lack of parking for their woes. Some have seen their businesses lose more than 50 per cent of their customers. Some ploughed through the ordeal, stretching their capacities — until they couldn’t.
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The latest casualty of the city project is Doodle Dogs, a store that sells raw and gently cooked food for pets. The business, which has a couple of chains across the city, opened a store in Marda Loop around December 2023.
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“We used to think that Marda Loop was like the most incredible, vibrant community in Calgary,” Meghan Huchkowsky, co-owner of the store, told Postmedia. “We always wanted to be there. And most importantly, the analytics internally for us made sense for that community. We were delivering there a lot.”
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Huchkowsky, like many business owners, believed the six-month upgrade, which began in June 2023, would be a temporary inconvenience. Customers couldn’t find parking spots, and some had to spend a while finding their way to makeshift lots propped up by the city. Meanwhile, the store’s staff kept hearing from customers how they were going to pick up their orders from other locations.
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“How is anyone supposed to know about those laws? And even if we know them as business owners, how are we supposed to communicate that to the community?” Huchkowsky said.
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The project’s completion date, however, kept getting pushed. It’s now slated to be completed by October. However, by August, Huchkowsky decided it was enough. Operating the store wasn’t financially viable.
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“I was devastated,” Huchkowsky said. “Because I kept thinking if we can just get through one more month, the next month will be better.
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“My brother just was like, we’re down 35 per cent over last year — it’s not getting better. That’s when I realized that I was holding on to false hope. I didn’t realize how the stress of being open was costing our mental health.”
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Livelihoods hurt, say some businesses
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Huchkowksy isn’t alone. Another store, Apt 22 Boutique, fully cut its losses in November 2023 and permanently closed, its owner telling local media the construction was primarily responsible for the decision.
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Other businesses, meanwhile, have also reached a fork in the road.
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The upgrade, also called the Marda Loop Main Streets project, is aimed at revamping 33rd and 34th Avenue S.W., including their utility networks, which involve digging deep into the ground. When complete, the area will have new landscaping, wide bike lanes, more seating and new gathering areas.
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Businesses welcome the project, but they say the city’s approach has hurt their livelihoods.
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Stop signs pimpled the lanes that are lined with businesses on Wednesday. Traffic cones stood on the streets with tapes marking off the area. Several bars and restaurants placed their posters near orange fences in an attempt to announce their presence.
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Rob Oppenheim, a business partner at local café chain Phil and Sebastian, said the coffee shop on 33rd Avenue once drove revenue for the company. Over two years, the café has now become a losing prospect for it.
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“So, from a purely financial point of view, it’s been devastating,” he said.
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He highlighted several issues, some of which he emphasized in letters sent to the ward’s representative, Coun. Courtney Walcott, and which were shared with Postmedia. He recalled how roads had been torn up multiple times for specific tasks that he believed could have been completed all at once.
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“They tore up the road in front of our cafe at least three different times during the construction,” Oppenheim said.
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$5,000 lump-sum grant not enough, says business partner
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Such disruptions triggered hundreds and thousands of dollars in losses throughout the year. Oppenheim said the company could have averted those losses if the city had given it a year’s notice.
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“We could have closed or negotiated with our landlords,” he said. Despite the massive drop in revenue caused by the project’s disruptions, he complained that the city continued to require businesses to pay property taxes in their entirety.
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The city assessed the option of waiving off the tax burden, Graham Gerylo, community and business relations manager at the City of Calgary, told Postmedia last year, but because landlords would be the direct beneficiaries, the relief may not have ended up in the business owners’ pockets.
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Instead, Calgary took inspiration from Montreal’s construction relief program initially developed in 2018, which offers a $5,000 lump-sum grant to businesses affected by construction. Montreal also compensates businesses up to $40,000, with the precise amount calculated based on the impact construction has had on profits. (Montreal’s program is the only construction-relief program in Canada.)
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The city felt the $5,000 sum was the least cumbersome option for businesses and allowed it to act quickly, Gerylo said.
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“What we felt is we want to be responsive to those who are undergoing construction this year,” Gerylo said at the time. “Let’s adopt one similar to Montreal as a starting point and learn from it versus spending the next few months trying to engage businesses . . . that way businesses are reaping the benefits right away.”
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However, such measures haven’t been enough. “We lost about $400,000 in the last few years in that location, so $5,000 — thank you, but the damage has been so big, it didn’t fix anything for anybody,” Oppenheim said.
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Mayor encourages Calgarians to go to Marda Loop
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A group of Marda Loop businesses is now suing the city for $75 million in damages. The plaintiffs named are Silver Sage Beef and Diner Deluxe, which are representing all businesses in the area in the proposed class action that is yet to be certified.
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“I can’t speak to all the different businesses, and I’m sure there are restaurants that lost a lot more money than that, so you know, it doesn’t seem low to me, $75 million to be honest,” Oppenheim added.
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Mayor Jyoti Gondek said the city has met with businesses and constructed make-shift parking lots for their customers. She also said she’s willing to continue the dialogue with the affected businesses.
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“So there are two things that I want to accomplish: I want to have a good conversation with businesses that are expressing difficulty or making decisions to leave. I want to understand what their perspective is, and I think it’s really important in my position to reach out to them and say, ‘You’re valued in our city, and what would you have liked to have seen done differently?’” Gondek said at a news conference on Wednesday.
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“The other thing is that I want Calgarians to know that Marda Loop is not shut down. Marda Loop businesses are interested in having people come through their doors. There are amazing retailers down there. There are restaurants, and there are services that you can only get in Marda Loop. So, I would encourage everyone to get down there, have a look around, and go and shop there.”
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— With files from Matt Scace
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