Somerset retailers dread continued construction
Posted Nov 18, 2011 11:01:29 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
With Bank St. reopened it looks like it’s going to be a good weekend for retailers in the Glebe, but on Somerset St. things are different. Shop owners there have been dealing with dust, drilling and torn-up sidewalks for months and that construction doesn’t wrap up until June.
“I’ve counted ten times they’ve dug in front of my place,” says Mario De Marinis, owner of The Somerset Travel Agency. “It makes it inaccessible for people to cross the street and get into my shop here.”
The Somerset Travel Agency has been part of the Chinatown community for almost 50 years, but De Marinis says the recent construction has sent sales plummeting by about 60 per cent.
“It’s really added up,” he says. “We are in a losing position here, for the very first time in our history.”
In addition to the construction, De Marinis says the Chinatown Business Improvement Association is without an executive director making for a lack in communication.
