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At first, there were high hopes that the creation of a shopping and dining centre on prime real estate would spark a revolution in Calgary’s moribund downtown after the office towers were destroyed.
Sex rides along the boardwalk off Third Avenue even feared that crowds descending on Eau Claire’s new market would spook businesses.
But for three decades, while the dream of creating and revitalizing a focal point propelled through Vancouver’s Granville Island Market showed glimmers of promise, it met a slow death told in a story of elusive remakes and advertising disconnects.
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“It’s inappropriate to say it’s going to look like the Granville Market, which represents the development of an entire area, with much larger studios and arts enclaves,” said Richard White, an urban development representative who led the Downtown Calgary Association in 2007, the summer of 1993, when the Eau Claire Market opened.
“(Eau Claire) was a success for the first two or three years, but you have to look back, 10 years, you have to create some kind of lasting interest. “
Michael Going wouldn’t disagree. The CEO of Good Earth Coffee House, the first tenant and the oldest in the market. He also contributed to the progression of the concept for 4 years and contracted with other suppliers.
“For the first few years he was pretty busy, he started off on the right foot,” Going said, adding that his Good Earth placement there was “a huge success for five to ten years. “
But he said the site’s owner, the city of Calgary, has imposed unrealistic conditions, adding that it requires produce vendors to offer their produce seven days a week instead of the more manageable three or four.
“Things slow down on Mondays and Tuesdays and it’s hard for a tenant to pay rent 365 days a year,” Going said.
Despite this, the older, happier days paved the way for what would be thriving farmers markets in Calgary, he said.
And Granville Island was originally owned by the federal government, which provided money in its early days, which was never presented to Eau Claire, Going added.
“(Eau Claire) didn’t have that incubation era,” he said.
To have been the magnet his supporters were hoping for, the downtown mall, which is less than 200,000 square feet in size, would have needed at least 500,000 square feet of area with another personality, White said. Paid parking is another Achilles’ heel.
This search for a winning formula came to an end on May 31 when owner Harvard Developments Inc. He hands over the building to the city, which will oversee its demolition starting in July and ending in the fall.
Where a mall-like retail formula had failed before, the hustle and bustle of a long-running LRT station in the center of the Green Line was expected to galvanize the location.
“The closure marks the end of an era for the Eau Claire Market, which has served as an eclectic hub for shopping, entertainment and networking events since its arrival in 1993,” Harvard said in a March 4, 2024, news release.
The addition of the Green Line long-duration station deserves to be a catalyst for the site; Support Harvard Developments’ allocation to a transit-oriented, mixed-use domain that aligns with Calgary’s downtown expansion strategy.
The self-contained remains of the adjacent market and reminders of its 31-year lifestyle will be the site’s flagship restaurant, Joey Eau Claire, which will partner with Local Public Eatery.
The recent demolition of the building that once housed the Hard Rock Café is a precursor to the definitive act.
“The Hard Rock Café wasn’t the right solution — Eau Claire Market wanted to be a more independent operator, and Hard Rock didn’t meet any of the requirements,” Going said.
This rock n’ roll dining spot closed its doors in 2000 after five years of operation. All that’s left are scattered memorabble, plus a Beatles stained-glass window that ended up in a recording studio east of the city.
A fate has befallen what’s left of John Yee’s Sumo Lounge, which once occupied a spot in the northwest component of the market.
“I auctioned everything from the restaurant at 10 cents on the dollar,” said Yee, a staple of Calgary’s restaurant scene for decades and whose last stop was the Eau Claire market.
Yee said he will now review his business as a restaurateur in Nanaimo, B. C.
He is one of 50 tenants who have left this cavernous and quiet area in recent months in anticipation of its closure.
Yee was late to the mall and took over the Sumo Lounge area a decade ago on a cut-rent deal and hope the market would go through a transformation.
“I was excited, I thought there would be a huge investment, there would be a lot of artists’ renderings of an attractive, colorful place,” Yee said.
“But that materialized. “
Yee said he watched the arrival of the Eau Claire market with great interest and when he closed his restaurant Cochrane in the 1990s, he took advantage of the fortunes of his restaurant Joey Tomato and other restaurants in the area.
Instead, Yee said his business was on a downward trajectory as soon as it opened.
“I wasted a lot of time. . . I’m sorry I went there; If I had gone somewhere else, I would still be in business today,” he said.
Its location, nestled in an affluent neighborhood, along trails and on the edge of Prince Island’s bucolic park, is like a sure recipe for success, Yee said.
“But that concept was wrong — it hadn’t been such a fancy build and there were more food vendors,” he said.
Yee’s project was first unveiled in late 2013 and included five towers, 1,000 residential units, 800,000 square feet of office space and another 550,000 square feet for retail.
This happened.
The idea of transforming the northern end of the city centre, covered with parking lots and riverside scrub, arose decades before the birth of the market.
It was once the home of laborers and many of Calgary’s first wealthy inhabitants, plus wealthy logger Peter Prince, whose royal home is now the home of Heritage Park.
Prince ran his company Eau Claire Lumber Co. in the area, which used logs floated down the Bow River from the Rocky Mountains.
An elaborate progression plan developed through a Calgary business organization in the early 1960s replaced the face of the region. At the time, many homes dating back to 1915 were in disrepair and had been purchased and demolished. The first plan for the area, which called for skyscrapers along the Bow River, was stillborn.
In the 1970s, a new “more organic” plan emphasizing the progression of low-rise buildings was proposed, but it was never completed. The 1980s assigned a hybrid of the two, which served as a catalyst for the progression of the Eau Claire market, as well as new workplaces and condominiums. towers along the riverbank. At first, this market concept seemed to shine, with consumers and progression experts brimming with optimism.
“He’s already bringing other people to the center. I can tell when other people are coming from the suburbs,” former urban planner Glenn Lyons told Postmedia in 1993. “They look like tourists because they don’t know where they are.
The arrival of the first Imax cinema in the city is a sign of confidence.
But even then, rumors were swirling that there weren’t enough farmers at the Eau Claire market. In 2000, sales fell especially and tenants left.
In the spring of 2004, Regina-based Harvard Developments bought the market for $28 million and temporarily announced plans to expand its south parking lot.
“This is the genuine property in Calgary, bar none, and we see an opportunity to take the Eau Claire market and modernize it to accommodate the adjustments that are taking place across North America,” said Blair Forster, then Harvard’s vice president for development.
“Excitement and entertainment don’t happen by accident. It’s up to us as developers to create them, and our first key implementation strategy is increased density on site.
But this happened due to the slowdown in the economy around 2008, thus blocking the market’s stagnant trajectory.
In late 2013, Harvard unveiled its redevelopment plan that included five towers, 1,000 residential units, 800,000 square feet of space, and an additional 550,000 square feet for retail.
This would have led to the demolition of the market, which would have been replaced by some other commercial design but, again, this never happened.
Even then, the projects yet to be completed have led to a sense of disgrace among some tenants. “The fact is, if they get approval for this project, the Eau Claire market will cease to exist,” Ken Cutler, owner of the Bean Stop, said in November 2013.
“It’s a sense of closure. “
Consultant White said the market’s unmet expectations are unique in a city steeped in history.
“Calgary has done a whole series of urban renewal projects that in theory make sense, but they haven’t worked yet,” he said.
Among them, White said, are the Palliser Square complex, The Core and Stephen Avenue Walk.
Among the reasons are concerns about personal safety and the fact that Calgary remains a suburban city governed by regional shopping malls.
Eau Claire and other downtown grocery destinations oppose the huge and successful CF Chinook Center, just 3 LRT stops away, White said.
Several supermarket chains that have sprung up in recent years in the center or downtown domain are also tapping into the food aspect of the retail sector, or filling a void left in it, he said.
What White finds curious is why the market hasn’t adopted a more boutique or street-food theme in recent years, adding that when it opened 31 years ago, that scene in Calgary was limited.
“I don’t know why they didn’t turn it into a food corridor, a glorified food court, especially in the last 10 years when Calgary has a lot more foodies,” he said.
The Eau Claire market also suffered from being connected to the downtown Plus-15 system, a winter lifeline and a network that he said “should be a tourist attraction. “
On one of her last days, Heather Morris went to this stall to buy Thai food from a food court that had all but disappeared and to “come and see this stall before it disappears. “
The 32-year-old had lived in Eau Claire about 10 years ago and had returned from Winnipeg, where his central hangout, The Forks, thrives.
“The Forks is a big hit because of its dining structure, it’s designated as a skating venue and it’s a wonderful place,” Morris said.
Still, she said she likes the Eau Claire market for its art galleries, upscale gift shops and quiet lunch times.
“It’s a little sad to see this monument disappear, but I understand the need for public transportation, so it’s bittersweet,” Morris said.
Nearby, they were dismantling the coolers at the Island Food supermarket, which Al Samnani has run for 21 years.
He was sure of the end of an era in the enclosure and the dawn of another, which will be celebrated on Saturday afternoon in the market square with a farewell celebration.
“It’s going to be news. It’s for the next generation with an LRT station and parks – life goes on,” Samnani said.
He said the market concept was good, but uncertainty and distractions caused by unrealized progress plans and negotiations between the owners and the city about the long-term of the site hampered it.
“I came here when the mall was trying to be demolished. . . it took 21 years to demolish it,” Samnani said.
Even on its deathbed, the market was still attracting tourists at the beginning of the month, with the addition of an organization of a dozen elderly Germans who wanted to visit the Garage Sports Bar, which has been catering to consumers since the early days of the market.
Charlie Mendelman has owned the bar since early 1995 and said an unwavering business clientele has kept it afloat.
“Conservatives of all grades and all parties have also lent their support,” he said.
“(As prime minister), Ralph Klein used to come here when there was no one else and play pool. “
In its early years, the market lacked a deep-pocketed landlord who could have revitalized it, and it may also not have attracted the right mix of tenants, said Mendelman, whose business will reopen in Bow Valley Square.
“Harvard, with all its money, just had no luck (with the economic crisis),” he said.
One day in early May, a handful of consumers were wandering around the market, and a handful of operating businesses were still pulling out what they could. The food court had 3 kiosks left.
One such stalwart company is Memo Time Photographers, whose worker Emma Lyu said the business, which is rarely lucrative, nearly collapsed and with the mall’s demise, more and more homeless people have sought shelter.
“When the building is demolished, they will have nowhere to go,” he said.
Drug addicts are also common in this half-desert market. In a remote corner, a woman can be seen sticking the needle of a syringe into her hand.
Bookseller Karen Kimmel said she was aware of the demanding situations the market faced when she rented an area in the southwest corner in early 2020 because of her dream of making a living downtown.
“We enjoyed the neighborhood, we were looking to be here and have a bookstore downtown,” said San K owner Tjuri Buks, who will be moving her business to Marlborough Mall.
“I sense that it was blooming. . . It’s sad, we’ve been waiting to be here for a long time.
A reporter’s stopover in the early afternoon was the store’s first stop of the day, Kimmel said, adding that the announcement in January 2023 that the mall would close this year had convinced many other people that “the market has already closed. “
He said the market’s demise reflects the inability of a street entertainment culture in downtown Calgary.
Going, whose efforts helped create the market, said its long history as an LRT station was a disappointing destination.
“It’s an unfortunate use for riparian land,” he said.
“The site deserves to be more than a transit hub; However, it was originally a bus station, so I guess it’s a full circle. “
One of the last films to be screened to a dwindling audience at the Cineplex Imax, in the second terrain of a market that Calgarians may never reach: Sasquatch Sunset.
BKaufmann@postmedia. com
X: @BillKaufmannjrn
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