When Adam Le Boeuf looks 10 years into his crystal ball at downtown Barrie, he sees faces and plenty of them.
“We want to get young people down here, get old people down here, get retired people down here,” he tells BarrieToday. “That’s what builds a community.
“We’re super-excited about what’s coming downtown. It’s been a long time coming,” Le Boeuf says.
And he would know.
His father’s business, Bill Le Boeuf Jewellers at 52 Dunlop St. W., will celebrate its 63rd anniversary at the same location Nov. 1, and with the same phone number.
What’s coming to downtown Barrie is highrise condos and apartments, community centres, cultural facilities, new retail, restaurants, and other attractions that will fundamentally change its look in a decade.
“Start driving some piles and the people will come,” Le Boeuf says. “Once you get a critical mass of people getting enthused about it, it’s just going to explode. We wouldn’t stay in business for 60-plus years if there wasn’t opportunity downtown.”
He points to what’s being proposed just across Dunlop West, called the ‘theatre block’ by some.
It’s a mixed-use, highrise development with two 32-storey residential towers of 495 units to be built in two phases, including a six-storey podium with 16,664 square feet of ground-floor retail/commercial uses.
“We’re going to have lots of condominiums, which is great… great for the city’s long-term plans,” Le Boeuf says. “You want density, you want density downtown. That’s the most expensive real estate downtown. Obviously, we can’t go out, so we’ve got to go up.”
Not everyone downtown thinks that’s the solution, however.
Bill Loiselle owns BJ’s Records and Nostalgia on Clapperton Street, which sells CDs, LPs, collectibles and memorabilia, as well as repairs and sells refurbished vintage electronics. In January, he will have been at it there for 17 years.
“I think in 10 years you’re going to see a lot more development, which may or may not be good for the small-business owner,” he says, “because as the condos and the towers come in and they want that land-space, it’s going to squeeze out some of the small guys. So I can see that happening, unfortunately.
“Condos are good for the tax revenues, but they may not be good for the consumer.”
Loiselle says what downtown Barrie needs in the next decade is more retail, fewer empty storefronts and more police presence.
“A lot of people are intimidated about shopping downtown. I’ve heard that for years and I still hear it today,” he says. “I don’t know if it’s because they’re afraid of being panhandled to death or they just feel it’s not safe.
“Simply put, we just need more bodies in the stores. We have to bring more people down here. We need more business owners, we need more people who are willing to take a chance opening a small business.”
Loiselle noted city hall has given retailers some needed help. Council waived business licensing fees from April 26, 2021 until April 26, 2022.
Gary Owen, whose framing and art restoration business has been in the downtown for 22 years at various locations, and is now at 118B Dunlop St. E., near Mulcaster Street, has this advice for the area’s future success.
“Well, keep building condos,” he says. “People living in the downtown… can walk out their door and shop.”
Owen says a new YMCA facility will be key, as will the HIP project (at the former Barrie Central Collegiate site) and SmartCentres, between Bradford Street and Lakeshore Drive.
“There will be people living there, working there, they are going to have retail and offices,” he says. “When you have more people living here, you will draw better retail.”
Owen also says the downtown could use more ladies clothing stores, even some brand-name stores, rather than just independent owners.
He sees the downtown’s future as bright.
“I wouldn’t be anywhere else,” Owen says. “I love it down here.”
Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman says the condos and apartments being planned now will make a distinct difference in a decade.
“In 10 years, there will be many more people living downtown. This, in turn, will support daytime storefront businesses, including specialty retail stores and one or more new food stores,” the mayor says. “I think it will be a residential neighbourhood, a cultural district with lots of live music and events, a specialty shopping district and a commercial district for small businesses to grow, particularly in the creative industries and tech.
“Dunlop Street will be lively with patios and public spaces all the way from Poyntz to Eccles, not just Mulcaster to Mary," Lehman says.
But to get to that 10-year vision, Lehman says there’s a need to address the social issues in the west end by investing in supports and helping get people off the streets, along with finishing road, pipe and floodway construction, and then stop with the road construction for a while.
Key redevelopment sites also need completing, such as the theatre block, Lakhouse, the former Lakeview Dairy site, SmartCentres and HIP Developments. Lehman says most of these are underway or just about to be started by their developers.
“This is now almost $2 billion of investment in the downtown, by the way, that has been approved for downtown Barrie,” he says.
The downtown also needs a hotel, which is part of the SmartCentres project, Lehman says, a downtown food market and a performing arts centre to drive tourism and the broader economy of the west end. Plans for the food market and performing arts centre are expected by year’s end.
“The most pressing need is to address the obvious intersecting problems of mental health, addictions and homelessness,” Lehman says. “The immediate solution is to provide at least 100 new spaces for treatment and related services in supportive housing.”
Coun. Keenan Aylwin, who represents the downtown, says the core needs to provide for people of all incomes.
“Downtown Barrie is on the brink of a resurgence and I’m excited about the possibilities,” he says. “As downtown grows, we need to ensure that it remains a place for everyone and not just a privileged few. Downtown Barrie desperately needs a range of affordable housing options so that everyone can afford to live here and thrive here.
“In 10 years, downtown Barrie’s population will be significantly larger than it is now, and I think that’s a positive thing — more people on the streets means safer streets and a more vibrant community,” he says. “We need to keep up the work of making downtown Barrie a walkable, bikable, accessible community that welcomes people from all walks of life.”
Coun. Sergio Morales, also chairman of the Downtown Barrie Business Improvement Area board, says what’s being planned now will be the core’s future in a decade.
“Downtown Barrie 10 years from now will have a thriving farmers’ market that brings together merchants, artists, entrepreneurs and creative types,” he says. “Flanked by the two condos to the north on the former theatre lands, it will be a corner of activity.
“A thriving YMCA as a community hub, a soulful Meridian Place, an emerging Bradford Street housing residents add to the vibrancy of the downtown.”
The core also needs elements that make it unique, Morales says.
“One of Costco’s business strategies that makes them successful is having unique products that are only for sale for a limited time,” he says. “This creates a sense of urgency in a customer, as they know if they don’t buy it on the spot it might not be there on the next visit.
“That concept is one we’ve started to do well in downtown Barrie: give residents unique, one-of-a-kind reasons to come down, visit and visit again.”
But Morales says the downtown’s most pressing need is residential development.
“We need more residents down here,” he says.
Lehman says that is coming.
“The investment and construction we are now seeing in the downtown is partly a result of the strong local economy and real estate market, but credit should go to past and current councils who have worked to plan for and delivered infrastructure projects that laid the groundwork for the investment that is now possible,” he says.
“I think over the years there were several downtown revitalization plans by the city, each that added new aspects, from the original beautification strategies in the '80s to the Xenos plan 15 years ago to the CIPs (community improvement plans) in the last 10 years,” Lehman adds. “But nothing will have as great an impact as thousands more people now living and shopping downtown.
“By growing the residential population, attracting tourists and building the economy we will help spread the kind of vibrancy and prosperity that we currently see east of Five Points, to the rest of the downtown.”
Meanwhile, Le Boeuf says he sees the same potential.
“The downtown is beautiful. We have everything down here that you could possibly imagine,” he says. “How many other communities have six or seven seven kilometres of interrupted public access waterfront? I can’t think of any.
“We (Bill Le Boeuf Jewellers) really put our stake down,” Le Boeuf says. “We could have left, we could have gone somewhere else, but we owe it to our city, we owe it to our community. We’re part of this community and now I think finally the city and developers have seen what a great opportunity downtown Barrie is.”
