Without aid deal, business owner fears death of Granville Island

Business owners on Granville Island fall through a big crack in the federal government’s COVID-19 business assistance and fear they will be wiped out.

The island’s public market remains open, but about 90 per cent of its non-essential shops and restaurants are closed by the pandemic. Yet, because the federal government owns the land, its major commercial property operators aren’t eligible to offer their tenants help under the federal commercial rent assistance program.

“Without any kind of assistance, I’m looking at taking all of my inventory and selling it somehow and walking away from my lease,” said Darren Monette, who owns two shops in the Creekhouse buildings on the Island, with his husband.

“That would be a tough one because the Creekhouse itself, it has a head lease (on Granville Island), they have been fantastic,” Monette said. He said Creekhouse forgave the March and April rent for his Granville Island Soap Gallery and Cool Emporium shops.

If his landlord, Creekhouse, doesn’t get some help, Monette worries how long its generosity can last toward smaller hard-hit businesses at one of Vancouver’s top tourist destinations.

“I will say this without any kind of hyperbole: Without some kind of federal assistance, Granville Island will die,” Monette said.

Vancouver Centre MP Hedy Fry — Granville Island is in her riding — said she’s met with its management and governing council to hear their concerns and is confident help will be coming.

David McCann, general manager at Creekhouse Industries, said he appreciates Fry’s efforts. But he’ll worry until help actually arrives from Ottawa.

“It’s nice that she repeatedly tells us that she’s working hard, her staff is working hard, caucus is working hard, the opposition is working hard,” McCann said. But as yet, there’s no change to federal programs to meet Granville Island’s needs.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. is the landlord for Granville Island on behalf of the federal government and Creekhouse Industries is one of its four main tenants or “head-lease” tenants, McCann said. Those four sublet space to individual shops, galleries and restaurants.

Creekhouse has four buildings and 27,000 square feet of space that it rents to 40 tenants, including The Sandbar Seafood Restaurant. McCann said they’ve forgiven rent for some, recognizing “they won’t be able to pay and we’ll bankrupt them if we make them pay.”

CMHC has deferred lease payments for the four head-lease tenants.

But McCann said that only represents a fraction of costs that has to be covered by the rents they charge.

Canada’s emergency commercial rent assistance program gives landlords partly forgivable loans to cover half a tenant’s rent, provided the landlord offers a 75 per cent break on rent. If the Granville Island head-lease tenants were included in that program, it would be a real help their tenants, McCann said.

Tourism, the lifeblood of Granville Island, doesn’t look like it will begin to recover until next year, McCann said. “I don’t think people have the financial resources to survive that.”