Shortly after employees at the London Drugs store in Vancouver’s Woodward’s building were notified Tuesday that the location would permanently close within weeks, the company’s president Clint Mahlman received a phone call.

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It was a representative of the B.C. premier’s office, asking if London Drugs would reconsider its decision to shutter the store on the edge of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

“I had to communicate the decision is final,” Mahlman told Postmedia on Wednesday morning. “We just can’t continue to withstand exposing our staff and customers to this environment and continue to absorb these losses.”

The attempted intervention shows the outsized importance of this specific business in this neighbourhood at this moment.

On Wednesday, Mahlman and London Drugs confirmed the outcome that had been long rumoured and feared by many: As of Feb. 1, the retailer will cease operating in the Woodward’s building, 16 years after it opened as an anchor tenant for the landmark redevelopment of the former department store property on East Hastings.

In a statement, London Drugs attributed the closure to “persistent safety incidents and significant operating losses at this site.”

The Woodward’s project was part of a major effort to revitalize the area, including the nearby Downtown Eastside, and when the 27,000-sq.-ft. London Drugs opened on its ground floor in 2009 — alongside a 15,000-sq.-ft. Nesters Market and other retailers — it was heralded as the start of a new era for the troubled neighbourhood.

But that renewal stalled. Crime remains a major problem for businesses and people in the area, including theft, vandalism and violence. Last year, representatives for Nesters Market told Postmedia they had seen a 400 per cent increase in violent incidents over the previous two years.

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“When we went into this location in 2009, we bought into the vision of the province and the city, and clearly that vision has not come alive,” Mahlman said Wednesday. “We’ve lost tens of millions of dollars in that location since we’ve opened, and we just don’t see the environment turning around.”

The decision to leave Woodward’s is “excruciating” because of how important the store is to area residents, Mahlman said. “That is the reason why we’ve been prepared to eat substantial millions of dollars in losses, but it just becomes unsustainable at some point.”

The closure is a significant blow for the immediate neighbourhood, and the city at large. In the hours after the news broke Wednesday, there was plenty of blame to go around.

While the Downtown Eastside’s challenges with crime and street disorder are well-known, Mahlman said it would be a mistake to think the conditions that led to this store’s closure are unique to this area, or this city.

Operating about 50 London Drugs across different regions of B.C., Mahlman says similar challenges seem to be getting worse in the downtown cores of cities of varying sizes.

“This isn’t unique to Vancouver, it’s the same thing in Victoria, Prince George, Nanaimo, Duncan, Kamloops, Nelson,” Mahlman said. “Until the municipalities, provinces, and federal government work together, they’re going to continue to see businesses close and the streetscapes, especially in our smaller downtowns, have the potential to become ghost towns.”

Mahlman praised the efforts of the City of Vancouver, especially under current Mayor Ken Sim, who has visited the store and actively tried to help, and the Vancouver Police Department.

But that’s not enough, he says.

Businesses and residents are frustrated with the problem of chronic offenders being repeatedly arrested and released again to go on creating chaos and violence, Mahlman said. For years, he and others have been calling on the province to ensure the court system and prosecution service function properly, and the federal government to overhaul sentencing guidelines and bail conditions.

The B.C. premier’s office said the province has worked with the city and VPD over the past two years to address London Drugs’ concerns, and increased police patrols were yielding positive results, “but clearly was not enough to prevent this business decision.”

“New initiatives are being worked on to increase foot traffic and improve the community in and around this location, and that work is underway,” said the premier’s office’s statement.

“We understand that London Drugs must make the business decision that’s right for them and we thank them for their investment in the community and their collaboration with community partners.”

Sim called London Drugs’ departure from Woodward’s “extremely disappointing” and got in a few digs at the provincial government.

The mayor said while he appreciates the B.C. government funding that helped for the Gastown Community Policing Centre, which opened last summer in the space in Woodward’s vacated the previous year by TD Bank, he added that “many critical issues under provincial jurisdiction remain unresolved.”

“Mandatory care was announced more than a year ago, yet Vancouver has not seen a single new mandatory care bed,” Sim said. “Despite the premier’s commitment to assume responsibility for the Downtown Eastside, the city continues to carry the majority of the burden. Closures like this are the consequence of that continued inaction.”

Steven Johnston, chair of the Hastings Crossing Business Improvement Association, which includes Woodward’s, said the retailer’s closure “leaves a gaping hole in the neighbourhood.”

The 2020 closure of Army & Navy was a major blow to neighbourhood residents, and the recent news that Sunrise Market is for sale has raised concerns about the loss of another staple for low-income residents, Johnston said.

Johnston said city hall seems to have too singularly focused on policing, without paying enough attention to economic development, especially in neighbourhoods with many low-income residents.

“Policing is part of the solution. … We need the VPD, we need them to play the role they’re designed to play,” he said. “But it can’t just be that. We can’t police our way to prosperity.”

Nesters Market will soon be the last of the original Woodward’s anchor tenants remaining, and area residents worry about its future.

Pattison Food Group, which owns Nesters, said in an emailed statement Wednesday that it will continue to operate at Woodward’s, but the location is the company’s “most difficult site to operate, with violent incidents in the surrounding area increasing significantly over the past decade.”

Despite support from the VPD and major investments in safety, “the level of violence directed at our team members and customers remains unacceptably high,” the statement said.

Pattison Food Group president Jamie Nelson said the company remains committed to our landlord and this neighbourhood as long as we continue to see progress, as the safety of our teams and customers is our top priority.”

“We continue to urge all levels of government to take stronger, co-ordinated action to address public safety in this area,” Nelson said. “Businesses, residents, and front line workers deserve meaningful and sustained support.”

dfumano@postmedia.com

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