More than $1 million of business investment on Cowrie Street has helped revitalize Sechelt’s downtown core – and one of those businesses, Trail Bay Source for Sports, plans to celebrate what they’ve accomplished on June 24.
The sports store located on the corner of Cowrie Street and Trail Avenue has been in business in the same location since 1974, and over the past year owners have invested about $500,000 to expand the space, update the look of the store and create a commanding façade on the prominent corner in downtown Sechelt.
Teresa Fournier has owned the store since 2006 and she said it was time for a change.
“We needed more space. We’ve had continuous growth and we were kind of busting at the seams,” Fournier said. “So we explored our options.”
She said there was a strong pull to relocate to Gibsons as incentives like “free rents and tenant improvement allowances” were offered by landlords at Park Plaza.
“So that’s why a lot of the changes at Park Plaza have happened. Because they were pretty aggressive at soliciting merchants to come in there,” Fournier explained.
She gave the possibility of relocating some serious thought, but decided to stay where her store had its roots.
After getting the blessing of Trail Bay Properties, which owns the Source for Sports building, Fournier and her business partner Josh Romer got to work designing what they wanted their updated store to look like.
“We put together design elements and what we presented to [Trail Bay Properties] is pretty much what we got,” she said, noting the company has been “excellent to work with.”
After acquiring the retail space next door and knocking down some walls, Trail Bay Source for Sports was able to add 3,000 square feet to its interior.
The added space created more room for inventory and Fournier was able to bring some new apparel to the store and “go deeper in some lines.” She also redesigned some displays and made better use of the space to highlight all that’s available.
Modern design elements and new lighting and flooring have made the space very inviting, and Fournier has been hearing a lot of positive feedback from the community.
“It’s pretty amazing what we hear from customers when they come in. They say things like ‘wow, this is just like West Van,’ and there’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to give that same experience here on the Coast,” she said.
“Yes it costs a bit of money, but sometimes it costs money to make money.”
Renovations first started in July 2016 and they were finally completed in February of this year. Now Fournier is ready to celebrate the transformation with the community at a grand opening event on Saturday, June 24 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The store will be running games, contests and giveaways, including a chance to win the grand prize, a Red Paddle Co. 11’ Sport stand up paddle board worth $1,670.
After checking out the renovated space and getting in on the draws, shoppers may also want to take a tour down Cowrie Street to see the two other stores that have invested in improvements this year.
All For Pets spent about $500,000 on their renovation and the Salvation Army Thrift store spent about $50,000, according to the District of Sechelt.
Fournier sees the investments of merchants on Cowrie Street as a major boost to the downtown core.
“I think it’s positive, for sure,” she said.
“You walk down the street and you look at some of the storefronts – they’re tired. It’s time for a lot of them to change.”
