09-06-2015, 02:10 PM
(09-06-2015, 11:14 AM)tomh009 Wrote: I can't think of many businesses that could (realistically) be supported primarily by the residents of a six-story condo building (assuming the ground floor is retail). A business will need a larger customer base than that.
You're right that I shouldn't have used "primarily." But this building is displacing a pizza shop and other (I can admit more marginal) commercial uses which have survived here. With the school and the neighbourhoods nearby, and the residents of over a hundred units right above, I think a small coffee shop or restaurant could find the business they need.
(09-06-2015, 11:14 AM)tomh009 Wrote: Dentist or doctor offices -- the challenge here would be parking. At this time, most of a doctor's patients will be driving (any doctor moving to downtown will likely already have a practice in a less urban area), and a single doctor's office would probably need 10+ spaces. And doctors generally prefer proximity to a pharmacy, and often to other medical offices. There simply isn't a waiting list of doctors, dentist or lawyers clamouring to move to the downtown.
This location is barely five hundred meters from Grand River Hospital. If doctors' offices prefer proximity to pharmacies and other medical offices, there is a pharmacy across the street half a block down; another more full-service pharmacy less than ten minutes' walk on Pine Street; and one on Park adjacent to the hospital. There are also any number of specialists' offices located near the hospital, within walking distance of this site.