Residents ‘heartbroken’ as development forces Sackville, N.B. shops, tenants to move

Several business owners in Sackville, N.B., are scrambling to find new retail space after receiving a letter indicating a 'redevelopment' will force them to relocate next spring.

Several shop owners in Sackville, N.B., are being told to take their business elsewhere — literally — as they were recently informed that an upcoming “redevelopment” will force the relocation of businesses and residential tenants in the community’s downtown by next year.

Miriam Lapp, co-owner of Blind Forest Books, has seen her store become a staple of the York Street business community in Sackville throughout the last seven years. After clearing up some outstanding business loans in 2023, she said her business was finally beginning to thrive.

That was until she received a letter from her landlord informing her that she needed to be out by April 30, 2025.

“We were gutted, so upset,” she said during an interview with Global News on Monday.

In addition to Lapp’s bookstore, three other businesses and several other residential tenants will have to pack up and move.

“We’re all just heartbroken,” she said.

“It’s really hard to see where we might be able to move. In the downtown core, there’s very little retail space available,” she said, adding that she’s renewed her lease every two years since first moving into her York Street location.

Lapp said one of her biggest challenges moving forward will be gathering more than 30,000 used books and transporting them to another space.