Victoria storeowners say lengthy sidewalk repairs impacting business

Business owners on Broad Street in downtown Victoria say their business is down because of sidewalk repairs in front of their building.

"One day we walked in and they were building all of these barricades," said Heather Nightingale, store director at MisMack Clean Cosmetics.

In April, the City of Victoria constructed barricades along the 1000-block of Broad Street in order to keep people off of the sidewalk, citing safety concerns.

The reason? The Yarrow building that was constructed in 1909 has a basement that extends underneath the sidewalk. That basement was used to store coal to heat the building, and now the aging sidewalk is falling apart from within.

"It does hinder our business," said Nightingale.

MisMack Clean Cosmetics says business is down 30 per cent due to the barricades.

"When clients aren’t able to walk on the sidewalk and they see the barricades, they think that we’re closed or they think that we’re under construction," said the store director.

The city has installed ramps leading into the stores, but owners say it's not enough.