Fantasy Factory on Granville

I was looking through some older images recently and came across a few of an Adult XXX store on Granville Street that's not around anymore. This store was part of the Fantasy Factory chain and was in the Clifton Hotel at 1127 Granville Street. As far back as 2009 it seemed like Granville Street still had plenty of Adult stores. But seeing as the 2010 Winter Olympics were just around the corner suddenly several quietly disappeared. Whether this was by design or by natural selection it's hard to tell. The City did do an extensive redesign of Granville Street in preparation for the big events in 2010. Here's a photo of the Fantasy Factory storefront in the fall of 2009.

Since 2009 many old stores along Granville Street have been renovated hoping to attract higher end tenants. This has met with mixed success. Many different shops have come and gone since then but it seems like restaurants and eateries have had the most staying power. Here's another old shot of the storefront from the fall of 2010.

It seemed like this location of the Fantasy Factory was going to hang in there but that all changed in 2014. At that time the Hotel Clifton was making the news for all the wrong reasons. It seems the tenants who lived in the rooms upstairs were complaining of substandard living conditions. Instead of seeing improvements they were met with eviction notices! Thus began a long protracted battle between the owners of the hotel and City Hall. Basically the hotel was eventually emptied out and then put up for sale. So by the end of 2014 the Fantasy Factory was gone as well. Here's a photo of how the hotel looked in late 2014.

A Google search reveals the hotel has been sold and it had an asking price of $7,788,000.00! So hopefully the new owners will renovate the old place as it's been empty for three years now. I'm thinking the Fantasy Factory won't return though. It was part of a chain and there are still quite a few sprinkled around the greater Vancouver area. But with it's neon signs it did give Granville Street a bit of gritty charm at night.

Empty Stores on Granville Street

Back in October I was over in the South Granville area and noticed a higher than usual number of empty stores. South Granville is of course home to higher end and swankier retail shops and galleries so rents are already pretty pricey. The area I noticed was only in a two block stretch from Broadway down the hill to 7th Avenue. Most of the businesses in this strip are larger home furnishing and furniture stores as well as a few art galleries. It is normal for some turnover in terms of retail but the number of empty stores in such a small area makes it look like something a bit more serious is going on. Interestingly enough the Vancouver Sun recently published an article about how the City's rather misguided taxation system is forcing many independent retailers to either move farther afield or to close up shop entirely. You can read the whole story here. 

It seems the Triple Net lease system where retailers not only pay rent but also improvement fees and property taxes is the culprit. With the City's sky rocketing real estate prices the increase in property tax is passed on to the tenant. So in the South Granville area it seems that the point of paying ever increasing taxes has reached a breaking point and many retailers have simply had to close their doors and just move on.

Interestingly the Ian Tan Gallery will soon be moving across the street. According to their Twitter feed their building was sold three different times in only a 12 month period which shows the kind of frenetic activity going on in the commercial real estate market. The Gallery's present location was of course home to the Equinox Gallery for 25 years until they made the big move East back in 2012. At that time the gallery was rumoured to be paying $19,000 a month. Their move also set in motion an exodus of art galleries that left South Granville for cheaper digs in East Vancouver's industrial area in False Creek Flats. There's another great piece about the move done by the Vancouver Sun from 2012.

More empty stores on South Granville

So what does the future hold for this part of South Granville? Hard to tell but as we've seen in other high end retail strips like Fourth Avenue and Robson Street most likely big chain type retailers will probably move in. They do have the financial clout to hang in for the longer haul but make for a much less interesting shopping experience. But business is business and even the big name stores will suffer losses for only so long. Some big players have even given up on Robson Street in recent years because of astronomical rents. In any case it probably means many more small independent retailers will be forced out unless the City takes action which seems unlikely.

12th Street Storefronts

Time to change things up a bit and temporarily leave Vancouver for a quick visit to 12th Street out in New Westminster. This part of New West has a lot of history and has some great old storefronts! Most are located along a strip of the street that stretches from 10th Avenue down the hill to 6th Avenue.

12th Street is actually a continuation of Kingsway which runs all the way into Vancouver. For a time it was the main route down to the US border. Here's some info I found about Kingsway in a City of Vancouver document about the historical significance of the 2400 Motel.

"The route we know as Kingsway has a long history. The Royal Engineers, who were sent from England to keep order during the gold rush beginning in 1858, feared invasion by the expansionist United States. So they laid out a trail running some 13 miles (20 kilometres) from New Westminster, the capital of the then British colony of British Columbia, northwest to Burrard Inlet. The route most likely followed a pre-contact Aboriginal trail. It was originally called Westminster Road"

"Westminster Road (renamed Kingsway in 1913) became the auto route heading south once the Fraser River was bridged at New Westminster in 1904. Kingsway kept growing in importance. The Pattullo Bridge crossing the Fraser River at New Westminster was completed in 1937. From there the King George Highway ran south to the international border at Blaine, Washington. Kingsway became the northernmost section of a road system linking Vancouver down the American coast to Mexico by what became known as the Pacific Highway."

So some of the storefronts along 12th street probably date from the heyday of the automobile. I'm guessing some are from the early 20th century and most probably from the 1920's and 1930's. 12th Street is of course no longer the transportation corridor it once was but the street with its old stores still has lots of charm. Today there are antique stores, restaurants, neighbourhood grocery stores, and some funky thrift stores to name a few.

But New West like most municipalities in the Lower Mainland is growing at a phenomenal rate. This especially true in the lower part of town where condo towers having been springing up like weeds over the last decade. No doubt this will have an effect on the little stores on 12th Street. As property values and taxes rise it becomes economically unviable to have such little buildings on such expensive land. So for the time being this little strip of 12th Street is hanging in there and is well worth a visit!

The Jade Dynasty Restaurant

One of my favourite storefronts in Chinatown is the Jade Dynasty Restaurant at 137 East Pender Street. Located in the 1913 Mah Society Building it's certainly one of the most colourful storefronts around. But that all changed back in early 2016 when the restaurant closed down and the building started an extensive restoration. Here's an old photo of how it looked back in early 2013.

Strangely enough while the building was empty it suffered a fire. A local news channel stated incorrectly that the restaurant "went up in flames" although there was some damage as a result.

When the building first opened in 1913 the storefront was home to Kwong Fong Grocery with the Minglee Rooms upstairs. Here's a link to a photo of the building at Canada's Historic Places.

After doing a bit of searching I found the building got a Heritage Facade Grant from the City back in late 2015. I also found a document online that included lot's of technical and historical information about the old place. Amazingly there was some very detailed info about the storefront and how it had changed over the years.

"The original 1913 wood storefront was altered in about 1928; the storefront above the wood paneled base and below the wood clearestorey windows was replaced with a pressed copper storefront system popular at this time. The storefront was entirely changed out in the late 1960s to an aluminum storefront with a ceramic tile covering over the clearestorey area, which was subsequently replaced in the 1980s with the current aluminum storefront."

So in the summer of 2017 the restoration work was complete and the Jade Dynasty reopened for business. But it looks nothing like the old restaurant!

The restaurant's new look is more in keeping with the building's original design but I can't help thinking that I liked the colours of the old place better!

Glory Foods

I was down in Gastown recently and as I was walking along Carrall Street near Powell I immediately noticed something was missing. Glory Foods was a little corner store that was right next door to another one called Bill's Confectionary. It was always interesting to see two corner stores side by side. But the way Gastown is changing I guess it was only a matter of time before one of them disappeared. Here is an old shot of the store taken back in late 2012.

The store was located in the old Glory Hotel which was a single room occupancy hotel. Technically the building dates from 1909. But according to the folks at Changing Vancouver the hotel was built over two existing stores on Carrall Street. You can read more about the Glory Hotel in their post here. I happened to find an old photo at the Vancouver Archives of the building taken probably in the early 1980's. At that time the space was home to a belt buckle store! It's hard to photograph the building today as trees have since grown up and cover it during the spring and summer months. CVA-790-2146

I did a little searching and found out the hotel was sold back in 2014. It looks like it's also been extensively renovated over the last few years. So I guess the corner store's days were probably numbered. I'm also guessing the folks that lived in the rooms upstairs won't be able to afford to move back either. The area around Maple Tree Square and Gastown in general is going very upscale in terms of retail these days. A new store called Bailey Nelson (Australian) will be opening a new eyewear store once renovations are completed. I'm sure the new store will be nice but you can't help  miss the character of Glory Foods!

Ecco Il Pane Bakery

The old Ecco Il Pane bakery at 238 West 5th Avenue had become one of Vancouver's new urban mysteries. I seem to remember it being open back in the mid 2000's. But somewhere along the line it closed its doors and the building looks like it's been abandoned ever since. I believe Ecco Il Pane was one of the city's first artisan bakeries. It might have been well ahead of its time as artisan everything is in vogue now.

The building is situated in Lower Mount Pleasant which has become an "in demand" destination for the tech and fashion industries. Real estate prices in recent years have skyrocketed forcing many traditional service businesses to relocate elsewhere while the new and hip move in. Just across the street the old Hudson Plating building was recently demolished to make way for a big new office building. So no doubt the old Ecco Il Pane building is worth a small fortune! I'm sure realtors and developers are probably salivating hoping to get their hands on the place. But there it sits looking empty and abandoned and covered in ivy. Could be the space is being used with access from the lane but it all looks very mysterious!

The Blue Eagle Cafe

A little bit of Vancouver's history was lost forever when the old Blue Eagle Cafe was torn down back in 2011. The cafe had a long run and had operated at 130 East Hastings street from 1944 until it was finally closed down by the City in 1999 for drug infractions. Being right in the Downtown Eastside and just a stones throw from Main and Hastings the Blue Eagle was in a bit of a rough stretch of town. But this is nothing new as the neighbourhood has always had its problems going back many decades. Another classic Vancouver cafe the Only Seafoods just down the street would later suffer the same fate in 2009.

The building was of course very old and had three distinct storefronts. These were home to a revolving door of businesses and eateries over the years. Back in 1916 the space at 130 had once been home to the White Lunch which went on to have a few locations around town as well as some great neon signage. A few doors East at 134 was The Golden Gate Cafe which once sported a tall neon sign with a coffee cup at the top. Years later just next door to that at 138 was the infamous Kit Kat Klub. Before the Blue Eagle arrived on the scene this part of Hastings Street was Vancouver's downtown and cafe's were literally everywhere along the street. Today the only one left is the Ovaltine Cafe just East of Main Street. You can see what the street looked like back in 1973 in this great photo by Vancouver photographer Greg Girard.

Sadly the old building that housed the Blue Eagle was neglected for years like many in the Downtown Eastside. For just over a decade the Blue Eagle's classic neon sign sat abandoned with the eagle keeping watch over the sidewalk on Hastings Street. It wasn't until 2010 that the sign was finally acquired by the Museum of Vancouver.

The sign at its new home in 2011

It's really too bad the Blue Eagle is gone as it makes me think the old place could have lived again if it had been renovated in time. Upscale restaurants are now making inroads into the Downtown Eastside and especially into Chinatown. Of course many are calling this gentrification but it's nice to see empty storefronts coming back to life. The Blue Eagle's interior was pretty spiffy and the floor was covered in amazing mosaic tile work. Done up right it would still look fabulous today!

The Western wall was also covered in beautiful tiles no doubt from its days as The White Lunch.

But in Vancouver nothing lasts forever and the deal was finally sealed for the Blue Eagle when the Pantages Theatre up the block at 150 East Hastings was condemned after suffering years of water damage. At one time there were serious plans to restore the theatre to its former glory. But by 2010 all those plans had gone seriously off the rails and all the old buildings had an appointment with the demolition man. As artist Keith McKellar wrote in his 1999 book Neon Eulogy "Everybody knows the room with a mischevious soul. The Blue Eagle Cafe". At least we have the old neon sign to remember the place by!

March 2021 - Just a quick update as I recently discovered an old photo from the 1920's in the VPL's collection on Flickr. The photo is by Stuart Thomson and shows 130 East Hastings when it was the White Lunch. A few doors East at 134 was the Golden Gate Cafe with its big electric sign!