Downtown St. Catharines business owners push back on heritage district proposal

A proposed heritage designation for the entire downtown core in St. Catharines has business owners worried about added costs and hassles during an already difficult time.

Mayor Mat Siscoe fears the plan would deter investors and developers from the city.

“Devastating, that’s probably the word I can come up with now,” Siscoe said.

David Cooperman has businesses in the downtown core. He says his properties have no historical significance but with this blanket designation he says making any changes to his buildings would be a problem.

“In the event I wanna do something, guess what? I’m subjected on a building that was built in 1968, they have a say in what goes on,” Cooperman said.

The list of issues goes on. Owner of Critelli furniture, Joe Critelli, says with a heritage designation, business owners would have a hard time getting insurance and would have to pay much higher premiums for insurance and financing.

“Doing it by district, you are going to be affecting all property owners, all business owners, all landlords and tenants. We want to find a supportive way to preserve heritage and not have such a negative impact on all of the stakeholders downtown,” Critelli said.

There is really such a mix of buildings here in downtown St. Catharines.

One second you are in front of a building that looks old and like it might have some historical significance and then the next second you are in front of a building that looks more modern, and like it was built just a few decades ago.

Hugo Chesshire with the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce says downtown businesses have been struggling for years and don’t need any added burdens.

“Going from one crisis to another it seems. First we had the pandemic and the lockdowns then we went into the high inflation, high interest rates and labour shortages. Now we are starting to emerge from that but we have a trade war and tariffs,” Chesshire said.

It’s something Siscoe is against too.

“In this business climate, especially with everything that is going on down south and how difficult it is for businesses on a day to day basis, I am not willing to take steps to make it harder for people to do business in the community” Siscoe said.

The men say preserving true heritage buildings is important, and support any business owner who wants to apply individually but say an all encompassing designation would be detrimental.

The issue will be back in front of council on June 9.

READ MORE: St. Catharines considers downtown heritage district