The wheels go ’round
Photo: iStock
Look who’s rolling into the North End. After 19 years at its current location on Quinpool Road, Cyclesmith is moving into the former NSLC building on Agricola. The new shop will contain about 3,500 square feet of retail space as well as a large storage area in the basement. Cyclesmith will occupy 60 per cent of the building. An as-of-yet unidentified local business will take over the remaining 40 per cent. Cyclesmith anticipates opening in early November.
This is the third move since the bicycle shop was founded in 1984. While growth drove the previous two moves, this time the building the store currently inhabits is being torn down to make way for an eight-storey, mixed-used development. Mark Beaver, co-owner of Cyclesmith, says he’s seen the blueprints for the new structure and opines that it looks great, but adds: “It’s kind of hard to do business out of a two-storey deep, smoking hole in the ground.”
The store looked around for eight months before ultimately settling on the Agricola location. Since the building had been gutted out to the I-beams, the owner was essentially willing to build it to suit Cyclesmith’s specifications. Parking space was also an important consideration. Add to the fact that the North End is turning into a hot spot for independent businesses, and the Agricola Street space was pretty much a done deal. “We would not want to go somewhere like Bayers Lake or Dartmouth Crossing,” says Beaver. “It’s just not appropriate for who we are and what we do.”
This story was originally published in Halifax Magazine.
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