Winters Hotel fire puts many out of business, Gastown BIA looks to support

The destruction of the Winters Hotel in Gastown has hit local business owners hard.

The building is slated for demolition, beginning Wednesday, after it went up in flames last week, forcing dozens of people out.

The condition of the building is so unsafe that residents and some business owners are not able to get in to retrieve any of their belongings.

“Businesses have been completely destroyed or have been impacted and closed. So it’s been a very difficult week. And the other unfortunate issue is some of those folks weren’t even able to get into their spaces to collect any of the goods that they had in there prior to the demolition starting,” said Walley Wargolet, executive director of the Gastown Business Improvement Association.

He says seven businesses are destroyed and two across the street are affected due to their proximity. The businesses include: The Flying Pig restaurant, Australian Boot Company, Bruce Eyewear, and the Gowon Cafe.

Wargolet admits the fire came at an already-difficult time for many in the community.

“These are a lot of owner-operated stores, folks that had dedicated their entire life to the work that they were doing and overnight has disappeared on them. So there’s no question the impact is quite severe,” he said, adding the pandemic has also taken a toll.

“The other difficult part is a lot of them, also over the course of two years, really kind of built some additional debt to keep their businesses going. It was great when there was some government help … but some of those were loans that now have to start to be paid back. When you then lose your ability to make money, it’s kind of a double hit to you.”

The fire at the building on Abbott and Water streets, a busy and popular section of Gastown, erupted in the morning of April 11. The Winters Hotel comprised the upper floors of the building, while the ground level contained businesses.

The blaze sent five people to the hospital, with several others rescued.

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More than 140 people, including 73 residents of the single-room occupancy (SRO) hotel, were forced out by the flames and unable to return. The fire also put many people out of work for the time being.

Wargolet says the Gastown BIA is doing what it can to support the more than 60 people now without jobs, as well as rally around business owners who are looking to rebuild.

“It’s been a very difficult week,” he told CityNews. “It’s a blow to our neighbourhood that was just starting to feel the vibrancy come back after two years of dealing with COVID. More tourists coming to the neighbourhood, cruise ships arriving. So it’s kind of a negative at a time when things were really starting to pick up and be more positive.”

He says the BIA is trying to figure out if it can help some businesses reopen in other locations of Gastown, with work ongoing.

City officials have said there will be planned power outages, as well as additional street closures, to ensure the demolition work is done as quickly and safely as possible.

The tear down is expected to take about two days.

Wargolet says he’d like to see more communication from the city when it comes to plans for what will happen post-demolition and what impact the work will have on the Gastown neighbourhood as a whole.

“We’re anxiously awaiting answers to all those questions. But then the next thing is we have over 150 businesses that are still open and we need folks to come and visit Gastown and support those businesses. We also have over 300 businesses above ground that are being impacted by this,” he explained.

“Yes, we want to see this site become safe and the demolition to happen, but then get our streets reopened, get our businesses open that are currently closed that can reopen, and get that vibrancy back into Gastown. Ultimately, the next thing, too, is we need to get the city to focus on the maintaining of our precious, beautiful, historic neighbourhood, which they’ve done such a lousy job of over the course of the last 15 years so that it deteriorated.”