Downtown St. Catharines businesses hit hard by extended road closures

After more than a year of traffic disruptions and months of GO Transit reconstruction, businesses on one of downtown St. Catharines’ busiest streets are struggling to stay afloat.

It looks like it’ll be several more months before things go back to normal.

“The impact was significant, immediate, and now ongoing,” says Noel Buckley, co-owner of Cold Break Brewing.

A major artery in St. Catharines has been under construction since last year because of the GO Transit expansion project.

Once complete, it will provide the city with better transit infrastructure, and potentially more foot traffic to the area as well. But businesses on St. Paul Street West is caught in the crosshairs.

“Having a big sign that says ‘bridge closed, road closed, businesses open’ isn’t particularly encouraging,” said Buckley.

“Obviously it’s impacting my business a lot because there’s not a lot of retail customers. Especially because the road is closed, and it’s very hard for people to come to this area,” said Hamza Palani, owner of SH ProGuys Auto Repair.

The multi-million dollar redevelopment includes demolishing and rebuilding the railway overpass, creating train station access from Ridley Road and reconstructing that entire street, as well as adding a GO station precinct.

In the process, the storefronts along the construction route have had to deal with noisy vehicles, road closures, and a significant drop in customers.

“I live in the area, and it does have a negative impact on the whole neighbourhood, Ridley College included. But the big impact is on the businesses because that’s their lifeline,” said Joe Kushner, Ward 2 councillor of St. Catharines.

The project is managed by the Niagara Region, and business owners say there has been little done to help them stay afloat while the construction takes place.

One storefront on St. Paul West, window covering store ShutterLux, opened just as construction began, and the store manager says it’s been detrimental to sales.

The regional government gave an original timeline of three years for the entire project to be completed.

Niagara Region says a single lane of traffic will reopen by the end of this year, with the whole project expected to wrap up in 2026.

Businesses in the area say the lack of support from the Niagara Region has inspired them to find their own ways of ensuring foot traffic continues.

“We’ve hosted a couple of weddings, we’ve done a couple of parties, we’re certainly looking for any reason to come to this part of town and come to this brewery,” said Buckley.

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