Saint-Roch slower to recover from the pandemic

The Saint-Roch district and the peripheral sectors of downtown Quebec as a whole are “struggling to recover” from the pandemic compared to other Canadian city centers, according to a report published Tuesday by the company CBRE, specializing in rental of office space.

The real estate services investment company also says that several of its office space tenant clients want to leave the sector, while the vacancy rate reaches 19.6% for offices.

We have customers who ask us to get out of there, confirms the executive vice-president, Patrick Soucy. It’s not the majority, and they’re not the big tenants of Saint-Roch, he adds, but obviously, if there are several small tenants who decide to leave, it will have an impact.

Like traders, large building owners are also more likely to report acts of vandalism in recent years, according to Patrick Soucy. Events which coincide with the increase in homelessness visible in the neighborhood since the pandemic and the move of the Lauberivière organization.

There are more and more breaks in this area, both in Saint-Joseph and in Charestnotes the broker.

Before this creates too much fear, it would be important for there to be a radical change. […] We will certainly need help from the municipal side.

Patrick Soucy, however, does not fear a major exodus, since Saint-Roch has its own identity which still appeals to many companies, including the video game industry.

Companies of 10,000 square feet and more do not ask themselves this question. They’re very well established, they’re in the industry, they’re there because they love it. This is a sector that is always in demand. […] It is a place that has a nightlife important, beautiful restaurants, shops.

“Like a horror movie”

However, some local store employees are starting to run out of patience. Winter is like a horror movie. It becomes unbearableexasperates the manager of Brûlerie Saint-Roch. If the situation does not improve, she does not see herself working in the neighborhood for more than six months.

In the morning, sometimes I’m afraid to open the café because I’m alone here. There were acts of physical and verbal violence. It becomes very chaotic, it becomes very messy.

The manager says she recently lost four employees who no longer felt safe going to work, a problem linked to the increase in homelessness in the area. We’re just baristas, we’re not speakers. We shouldn’t have to go through this stress to come to work.

During his first press scrum of the year, the mayor assured that new actions will be announced in the coming weeks.

With the collaboration of Marie-Ève ​​Trudel