JASPER – Vicious Cycle is the first business to open its temporary location at the new pop-up village for businesses displaced by the Jasper wildfire.
The pop-up shop opened on May 1, with around eight more businesses expected to move in over the next two months until an official launch on Canada Day long weekend.
“I think anytime businesses can cluster together, it creates a retail area, and that’s a good thing, and we’re looking forward to seeing the other businesses that were affected by the fire get restarted,” said Paul Burgess, owner of Vicious Cycle.
Vicious Cycle, which lost its Jasper location in the fire, first presented the idea of establishing a pop-up shop to the Municipality of Jasper in September.
“I felt that we could run a reasonable business with a couple of sea cans placed, and within six to eight weeks, they approved the idea,” Burgess said.
From there, Vicious Cycle obtained a modified sea can and had it shipped out to Jasper. Within a day, they were open for business.
Burgess noted they were able to provide the same services as before, with support from its Hinton location, but ultimately hoped to move into a permanent home once new buildings started to come up.
Town planner Lucas Sherwin with the Municipality of Jasper explained that Vicious Cycle had been the one to bring the idea to them.
“We said yes right off the bat with them, and as time has gone on, we realized that we should put the call out to the rest of the community to [find] other businesses that might be interested in using space,” Sherwin said.
The pop-up location is meant for forward-facing businesses that lost brick-and-mortar space in last year’s wildfire and is not intended to become a new commercial space but rather support recovery. There is also a designated space in the industrial area of town for contractors involved in the rebuild.
For the location of pop-up village, municipal council briefly considered the Patricia Street lot next to the Old Firehall, but after receiving pushback from neighbouring residents and businesses over concerns such as parking, it decided to stick with the originally proposed Connaught Drive site.
Sherwin noted there were pros and cons to both locations, such as the Connaught lot had a restroom and picnic tables but was located near the train tracks. He also assured that the impact on parking would be minimal, with only 25 to 30 stalls being used out of the 1,250 stalls within a 400-metre walk of downtown.
Burgess was happy with the Connaught lot, noting it was close to their original location, and hoped other businesses would benefit from the concept.
“Certainly, the town was the one that came up with the idea to create a village of this; I just posed the idea for our business,” Burgess said. “But I think it’s a great idea to have a bunch of us clustered together and hopefully create our own pocket of commerce to help the town out.”
Sherwin reported they were still waiting on power servicing. The municipality is also looking at enhancing the area through lights, additional tables and chairs, and large format games such as a big chessboard.
Although some businesses are interested in having a pop-up shop only in the summer, the pop-up village could potentially operate year-round and last for several years until commercial spaces are rebuilt.
“We’re excited to get it going,” Sherwin said. “Vicious has been here all week and happy and busy, and we’re excited to see a bunch of other businesses come in that were impacted by the fire and help them operate through the summer because that’s all part of the recovery.”
Displaced businesses interested in participating in the pop-up village can email Sherwin directly for more information.
