BCBusiness

16 B C B U S I N E S S . C A A P R I L / M AY 2 0 2 5 which is fully on the lane, with- out even an entry on Guelph. The Habitat project, a combo of commercial and residential, was done as a collaboration among Fabric Living, Porte Communities and Hudson Projects Corp. As it turns out, Fabric CEO Jordan MacDonald is a true believer when it comes to tapping into what he thinks is a hidden city treasure: alleys. "You really open up the fourth dimension of a city when you use them," he said. His team spent a considerable amount of time designing spaces that would work on the alley: small enough for startup independent businesses, large enough to function, big win- dows that open onto the lane, special venting. It's more than just a case of maximizing commercial spaces in the building. He also sees this kind of design add as something that improves the quality of life in the neigh- bourhood. It makes things feel safer, bringing "eyes on the lane" to spaces that are now mostly devoted to garbage, loading and garage entrances. "Everything becomes more walkable," says MacDonald. The idea couldn't come at a better moment as Vancou- ver continues to lose quirky spaces and formerly ignored corners of the city get rede- veloped. (Some prayers for the continued existence of the tiny Boxcar bar next to the Cobalt on Main Street near the viaducts, a site that is set to be transformed into a new hotel at some point, and the Narrow Lounge, also on Main.) People who love urban life and spaces have always had great hopes for the city's alleys. Vancouver has more of them, proportionally, than To- ronto does and certainly more than many European cities. Here, they're almost as wide as city streets in some areas, such as the West End. And they have a long history, par- ticularly in Chinatown, where residents who were confined to their homes by a city curfew could still socialize in the alleys behind their buildings. There was a moment of excitement a decade ago when people talked about building laneway apartment buildings in the West End because there was so much room. (To my knowledge, only one or two of those were ever completed.) The new café on Guelph Street in Vancouver isn't that different from many other little independents in the city— small, specialty menu (this one vegan), popular in its small corner of the world—except for one thing. It's not on a main traffic street, nor is it one of the few former old convenience stores in Vancouver that have been re-purposed into a hipster café/grocery. Instead, AM Café's main set of windows face the alley between Broadway and East 10th Avenue. There, people sitting next to those windows can observe the parade of urban life going by: a person with a roller suitcase and a black plastic bag that looks like it's full of life possessions, a garbage truck, a couple walking their dog, a shopper on the way home from the nearby grocery store, a father walking alongside a child with a tricycle. This summer, owners Lindsay Loudon and Olly Nicklin plan to take even more advantage of the alley by put- ting tables out along the small brick plaza that runs in front of those windows—an unusual RIGHT UP YOUR ALLEY Businesses are starting to find homes directly off alleyways, much to the delight of planners and residents alike L A N D V A L U E S by Frances Bula Frances Bula is a long-time Vancouver journalist and the 2023 recipient of the Bruce Hutchison Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jack Webster Foundation. feature in this new building that was completed in 2023. "I loved the laneway vibe," says Loudon, on a break from serving a breakfast rush in the 18-seat, 850-square-foot space, explaining why she and Nicklin decided to start their new business in a place that wasn't exactly the most visible to peo- ple going by on Broadway. "I'm thinking that having the patio might make people change their routes." The rent was a bit less than other places, as well, because of its unusual location, something that was likely an incentive to the framing shop next door—

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