BCBusiness

February 2015 Why they Give

With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.

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february 2015 BCBusiness 71 The sign of a truly successful tourist destination—one that can endure the ebb and flow of economic tides and social fashions—is one that draws in the locals. That's certainly the case with Vancou- ver's Granville Island—the city's top tourist attraction, with over 10 million visitors each year, includ- ing many residents who go there to shop, eat or see a show. It was also once the case at San Francisco's Ghirardelli Square, which occupies prime waterfront real estate on San Francisco Bay. The former chocolate fac- tory, which dates to the 1860s, was converted into a mixed restaurant-and-retail space back in 1964, becoming one of the first such "adaptive re-use" projects in the U.S. For its first 25 years, the development was a huge success— capitalizing on the crowds from neighbouring Fisherman's Wharf but also attracting locals with an eclectic mix of galleries, restau- rants and shops. The success of Ghirardelli would ultimately be the inspi- ration for retail conversions across North America, includ- Back to Square One W bCbuSINeSS.Ca SWEET SpoT Ghirardelli Square, a former chocolate factory, once again hopes to draw in the locals. T r a v e l Ghirardelli Square, an iconic property on San Francisco's waterfront, hits the refresh button to attract a local crowd by Matt O'Grady F e b r u a r y 2 0 15 O ou t of office INSIDE Salted Brick + Au comptoir ... time to Jingle and Mingle! ... colin Hansen's new gig Whereas in the late '60s about half of the people funnelling in and out of Ghirardelli Square were locals, by the late 1980s that number had dropped to one in five.

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