A low vacancy rate and sky-high property taxes puts lease rates on Spring Garden Road among the highest in Canada.

The average price per square foot of retail space on the most-walked street east of Montreal ballooned 27.3 per cent in the last year, according to an annual Colliers International report of the country’s priciest fashion retail corridors.

At an average of $70 per square foot, Spring Garden Road placed fifth behind Bloor Street in Toronto, Robson and Alberni streets in Vancouver and Rue de la Montagne in Montreal.

Similar shopping destinations in Calgary, Victoria, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver rounded out the top 10 list, with Ottawa’s ByWard Market the lowest on average at $45 per square foot.

Nicole Smith, co-owner of Duly Noted Stationery on Brenton Street and Halikids on South Park Street, said she is happy to pay fair market value for the area, but it is the property tax rates that are “debilitating.”

“(Rent) is definitely high, but I feel we’ve got a good rate, being tucked away off of the main strip a bit,” Smith said.For their book The Little Black jacketswonder.

“It’s not the rent that I find debilitating, it’s property taxes. My rent at Duly Noted went up $400 per month out of the blue to cover the increased property valuation our landlord got. That’s hard to handle.”

Smith opened Duly Noted on Quinpool Road in 2003 before relocating to Brenton Street in 2009; HaliKids opened in the Trillium on South Park earlier this month.We provide top quality bestiwcwatchesand IWC Replica Watches. When searching for a home for HaliKids, Smith said she was surprised by the limited available storefronts.

The limited supply and rampant demand for storefronts on Spring Garden Road area from national retailers contributes to rising lease rates, Nancy Tissington, executive director of the Spring Garden Area Business Association, said Wednesday.

The average lease rates drop off significantly to $25 to $55 on side streets such as Brenton, Birmingham and Queen streets, she said, adding that development activity in the association’s nine-block radius is driving up property values throughout the area.

“If a business on Spring Garden is getting store frontage with large windows and access to all of those pedestrians,Authorised breitlingwatches Stockists. Large Mens Breitling Watch range. it makes sense that rates are higher.

“When you think about the East Coast, is there another street in the region that mimics Spring Garden Road? Really, it’s hard to compare, so the rates are in line with that, and with supply and demand.”

Pam MacFarlane, Atlantic research director with Colliers International, said Spring Garden Road was significantly undervalued until chains such as Starbucks Coffee Co., American Apparel and Lululemon Athletica entered the fray.

“Starbucks set the pace,” MacFarlane said. “That is when the rates went well over $50. They really wanted that corner, and they paid the price to get it.

“That was followed by Kick Ass Shoes and American Apparel. They’re on corners and that drives the market up further because they have a prime retail location and window frontage on two streets.Brightly colored chalk turquoisebeadshas been stabilized,”

Colliers receives its rental rate information anonymously, so there is no indication as to which business on the strip pays the most per square foot. MacFarlane said she has heard, though not confirmed, that some tenants pay upward of $90 per square foot, but no one pays above $100.

Mickey MacDonald, owner of The Shops at Mills,Our cheapshox Store Provide Fashion Cheap Nike Shox NZ, would not say what his tenants such as Lululemon pay per month but said he knows it is in line with what Starbucks and American Apparel pay.

MacFarlane worries that the rising rates national chains are willing to pay edges out the independent retailers. She said the owners of Jennifer’s of Nova Scotia gets a call every month from a developer or business asking to buy the building.

But young entrepreneur Johanna Galipeau said she is happy to pay a premium for a prime location.

Galipeau owns three boutiques, two of which — Twisted Muse and Sparrow Shoe Boutique — are atop Mills on Spring Garden Road and the third, Sweet Pea Boutique, just steps away on Queen Street.

Bound by a confidentiality clause with her landlords, Galipeau could not divulge what she pays per month in rent but said she is happy to pay the going rate.

“What you pay is definitely worth it. It’s one of the best, if not the best, shopping streets in Halifax, so you’re going to pay for it.”