A retailer who has been in business for 29 years may have to close her Hamilton clothes store because of a shortage of retail space in the City.

And a local realtor attributes the situation in part to existing retail space being converted to office developments for both local and international businesses.

Sharon Bartram, owner of the 27th Century Boutique, has to move from her current location in the Imperial Building on the corner of Church Street and Burnaby Street by the end of September. The building is due to be redeveloped as office space for use by owners the Gibbons Group and a local law firm, and existing tenants have to find new locations for their businesses. Ms Bartram has been a tenant in the building for the last 14 years.

“We were given notice at the beginning of the year and I've been looking since February,” said Ms. Bartram. “I've been working with the real estate companies and looking on my own, but there just isn't anything available in the City.”

Ms Bartram said that she needs between 1,200 and 1,500 square feet of space in the area of Church or Front Streets and has only been able to view one location of that size since she started looking.

“But that was on the outskirts of the City and I need to be right in Hamilton,” she said. “It's gotten so bad that even my customers are looking for me, because they want us to stay in town.”

Graham Smith, commercial real estate agent for Coldwell Banker Commercial, confirmed that retail space is becoming increasingly difficult to find in Hamilton.

“It's part of the overall crunch in commercial space in the City and office space is winning out over retail,” he said. “In our strong economy market forces have swung the balance towards meeting the demand for office space and there's a shrinking inventory for retailers. There's still strong demand for retail space but no supply.”

He cited various examples of office developments swallowing up former retail businesses, including Ram Re House (the former location of Lines Brothers) and the former Staples store location on Reid Street.

“There's also the LOM Building on the corner of Reid and Burnaby which used to be the main outlet for GE appliances,” he said.

He added that the prolonged construction boom has also affected the situation, since many old buildings which may have housed retail tenants on the ground floor are being gutted for new offices.

“This means multiple retailers are out there looking for space, making things even tighter,” he said.

Mr. Smith said that the City of Hamilton Plan 2001 designates certain parts of the city as the “principle shopping area” - Front Street from Bermudiana Road going east to Parliament Street; Reid Street from Burnaby and Queen Streets; and Queen Street from Reid Street to Church Street. The plan states that non-retail development “will be resisted” in those areas.

“Buildings in those areas must have some kind of retail business at least on the ground floor, or restaurants or similar types of operations,” he said.

“So developments that are outside of that area do not necessarily have to have a retail element, and increasingly they don't.”

Mr. Smith added that, in another twist to retailers woes in this context, he has seen a trend in restaurants displacing retail stores.

“There's been a growth in restaurants which I think is tied to the increase in international business to some degree.”

He said that Ms Bartram's case was fairly typical these days and he has been in contact with her for months trying to assist in her search, with no result so far.

“She's definitely not the only one and I feel sorry for the retailers - it's just another thing stacked up against them,” he said.

“I don't see the situation changing right now unfortunately. It's not ideal but people are basically having to find space further away from the city centre.”

Ms Bartram continues the search for new space for her business, and has even taken out radio advertisements to promote her situation and hopefully get some leads.

“I'm running the ads for the month of July and hoping something will come out of them,” she said.

“I opened another store in St. George's in April so I won't be out of business entirely. But if we close the Hamilton store two full-time and three part-time jobs will be lost and I will lose the main base for my customers. I'm still hopeful and I don't want to close down; I'm not giving up for now.”