After 10 years on Barrington Street, Attica Furnishings (1566 Barrington Street) is headed north. The 21-year-old contemporary furniture store—which actually got its start in the north end, on Gottingen Street—announced that as of late October it’ll move into the brand new, 8,000 square foot, ground floor space in the mixed-use Point North building at 3065 Robie Street. (For reference, that’s next to the Lion’s Head Tavern).
“There are a number of factors,” says Attica’s co-founder Suzanne Saul of the move. “We’ve been in the this location for 10 years, eight of those years we had four floors. Before all the construction started it was fine, but in recent years it was a challenge getting people upstairs. I think with less traffic we noticed it more.”
The new location will allow Attica to operate on one floor—with 14-foot ceilings and what Saul calls a more “warehousey” feel—meaning a more efficient space for the shop’s ever-expanding design services and workshops, parking and prime visibility to the busy strip. Saul says it was important for Attica to stay on the peninsula, and being part of the growing north end retail scene is a bonus.
“Even though downtown has its challenges, there are great things about it too. And a lot of great people down here,” she says. “I’ll miss our neighbours. I’ve been coming downtown for 20 years!”
Attica hopes to lighten the load before the big move and will run a sale leading up to its departure from Barrington Street, watch for more on that here.
This article appears in Sep 8-14, 2016.
Another empty storefront to grace Barrington Street,
Come on dinahcat, Barrington has way less empty storefronts than it did just 1-2 years ago: Urban Outfitters, Highwayman, Canook, the Steakhouse, Stillwell, Weird Harbour, the Apothecary expansion, and soon a new brewery in the building with Two Doors Down.
Barrington is doing better than it has in years. This doesnt change that.
Convention Centre going to swoop in and save the day.
This is a mistake if you ask me. What made Attica special, and a preferred destination for me over places like Project 9, was the character of the building. Without that it’s just another super expensive furniture store.
Rather than look at this as a total negative, consider that a new store will fill this location and North Point has gained an exceptional store to draw people to that area. Theres massive development in that area and Attica is a win for Robie and North
So, the car lot isn’t a harbinger of doom for the area?