St. Catharines Downtown Association

A once sickly strip along St. Paul St. is slowly gaining new life.

While boarded-up storefronts are a sign that not all is perfect, some welcome changes are afoot. And much of that involves tasty dining options.

There are a host of examples along the Queen to Ontario streets section.

What was once Niagara's Best Beer, at 75 St. Paul St., is set to be a Sushi Ai restaurant.

The popular Christina's Eatery will soon open up at new digs a few units down the street.

Meanwhile its old site, at 24 St. Paul, is being transformed into a 55-seat eatery by chef John Lazaruk.

Called The Silver Star Diner, it will focus on "contemporary comfort food," said Lazaruk, who has previously worked for other higher-end restaurants in Niagara.

"I wanted a casual place downtown appealing to a wider range of people," he explained. "And I think there's a shortage of moderately priced, higher-quality restaurants."

Lazaruk said he's been a proponent of the core for years.

"So it's good to keep new investment and development coming in," he said.

St. Paul St.'s revitalization is not just from new places to eat, said Kithio Mwanzia, policy co-ordinator for the St. Catharines-Thorold Chamber of Commerce.

From bookend to bookend, "it's producing one of the most creative square miles in Niagara."

On the west side is a forthcoming arts centre and school.

And on the other, the expanded Niagara Interactive Media Generator at One St. Paul-- and adjacent to it, the video game company Silicon Knights.

New also to that building is the Niagara College Employment and Training Solutions centre.

"You've got this whole corridor of creativity and small and medium sized businesses that's being created," Mwanzia said.

"Entrepreneurs are also saying there's a noticeable turnaround amid this true creative cluster.

"And there are all these new eateries now to complement it."

One of those business people is Ian Swinkels, the project manager and site supervisor at a former nightclub at 108 St. Paul.

The gutted space is being renovated into eight apartment units and two floors of commercial space.

It's anticipated the project will be finished by early October.

"We're redoing the face of this building," said Swinkels, co-owner of Greenway Innovations in Niagara-on- the-Lake. "And we're taking it back to that classic St. Paul street-front look.

"The only thing that area needs is more people in it," he said. "That will bring back those little shops."

In Swinkels' view decent, affordable living downtown will go a long way toward achieving this.

Please see story in The St. Catharines Standard by D. Fraser at:

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/PrintArticle.aspx?e=2733803

dfraser@stcatharinesstandard.ca