St. Catharines is my hometown, and while it’s the size of a city it has some of those unique “small town” features. This town, what the locals call “St. Kitts”, has had a resurgence in the past decade, now boasting a hipstery-cool downtown and a reviving beach-life district. Our lakeside area of Port Dalhousie, which is a heritage district hearkening back to the 1800s, has had a grassroots revival by local business owners with a cool microbrewery (Lock Street Brewing Co.), Balzac’s coffee shop, and a boutique hotel (The Juniper) on the Main Street strip keeping up interest. Beautiful housing developments are coming to fruition, with local company Rankin Construction turning an old factory into trendy loft condos, and gleaming towers such as 10 Dalhousie Avenue feature stately condos with priceless panoramic Lake views. You can enjoy evening walks on the iconic Port Pier and grab a drink at the fabulous restaurants or a bite at the summer Supper Market at Lakeside Park. And don’t forget to bring the kids or grandkids to the famous historic Carousel, still just 5 cents a ride.
Now let’s talk Downtown. It is my favourite place to be, and where I’m found most often at dinnertime at one of the best restaurants around. The city came up with a Garden City Plan in 2010, and since then the growth in our Downtown has been explosive: the Meridian Centre (a 5300 seat arena) was built and opened in 2014, and attracts acts as big as Elton John and Jerry Seinfeld; a Performing Arts Centre down the road opened in 2015 showcasing tons of arts and cultural shows and events (https://tgam.ca/384pdks); shops are getting filled up with interesting & sustaining businesses like cool thrift shops and plant stores, vegan doughnut shops that are visited by doughnut-enthusiasts from around the world (Beechwood Donuts), old cinemas repurposed into cooperative workspaces (The Lincoln); and my most favourite of improvements: world-class dining experiences in new restaurants like Dispatch Restaurant – it was actually named one of Canada’s Top 10 Restaurants by enroute in 2019! And we’re not just about food, drink and entertainment (and real estate – thought I’d pop that in there again!). We’re liked by the sports community – chosen by the Canada Games to come here in 2021, there is now a grand Canada Games Park at our very own Brock University.
To find out more about what it’s like to live in Niagara, I’m happy to chat and even meet you for a coffee at one of my favourite local coffee shops! Just click here and send me a “hello”.
