Vacancies aplenty in downtown St. John's just ask this street photographer

It hasn't been difficult for Vanessa Mary Wade to find vacant businesses in downtown St. John's.

Thephotographer has been posting pictures of empty storefronts on social media for less than a week,and she's already found nearly 40 of them. She said she thinks the City of St. John's should be doing more to help businesses stay open.

"I don't think they're doing enough to keep the vibrancy and vitality downtown. You know, the people who are struggling to keep their businesses open, they're doing they're the ones doing that. Not the council," she said.

She first noticed the empty buildings on her commute to work downtown, and last weekend had the idea of posting pictures of them on Instagram.

So far, she has covered Water and Duckworth streets.

"And I still haven't even done, like, all of Duckworth," she said.

Gone without a trace

She said she's had some emotional reactions to the photos.

"A lot of sadness and just a lot of surprise, to a lot of people. There were places that they went to regularly, but they just haven't been able to come downtown as much and then all these places are gone, and they're surprised."

One of those places was the Booster Juice in Atlantic Place.

"They seemed always busy, and then I came back after the storm. I'd been off for a week. Came back, and it was gone, and everyone was really surprised by that," she said.

"People I work with, my brother who goes to the gym regularly everyone's like, 'What's going on?' Really surprised, you know."

She said city council should work with business owners more.

"There's a lot of people wanting to open things down here, and there's all these hurdles, all this red tape, and stuff still vacant."

She said she doesn't plan to stop photographing vacant shopsany time soon.

"Oh, [I'm] definitely gonna carry on with it. I'd like to go to other parts of the city, if anyone knows anywhere else."

Looking at the data

Although the City of St. John's wasn't able to provide exact statistics of vacancy rates in the downtown area, regional real estate firms do have some information on the matter.

Susan Morrison of Cushman Wakefield Atlantic, said St. John's office vacancy rate sits at 16.2 per cent, while firm Turner Drake calculates it at 15.4per cent.

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador