DTES Calls for Retail, Not Police, in Vacant London Drugs Spot

Since the Feb. 1 closure of London Drugs at Woodward’s in the Downtown Eastside, or DTES, there is a 27,000-square-foot retail hole in the Vancouver neighbourhood. Mayor Ken Sim is suggesting it be filled with a police training centre.

London Drugs’ president and chief operating officer, Clint Mahlman, previously said that vandalism, crime and violence in the neighbourhood led to the decision to close the store.

But a business group and several neighbourhood organizations say what the neighbourhood needs is affordable retail, not more police presence.

“When an anchor retailer like this leaves the community, especially one that’s very important, it affects foot traffic, access to basic goods, it impacts overall street activity, and it has those ripple effects for small businesses and residents,” said Landon Hoyt, executive director of the Hastings Crossing Business Improvement Association.

“If we’re considering a policing training centre here, can we slow down the process to really understand: is that the best use?”

Hoyt acknowledged there is a lot of concern about shoplifting and violent crime in the Downtown Eastside, which is Vancouver’s poorest neighbourhood.

But, Hoyt said, not having retail in the space could lead to “an economic crisis” in the neighbourhood.

“Our No. 1 priority is to keep Vancouverites safe and Task Force Barrage showed that the increasing police presence is an effective way to reduce criminal activity in a given neighbourhood,” reads an emailed statement from Sim to The Tyee. He was not made available for an interview.

The proposed training centre, which would be run by the Justice Institute of British Columbia, would join the Vancouver Police Department’s District 5 headquarters currently under construction in the mixed retail and residential development.

The Hastings Crossing Business Improvement Association’s community policing centre, which took over the former TD Bank space on Woodward’s first floor last summer, was created in part to address London Drugs’ safety and theft concerns.

“Any assaults on their staff and customers is completely uncalled for and difficult to deal with,” said Hoyt.

Several organizations, operating under the neighbourhood’s Coordinated Community Response Network, including the Hastings Crossing BIA, penned an open letter to MLA Nina Krieger, B.C.’s solicitor general and public safety minister. The letter says the neighbourhood needs retail more than additional police.

Hoyt noted Sim, the Vancouver Police Department and the business improvement association’s own patrol team have acknowledged crime rates in the neighbourhood are down.

“There were investments over the last year and a half by Hastings Crossing BIA, by the city and the province, around safety in this community.... All of these investments have been police-focused [and] are relatively new,” he said.

“We’ve also seen in the past year a reduction in vacant storefronts, which bucks the trend of city statistics.”

The city cites Task Force Barrage, a $5-million investment that increased foot patrols in the neighbourhood. But the VPD’s own crime statistics show violent crime rates like assault and sex offences in the Strathcona region began dropping in 2024, with only a slight increase in assaults reported in 2025 when the task force was launched.

Low-income retail needed

London Drugs was one of the few retailers in the neighbourhood that sold prescriptions, health and beauty supplies, packaged food, cleaning products, household goods, clothing and electronics all under one roof. It also housed the neighbourhood’s sole Canada Post outlet.

The Coordinated Community Response Network, which also includes organizations like Hogan’s Alley Society, Aboriginal Front Door Society, Central City Foundation and Community Impact Real Estate Society, wants a retail business geared towards low-to-moderate-income shoppers to move into the space instead, Hoyt said.

“Look at what Army & Navy provided, what retailers like Giant Tiger, which is a more East Coast brand, provide to their respective communities. I could see something like that working in this community,” he said.

Asked why another retailer would want to move into Woodward’s after three anchor tenants — London Drugs, TD Bank and JJ Bean — have left in recent years, citing vandalism, theft and violence, Hoyt pointed to the policing and community safety investments made since 2024, including Mission Possible’s social enterprise safety and security team.

Hoyt also believes London Drugs had other reasons for closing.

“I would point to the fact that London Drugs has also closed other stores in the same week in the city, particularly in Joyce-Collingwood,” he said, adding he suspects London Drugs, whose Woodward’s lease expired last fall, was facing a rent increase.

Reached for comment via email, Emilie Lok at Westbank, the Woodward’s building landlord, said London Drugs’ “decision to terminate was made prior to any negotiation of renewal rates.”

In an emailed statement sent to The Tyee, a London Drugs spokesperson said the decision to close the two London Drugs locations is not a reflection of the chain’s overall financial prosperity. It was the significant impacts of crime in both locations, as well as a lack of foot traffic in the Downtown Eastside and building issues in Joyce-Collingwood.

“The timing of our decision to close two locations in downtown [sic] Vancouver is the result of standard review and analysis conducted with each lease renewal,” the statement read.

The Coordinated Community Response Network is not against a police training facility in principle, Hoyt said, adding the facility could take the second floor of the former London Drugs space. But it is important to keep the main floor open for affordable retail.

Against Woodward’s squat wishes

Chris Livingstone, executive director of the Aboriginal Front Door Society, participated in the three-month 2002 Woodward’s squat when community residents occupied the then-derelict Woodward’s building to demand social housing.

“I don’t believe that we need a [police] training centre in the Downtown Eastside, especially at the Woodward’s. I believe that they’ve left out the community there,” he said.

“The community rose up to take over the Woodward’s building and to guard against the gentrification of the east side.... They definitely would not be on board with having a police centre there.”

The Woodward’s redevelopment, a 1.2-million-square-foot mixed retail and residential building, provided just 200 non-market units, compared with 536 market-rate condos.

This has only progressed the gentrification the Woodward’s squat was fighting against, Livingstone said.

While he supports the Coordinated Community Response Network’s letter and Hoyt’s suggestion of a low-income retailer like Army & Navy — which closed its Downtown Eastside location in 2020 — Livingstone would prefer a food-based social enterprise or an Indigenous-run business in the vacant storefront.

“We’re very food insecure down here, so it would be great if there were funds to be able to start keeping a grocery store open at low cost,” he said, adding the Nesters grocery store in the Woodward’s building, right across from the former London Drugs location, is not affordable.

“Back in 2002... one of the big calls were from Indigenous people that were seeking equity, not just for social housing but for business. It would be really nice to have an Indigenous business going.”

The neighbourhood is also still waiting for the city to hire the 100 mental health nurses Mayor Sim’s ABC municipal party promised in the 2022 election, Livingstone said, alongside hiring an additional 100 police officers.

“We have yet to see those nurses make it down here. But the city has been really successful in getting the police down here,” he said, adding that while there are fewer people sleeping on the sidewalk now, housing and community services have not increased. “It’s very lopsided.”

The police training centre is not a done deal; the city still needs permission from the province to open in Woodward’s.

“We are disappointed that the city has still not received a clear answer from the province on whether Vancouver will be allowed to establish its own training academy,” Sim told The Tyee via email.

“This academy would be a game-changer for the community, and we’ve already heard overwhelming support for this proposal from local residents and businesses.”

The province has already pledged to increase police training seats in the province by 50 per cent to 288 seats from 192. The Tyee requested an interview with Public Safety Minister Nina Krieger, but she was not made available.

Instead, in an emailed statement sent to The Tyee, a ministry spokesperson said they are working with an “independent evaluation committee” to assess the proposals they have received for increasing training opportunities, including establishing Justice Institute of British Columbia or JIBC satellite campuses to accommodate the additional seats.

“Centralized police training is essential to ensure standards are consistent throughout the Province and allows officers to transfer between jurisdictions without facing training gaps or disparities,” the ministry’s statement reads.

“It also creates economies of scale as instructional resources, specialized infrastructure and police training equipment are shared in one location at the JIBC campus in New Westminster.”