A daytime vehicle closure comes into effect for Commercial St. between Wharf and Bastion streets on Monday, Aug. 11 (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Ian Holmes

road block

‘The general mood right now is pretty frustrated:’ Nanaimo’s Commercial St. to temporarily close again

Aug 8, 2025 | 4:29 PM

NANAIMO — An unscheduled shutdown to vehicular traffic on Commercial St. between Wharf and Bastion streets takes effect on the morning of Monday, Aug. 11.

According to the City of Nanaimo, Commercial St. will be closed from Aug. 11 to Friday, Aug. 15 for vehicles, to accommodate pedestrians on the roadway while work on the sidewalk takes place.

Vehicular access will resume during non-work hours next week, according to James Knight, the City’s project manager for the Commercial St. Project.

“The plan is to reopen all of Commercial Street to vehicle traffic on Friday afternoon, August 15,” Knight told NanaimoNewsNOW in a statement.

The temporary vehicle closure is to allow for pedestrian access while work is done on the sidewalks. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

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The pending reopening of the upper portion of Commercial St. represents a significant milestone, as the block, home to several businesses, has been closed for several months.

Knight said the first phase of the Commercial St. revitalization project is slated to be complete by the end of the month.

“Subsequent to next week’s closure, the majority of work will be limited to completion of the landscaping and street furnishings, followed by final clean-up. The latest schedule submitted by the contractor shows final clean-up being completed by August 29.”

News of the closure follows a recent upbeat media event staged by the City celebrating the project’s substantial completion.

Frustrated business community

Steven Johns is the owner of impacted business Red Shelf Decor and serves as vice chair of the Downtown Nanaimo Business Association (DNBA).

He and the DNBA made a point of informing NanaimoNewsNOW of the pending closure, in Johns’ words, to “get ahead of the negativity” surrounding the closure.

Saying the week-long vehicular shutdown is not ideal, Johns said Commercial St. remains open for business.

He said August is an important month for retailers, pointing to the positive momentum built up from the popular Commercial Street Night Market.

“I keep rallying, and I will right until the bitter end to try to stay positive and try to remember that the shiny toy is going to be around a lot longer than the time that it took to get the shiny toy.”

With an original work schedule between early last September and the end of May for phase one of overhauling Nanaimo’s most strategically important downtown street, the project has been delayed significantly.

Mine shafts appearing closer to the road’s surface than originally anticipated lengthened the work schedule.

The discovery resulted in the closure of Bastion St. at the project site for several months.

Johns, who long held out hope the project would be done by the end of June despite the mineshaft discovery, said he fully understands the frustrations people have, including his peers in the business community.

“Customers are just excited that it’s ending and feeling really bad for a lot of the business owners, but I think the general mood right now is pretty frustrated, pretty tired, a lot of just fatigue and finding it hard to stay positive.”

Complementary roadside work on Commercial St. south of Bastion St. still needs to be done. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

While Commercial St. has remained open for business during the last eleven months of construction, the environment was less-than-hospitable for merchants and shoppers, with obstructed access, unfinished sidewalks, and loud construction noise.

Johns believes communication at times could have been more clear from the City’s perspective during construction.

He’s encouraged by the nearly finished product and the pending positive impacts the project will have for many years to come.

“We’re finally getting to the very last stages and hopefully we don’t have to say that again,” Johns said.

Phase one of transforming Commercial St. into a more accessible, event-ready destination cost $6.2 million, according to the City, a bulk of which was covered by provincial funding.

The City is anticipating a break next year in the Commercial St. revitalization project, with the four-way Albert/Wallace St. intersection scheduled to get a facelift in 2027.

The new downtown transit exchange project on Terminal Ave., just south of Commercial St., is expected to be done next year.

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