Refreshed look of Commercial St. looking toward Wharf St. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW staff

challenging work

Top Stories of 2025: Crews complete arduous first leg of Commercial St. overhaul

Dec 29, 2025 | 3:46 PM

NANAIMO — The old saying ‘no pain, no gain’ rang true for a contentious, noise-filled, delayed facelift to a key portion of Nanaimo’s downtown.

Originally scheduled to be done between early September 2024 to the end of May 2025, phase one of enhancing Commercial St. between Wharf and Chapel streets wasn’t substantially complete until near the end of July when traffic resumed through Bastion St.

An unplanned vehicular closure between Aug. 11 and 15 on Commercial between Bastion and Wharf streets to allowed sidewalk work to go ahead.

Crews then capped most of the work on Commercial St. northward to Chapel St. at the Great National Land Building in August.

Commercial St. at Chapel St. looking south. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

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The project ended up being a painful, roughly a year-long construction odyssey, well beyond the nine months the City had originally projected.

Mine shafts spotted closer to the surface of the Bastion/Commercial St. intersection than expected played a significant role in delays, slowing down the installation of underground utility lines.

The City faced considerable heat from the public for project delays, including from impacted merchants who dealt with unfavourable noise and obstacles dissuading shoppers from coming downtown.

Attempts were made by the City to encourage folks downtown during weekdays, with free two-hour parking along unaffected portions of Commercial St. and on levels two and three of the Bastion St. Parkade.

Accommodations were made to allow the weekly Commercial Street Night Market to take place during the summer on Thursday nights, bringing thousands of people to the street weekly.

Modernizing Commercial St. Features new underground water and sewer connections, as well as a street-level, event ready pedestrian-focused sidewalks, additional public gathering areas, new seating, and lighting enhancements, among other changes.

The City noted $4 million of the $6.2 million project was covered by the B.C. government’s Growing Communities Fund.

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