‘Downtown has been abandoned’: Another Edmonton business cites construction woes as reason for closing
Posted July 21, 2026 9:18 am.
Another downtown Edmonton business is closing its doors for good.
Greta, known for its arcade games and Edmonton Oilers watch parties, is the latest to go out of business.
Chris Decock, the president of the Greta franchise, says he’s shutting it down because of what he calls a lack of access and foot traffic, blaming construction.
“You need to say to yourself, ‘OK, we’ve been we’ve been kind of hanging on here. Are we going to try and do that for another two, three years?” he said.
Because Greta has other locations throughout Canada – Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver — Decock offered some comparatives.
“Greta in Calgary downtown does three-and-a-half times the revenue that we do in Edmonton. Three-and-a-half times. The city isn’t three-and-a-half times bigger, and there’s way more competition in Calgary than there is in Edmonton,” he said.
Class-action lawsuit?
Decock says something has to change with the city’s downtown. Because Greta is hardly alone.
Restaurants PlayWright, Kommune Café, and Khazana all cited construction as partly to blame for shuttering their doors.
Now the former owner of Khazana is looking at what she can do in court, speaking to lawyers and other businesses about a possible class-action lawsuit.
“We don’t really have any other choice,” said Mehaik Bhasin. “We reached out to the city so many times. We didn’t want to go this way. We were OK if you said ‘shut down for six months, we will give you a compensation for those six months, reopen once the construction’s done, or however many long.’
“You’re not willing to do anything. So now we need to get your attention.”
While Bhasin understands major projects like the LRT expansion will benefit the community for decades to come, she says there hasn’t been any relief for businesses suffering through multi-year projects. She believes the city isn’t doing enough to support them during heavy construction.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the City of Edmonton says the city does notify businesses of major projects that will cause disruptions.
“While the temporary disruptions may be challenging, these projects are a direct investment in the future of the city and will provide smoother commutes, safer streets, and vibrant commercial and community hubs that will serve Edmontonians for decades to come,” said Bin Pllana, the downtown integration manager with the City of Edmonton’s infrastructure services.
A professor at the Alberta School of Business, the University of Alberta’s business school, says “downtown has been abandoned by Edmontonians, to some extent.”
“The foot traffic isn’t there,” said Murtaza Haider.
City council has explored paying businesses hit with multi-year construction, but Haider says it still might not be enough to fix the lack of people visiting the area in the long term, partly due to a perception of poor public safety.
“It’s not just one restaurant,” Haider said. “You can go at lunchtime to any place, and you will see that hardly anybody is there at the lunch. So the lunch hour revenue is almost down to nil.”
