On the second floor of a building on Government Street, it’s old-school upholstery and furniture restoration. There are wide tables spread across the open warehouse where fabrics are cut, stands of industrial sewing machines and rolls of felt and foam. Workers carefully stretch fabrics over wooden frames and hammer tacks and use staples to bring new life to dated colours and patterns.
There are sofas, reclining chairs and dining room furniture — even oak chairs from the legislature — all getting a fresh look at Greggs Furniture & Upholstery.
David Screech has spent much of his life here, from age 20, working for and then owning a business that’s been around longer than he’s been alive.
So it was understandable that Screech, 64, started to get a little misty when he revealed Friday that he is closing Greggs Furniture & Upholstery at the end of September. “I didn’t think I’d get choked up,” Screech said in an interview in the ground-floor showroom, adorned with comfortable couches and chairs.
“We provide a service for a lot of people that they just can’t get anywhere else,” he said. “People have such an attachment to old pieces of furniture and when you transform it into a thing of beauty it’s so great to see.
“It’s sad to me that a business that has been part of Victoria for 70 years isn’t going to be around anymore.”
Greggs had a mattress and a furniture factory at one point, but both buildings were destroyed in a fire in 1982.
Most of the custom furniture making has given way to restorations and upholstery services in recent years.
“When you think about the thousands upon thousands of homes in Victoria that our furniture is in, or how we’ve helped provide service to so many people, it kind of gets to you. It’s a dying art — but let’s face it, I’m not getting any younger.”
Greggs was started by Gregg Lowe and has been at various locations in Victoria. Screech bought the business from his wife Jean’s uncle, Murray Scott, in 2000.
An offshoot of the original business and an independent company, Greggs Marine Interiors, serves the cruise ship industry and continues to be operated by the Scott family.
The store at 2333 Government St., near Bay Street, is expected to close with a garage sale and shut by Sept. 27. It will likely continue in an online form with Screech collecting projects for craftsmen working from home.
Screech, who spent 20 years as a View Royal councillor and mayor, said the decision to close was due to a combination of factors. He wasn’t willing to sign a new five-year lease on the property at this point in his life. He said attracting skilled workers has been difficult, and crime and street disorder in north downtown “has just been getting out of hand.”
And there are political ambitions as he’s seeking the federal Liberal nomination in the next election.
”I think the business’s day has come,” Screech said.
He said the crime in the area of Queen and Government streets has reached a point where “I’m not prepared to deal with it anymore and our staff, most of them women, are not prepared to deal with it, and shouldn’t have to deal with it.
“Vehicles are being vandalized. There are people in the back lot refusing to leave when you ask. We have had people coming into the store screaming at us, and our customers. I don’t feel comfortable leaving staff here without me anymore.”
Screech said he doesn’t feel that the city is doing enough to support businesses in the area.
“So this is kind of the tipping point on the whole decision to close,” said Screech.
He said although business is good and there’s more than enough work to keep operating, it didn’t make sense to keep going.
“Victoria appreciates well- made, quality furniture, and are happy to reupholster several times over, but there’s also difficultly in attracting skilled trades,” Screech said.
“Years ago I could put an ad in the Toronto [Star] for workers needed in Victoria and we would have people lining up to come here, but with housing prices now that’s just not the case for a job that pays $35 an hour. They can’t afford to live here.”
Also in the decision to close is a desire to get back into politics.
In May, he announced his intention to seek the federal Liberal nomination in the riding of Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke, which incorporates his home in View Royal, and where he would be up against Sooke Mayor Maja Tait, who was endorsed by the federal NDP nearly a year ago.
“That federal election is 14 months away and I want to be able to make time for that,” Screech said.
There has not yet been an official endorsement by Liberal Party, but Screech said the decision is expected this fall.
Screech said his years in civic politics and as a small-business owner have given him “a deep understanding of the aspirations, concerns and hopes of the people in this region.”
>>> To comment on this article, write a letter to the editor: [email protected]
