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In the span of two months this winter, Calgary’s 17th Avenue S.W. lost 29 businesses.

The iconic retail and entertainment strip had 370 operating businesses in December 2018 and 341 at the end of February 2019 — a decline of 8.5 per cent.

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In Kensington, the funky inner-city neighbourhood that has been a mecca for shoppers and pedestrians for years, 15 of 274 businesses have shut their doors for good since Christmas. The street-front vacancy rate in the area is now higher than six per cent and For Lease signs dot the landscape.

Businesses come and go, even in boom times. But advocates say the spate of closures in recent months — and the climbing vacancy rates in virtually all of the city’s “destination districts,” from Stephen Avenue to Chinatown to Mission — is anything but business as usual.

“Since 2015, our numbers have been holding firm or slightly increasing — until the end of December. So this sudden loss is concerning,” said Annie McInnes, executive director for the Kensington Business Revitalization Zone.