London Drugs will close its store on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside on February 1.

Clint Mahlman, president of London Drugs, told Postmedia that the decision is final, although the company received a request from the provincial government to reconsider its decision. The 27,000-square-foot store is located on the landmark former Woodward’s department store site.

Mahlman told his interviewer that the store in the notorious povertry-stricken area has become unsustainable after suffering millions of dollars worth of operating losses and dealing with ongoing crime that includes theft, vandalism and violence.

“When we went into this location in 2009, we bought into the vision of the province and the city, and clearly that vision has not come alive,” Mahlman said in the interview with Postmedia. “We’ve lost tens of millions of dollars in that location since we’ve opened, and we just don’t see the environment turning around.”

Considering the store’s importance to area residents, he called the decision to leave “excruciating.”

“That is the reason why we’ve been prepared to eat substantial millions of dollars in losses, but it just becomes unsustainable at some point,” Mahlman told Postmedia.

While the Downtown Eastside’s problems are well-known, they are not unique to the area, he noted in the interview. He called on municipalities, provinces and federal government to work together to prevent downtown businesses in Vancouver and other cities from closing.

Mahlman praised Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and the police department for trying to help, but said the assistance was not enough, Postmedia reported.

The B.C. premier’s office told Postmedia that the province worked with London Drugs over the past two years to address the company’s concerns, and increased foot patrols were yielding positive results, “but clearly was not enough to prevent this business decision.”

“New initiatives are being worked on to increase foot traffic and improve the community in and around this location, and that work is underway,” the premier’s office’s said in a statement to Postmedia.

Sim called London Drugs’ departure from Woodward’s “extremely disappointing” and got in a few digs at the provincial government.

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The mayor told Postmedia that he appreciates the B.C. government funding that helped for the Gastown Community Policing Centre, which opened last summer in the space in Woodward’s vacated the previous year by TD Bank, but “many critical issues under provincial jurisdiction remain unresolved.”

“Mandatory care was announced more than a year ago, yet Vancouver has not seen a single new mandatory care bed,” Sim told his interviewer. “Despite the premier’s commitment to assume responsibility for the Downtown Eastside, the city continues to carry the majority of the burden. Closures like this are the consequence of that continued inaction.”

Steven Johnston, chair of the Hastings Crossing Business Improvement Association, which includes Woodward’s, told Postmedia that the retailer’s closure “leaves a gaping hole in the neighbourhood.”

Pictured: London Drugs outlet in the Woodward’s redevelopment on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Photo: Yelp.ca