A Calgary business owner in the Bridgeland area, plagued and frustrated by construction disruptions, has decided to take its store onto the open road.
Grace Quinn of vintage fashion store All Things GQ explains that her storefront is dealing with the city’s ongoing plan to redevelop Bridgeland along 1 Avenue NE.
And she says this is not the first time she has dealt with construction. In 2025, the city redid much of 1 Avenue, which she says took 11 weeks — more than anticipated — and greatly impacted access to her store.
Saying this latest construction would be quite bad for business, Quinn took the opportunity to reshape her business into one on wheels — a bus to be exact — to thwart the disruptions in Bridgeland.
“I know it’s gonna be a nightmare when they rip up the sidewalk, and I don’t want to go through that again. So I thought if people can’t come into the store, I’ll go to the people,” she tells CityNews.
The redevelopment at the store is part of the city’s Bridgeland Main Street project, with Phase 1 seeing the redesign and streetscape development of Edmonton Trail Main Street from Memorial Drive to 2 Avenue NE. It was completed in 2023.
Now it’s onto Phase 2, which began in 2023. The last part focuses on the south and north sides of 1 Avenue to complete the streetscape improvements. The city says construction will start in the spring and is expected to finish in the summer.
Additionally, businesses in the area are dealing with Telus’s underground installations and the completion of unfinished construction work, all currently ongoing as of early February.
CityNews reached out to the City of Calgary for comment regarding the construction.
In the meantime, Quinn and a group of friends came together to restore a shuttle bus she purchased in October — transforming it into a vintage shop on wheels, also in time for the city’s Market Collective at the BMO in December.
“Literally got a rally of us girls together and we sanded it down, fully hand-painted it, it was absolutely incredible, and I’m just always in awe of the amazing community around me, and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them,” Quinn said.
Quinn says the idea for the bus came when she was feeling rather hopeless and out of control — having invested so much time, money and energy into the business.
“When I had that ‘ah ha’ moment, I was so emotional, I was like, ‘This is perfect. It’s exactly what the city needs. It’s exactly how I can make a turnaround,’” she said.
She adds that her storefront lease ends in the fall, so over the summer, All Things GQ will still have its Bridgeland location while the truck makes the rounds around town.
But after that, she says she’ll have some difficult decisions to make about the future of the store.
