A bathroom renovation may not always be glamorous, but the new boathouse bathrooms downtown are the exception.
With big windows, natural-light, and modern fixtures, the Boathouse public washroom expansion project at lower York Street includes winterization. Doubling the number of stalls to a half dozen, the once-seasonal washrooms are now open year-round.
Zac Gribble, executive director, Destination Stratford, told StratfordToday that the new bathrooms downtown were a long-awaited project and one they are excited to officially finish up.
“It’s not a sexy project, but they are integral,” he said.
The expansion was part of an ongoing focus for Destination Stratford, which develops and promotes tourism in the city, for community improvement, and regenerative projects.
Stratford can get up to one million visitors to the city in prosperous years and the number of bathrooms was not enough to support such an influx, Gribble reasoned. Even now there perhaps aren’t enough, though the more infrastructure Destination Stratford builds, the more they will generate.
Gribble said that more fixtures are planned near the bathrooms – including a water bottle refilling station.
The project was funded with FedDev funding to the tune of $293,500 and $198,925 from the City of Stratford's tax stabilization reserve.
The boathouse bathrooms reopened March 24. They have garnered positive reactions and use from businesses and residents alike, Gribble said.
Destination Stratford is planning an official grand opening once other elements – mainly groundskeeping – are completed.
Gribble estimates that it will be held soon after the ground thaws.
For now, the bathrooms are fully open from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. eacy day.
