East Coast Lifestyle is set to open a retail shop in Saint John this May. It will be located at the Area 506 waterfront container village currently in development next to the Marco Polo cruise ship terminal.
“We are really excited to be coming to New Brunswick,” said East Coast Lifestyle founder and CEO Alex MacLean. He said while many N.B. stores have carried the brand, this planned expansion marks the company’s first proprietary space in the province.
Area 506 Founder Ray Gracewood said earlier this month that East Coast Lifestyle was one of the initial vendors confirmed for the site. He added he and organizers have had “more than 100 conversations with different companies” about retail opportunities at the container village so far.
For MacLean, the Saint John shop is a chance to expand the retail side of East Coast Lifestyle, though the company has already been busy over the winter.
Last fall, MacLean announced the company was developing a two-acre headquarters, in Bayer’s Lake in Halifax, that will serve as a destination spot complete with a coffee shop and basketball court.
“We’re pretty much finishing all the renderings and blueprints for that now and it’ll be open in 2023, sometime in the start of the year,” said MacLean, who hopes to break ground on the Halifax development in June.
East Coast Lifestyle also began officially breaking into the U.S. market in a big way this year as part of a collaboration with Bauer Hockey.
The deal has put the familiar East Coast Lifestyle anchor in stores like Pure Hockey (the largest hockey retailer in the U.S.), chains like Dick’s Sporting Goods, and several other stores.
“We’ve already seen about 20 NHL players wear the clothing and we’ve sent the clothing to 50 plus NHL players,” said MacLean. “So, it’s pretty cool to see the brand on all sorts of new faces across the league.”
Getting into new industries
While building on nine years of growth, MacLean has always been open with his ideas to create a more encompassing lifestyle brand that goes beyond clothing.
Maclean says the company has been busy growing its East Coast Beverage Co. and chip lines, with two different alcoholic beverages already being sold across Atlantic Canada and plans for a new summer beverage coming next month.
With East Coast Lifestyle busy on other fronts, getting back to retail expansion was something MacLean has been looking to continue. Before the pandemic, the company was able to open a new store location each year.
“Essentially, we’re trying to have representation across Atlantic Canada and each in province, so we’re really excited to bring it to New Brunswick and this will be our own expansion store in 2022,” he said.
The Saint John location is currently hiring for a manager and staff which altogether will include four to five people. The company currently employs about 30 staff across the brand.
Opening at the container village gives East Coast Lifestyle more exposure to long-awaited cruise ship passengers in Saint John, crowds that have been missing from the city’s uptown for more than two years.
“That was a key factor as well as seeing those cruise ships come back,” says MacLean. He recalled how East Coast Lifestyle’s seaport market store in Halifax was extremely popular with cruise ship passengers before Covid-19.
“It was really cool to see people coming in from all over the world and not knowing what East Coast Lifestyle is but wanting to bring a piece of it back to their home.”
MacLean says it’s the same kind of philosophy his company is hoping to capture with the new Saint John location.
“We’re really excited to see how it does,” said MacLean. “I’m confident that it’s going to be a big hit there with the new development–I can’t wait to get down there and explore the area, support local, and shop around.”
Tyler Mclean is a reporter for Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
