Wendy Cameron’s vision for downtown revitalization LOFTY DREAMS
W endy Cameron can still remember the responses she and her husband John re- ceived five years ago when they announced they were moving to Tillsonburg to run the local Sobeys grocery store. “Some of our friends in London didn’t see the appeal of invest- ing in a small community,” she says. “But with John’s 34 years of experience in the grocery busi- ness, this was exactly the kind
of opportunity we’d been hoping would come along.” The next question, of course, was about housing. “I remember customers would ask me if we’d found a house here yet,” Wendy recalls. “When I finally told them we’d bought a commercial property downtown and were planning to live in an apartment above it, they were genuinely puzzled.” “One customer actually said,
‘Why on earth would you do that?’” adds John. “That’s when I decided I want- ed to show people what down- town living could look like,” says Wendy. To be fair, the property John and Wendy bought at 145 Broad- way did need a lot of work. But where some people saw only a tired façade, peeling paint and leaky windows, the Camerons saw investment potential.
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