Edmonton club owner stuck with thousands in damages amid downtown 'crime spree'

An Edmonton nightclub owner is growing frustrated with the current state of the city’s downtown core, citing an increase in crime and vandalism in the area.

Rob Browatzke, the co-owner of Evolution Wonderlounge, said damage to the club by vandals is racking up costs they don’t have the means to pay for, especially during the pandemic.

“We’ve been haemorrhaging money. Thousands of dollars every month,” he said.

In the last week, Browatzke said the club had its front window smashed and a few days later up to $4,000 stolen in sound equipment and tools.

“Some random person was just walking by and just kicked the window and kept walking,” he explained, after reviewing the security footage.

“There seems to be a bit of a vandalism and crime spree.”

According to the Edmonton Police Service, a man was arrested and charged for the incident on Feb. 15 with mischief under $5,000.

Browatzke still had to foot the bill, or so he thought.

The vandalism ended up providing an opportunity for someone to do something “really nice for us,” he said.

An anonymous donor reached out through social media offering to pay for the window in full.

“We would have just been bleeding more money that we don’t have to bleed right now,” he said. “That was a pretty amazing thing to have happen.”

These two incidents in the last week are just the most recent ones. Browatzke said their front door was also shattered twice in 2020, about six-months apart.

According to EPS, no arrests were made in either of those incidents.

While the recent crime is discouraging, Browatzke doesn’t want it to deter people from frequenting the downtown. He noted that more people in the area would actually help “solve” the issue.

“Downtown has changed. I hate scaring people off,” he explained.

“I’m hoping that with things slowly reopening up and people starting to work back downtown, that might shift again.”

On Feb. 8, Puneeta McBryan, from Edmonton’s Downtown Business Association, told CTV News Edmonton she would like to see more enforcement in the area to help curb crime.

"I would love to have more police patrols overnight, and during the day, so downtown doesn’t feel so quiet.”

“It can’t hurt,” Browatzke added.

CTV News has reached out to EPS for updated numbers on crime in the city’s downtown.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Jessica Robb