The ByWard Market is buzzing with a new honey shop on Sussex Drive. Gees Bees Honey Company celebrated its grand opening Friday morning with dozens of new ByWard market customers and frequent customers from their River Road location. The local entrepreneurs own a bee shop on River Road and are ready to grow. “We’re so excited to expand what we’ve been doing at our farm in Honey Gables. Now to a downtown destination shop,” says Marianne Gee, co-founder of Gees Bees. “I think it’s like the next step. We have a farm where we’ve been producing honey and the next step is to get down where all the people are so we can show our product to everybody else,” says co-founder Matthew Gee. Gees Bees Honey Company is an Ottawa family honey farm started as a National Capital Commission (NCC) farm on River Road and has since become a big part of Ottawa agritourism, proudly supported by Ottawa Tourism. “Gees Bees has been a longstanding agricultural tenant of the NCC for many years now. They were looking for an opportunity to bring their products and join the core. It’s really exciting to bring, fresh honey from local Canadian bees here on Sussex,” says Nathalie Roy-Patenaude, the NCC’s director of real estate management. “I’ve been stopping at the River Road Gees Bees for years; it’s a great product. It’s a very sweet place with the honey,” said frequent customer Danielle Harwood. “I’m so pleased to see that local business is expanding on Sussex. Hopefully they’ll get lots of road traffic of people stopping by and continue on to grow their business.” Visitors got to enjoy honey samples and special opening day promotions to celebrate the store’s launch. “I feel it’s very sweet. It’s great to promote local honey farmers and beekeepers,” says Ottawa resident Norman Traversy. “I’ll be getting the products for my mother.” The owners and five other friends paraded through the ByWard Market and up to Parliament Hill dressed as bees, drawing the attention of spectators and tourists to the opening. The new shop is setting up on a stretch of Sussex with several empty storefronts, but the owners say they are hopeful. “If you build it, they’ll come. That’s what we’re hoping. We’re curious to see what other entrepreneurs are going to do with these absolutely beautiful historic spaces that are neighboring us. I think there’s a lot of potential still and I’m looking forward to the future.” “We can talk about rejuvenation but until entrepreneurs come and start building interesting businesses that are going to draw people down here, I think that’s part of the magic of building a destination place. We’re happy to be a part of that,” says Marianne. “I’m so excited. I live upstairs and the place has been empty for a while. When I walked by and saw that it was going to be a bee shop, I was ecstatic. My parents are beekeepers as well, so I know the importance of local pollinators and supporting local beekeepers,” says Rachel Malott. “I’m happy that this is a new addition to the neighbourhood.” This new store marks the first time an NCC farm tenant has extended operations to a second location downtown, Marianne Gee said in an email to CTV News Ottawa. “We really have a diversity of offerings of different tenants that have different retail products from clothing to restaurants and now we have the opportunity to have agricultural products that are back into the market,” says Roy-Patenaude. “It’s a partnership with all of our tenants and bringing something to the community, to the visitors and really creating a new and different experience to the core. Honey is just a great way to bring this to add this to the mix.”
