The Sparks Street Business Improvement Area (BIA) is planning to expand its boundaries well beyond the street it is named for, saying a larger, better financed organization can offer more support to downtown businesses.
The expansion has been approved by City Council and means the BIA will cover 29 blocks in Centretown. At present it includes six.
Sparks Street BIA currently and the proposed expansion boundaries. [Source @ Sparks Street BIA]
New boundaries could be in effect on Jan. 1.
Businesses within the expanded boundaries would pay the BIA a membership levy, which is separate from property tax. The levy and a share of property taxes help the BIA organize attractions downtown such as Ribfest or some Winterlude events, market local businesses and make landscape improvements, including cleanliness and street decorations such as planters.
“It helps us extend a branding and a look and a feel to the entirety of the area,” said Kevin McHale, executive director of the BIA. It’s “having a steward of the space to increase the cleanliness, increase the beauty and increase the advocacy. It’s creating greater curb appeal.”
“A lot of downtown Ottawa doesn’t have the benefits a BIA provides,” said McHale.
“We noticed this certainly during the pandemic and during the trucker protest where there were a number of business and buildings in that area that had no extra service, no daily information coming to them in support,” McHale said.
During the pandemic, there was a sense that the province had forgotten about Ottawa, said MPP Joel Harden, who represents Ottawa Centre in the Ontario legislature.
“The federal government is not going to look after all of our issues. It is still provincial law that applies to most of the regulations that small businesses will have to contend with,” he said.
Jason Komendat, owner of Ottawa Bike Cafe and Retro Rides Bicycle Shop, has been a member of the Sparks Street BIA since 2017.
“One thing that the BIA does is they communicate about all these things that are out there” (such as grants for business),” said Komendat. “They do a really good job of that.
“If businesses can have some support through the BIA, if the BIA was able to say, ‘Hey, this is all available, and if you need some help filling out the forms or applying, here are some resources, or we can help you,’ I think that would be an important thing that they could offer.”
The expanded boundary will drastically increase the value of the BIA, according to a report it prepared. The current value of properties within the BIA sits at around $640 million. The boundary expansion will add $2.8 billion in value.
That increase, in turn, will also bring extra funding from levies. Depending on the model of expansion chosen, the BIA could receive almost $3 million from members, compared to the current amount of $540,000.
Somerset Ward Coun. Ariel Troster, a member of the BIA board, said the expansion also benefits area residents.
“It’s all part of a broader push to revitalize downtown and, you know, what’s good for downtown is good for the city,” Troster said.
There is strength in numbers and communication, said Komendat. But it is not just about expanding the boundary, he said.
“Unless we have the engagement of these extra businesses, it won’t work. If we do have that engagement, it’ll definitely be a good thing.”
Capital Current reached out to many businesses in the expanded area and found some unaware of the BIA or its expansion plans. That doesn’t worry McHale.
“It’s an opportunity for us. We have been going out there talking to businesses and we’re going to continue to talk to businesses,” McHale said. “The businesses we’ve talked to, property owners, we’ve talked to are very keen on this going forward.”
With the motion to expand the BIA now passed at council, businesses in the area will have 60 days to send any objections to the city.
