Heading into summer, here is a quick recap of what we have been up to!
As usual, winter is a time for us to catch up on all the things that were put on the back burner over the super busy summer. This winter was a particularly productive season for us.
The West End BIZ received an award for our ongoing efforts at recruiting businesses to the neighbourhood. We were awarded the Best in the West Merit Award for our Open for Business broker’s package put together by Joe Kornelsen, the BIZ’s Promotion and Development Coordinator. Ensuring that vacant storefronts are filled faster is a priority for us and our broker’s package is designed to help real estate brokers share information and the benefits of locating a business in the West End. If you would like to see the package for yourself, head over our website: westendbiz.ca
Another major initiative this winter was following up on the Erin and Wall report put together by Aaron Wall, the BIZs Special Assistant for Development Initiatives. Aaron and Joe followed up on the report by visiting businesses in the Erin and Wall corridor. After last summer’s extensive consultation with business owners, we put together a list of short and long-term priorities for providing services to businesses in the corridor. Meeting with businesses, we went over the services that we can provide that will meet the specific concerns we heard.
Back at the office, Tamara reorganized our grants program to simplify the application process. Businesses can now apply for our rebates program after their project is complete. Grants continue to provide for 50% of a project up to $1000, while rebates will cover 25% of the total project cost up to $1000. As a professional designer, Tamara has also added pizzazz to a ton of publications and promotional materials we put out.
Ryan and Ed continued to keep our zone clean and safe by removing graffiti, shovelling parking meters and removing garbage. Ryan made many much needed improvements to the communications infrastructure used by the summer crews, and is also the new coordinator for the BIZ patrol program.
Our website is undergoing a refresh for the coming busy season. We are improving the user experience- making it clear how to access different parts of the site whether for potential West End customers or for our member businesses.
All in all it’s been a great winter. We’d say we’re looking forward to the summer ramp-up, but it never really felt like it slowed down!