A number of initiatives the Downtown Improvement Area (DIA) says it has already started were endorsed heavily by the Baylor Study which was released last Friday.
The Study endorsed a focus on development in the downtown core including the construction of a collaborative business hub called the “Hive” which was suggested, should be established in North Bay’s downtown.
“We are pleased Baylor has confirmed what downtown has been working towards for some time now,” stated DIA Board Chair Bob Alger.
“We look forward to the confirmation of all we have done thus far,” Alger added.
“When they said the downtown is doing a lot of things right and we need to expand on it, I think it was very nice to have confirmation that the work this board has been doing since 1977 didn’t totally go unnoticed,” DIA Executive Director Jeff Serran noted.
Serran says the concept of attracting more people to live downtown was a welcome endorsement as well.
“We always encourage people to live, work and play in the downtown core,” said Serran.
That idea is already in motion as well, as downtown businessman John Lechlitner is working on a residential condominium development in the upper floors of the new Grande Event Centre on Main Street.
“That will take place over the next few years and that will involve a new entrance, some expanded parking, elevators, and we are going to be going after a very specific demographic,” said Lechlitner.
“They will all be very nicely appointed units right downtown.”
That Baylor report came out just days before the City Planning Advisory Committee gave the green light to another downtown area development which - with city council approval - could see a large hotel, a Starbucks and The Keg Steakhouse built on Oak Street.
While Alger is pleased with the Baylor endorsement, he was surprised that the Baylor students, who visited the city twice, never reached out directly to the DIA.
“The only thing that surprises us on the DIA is we, for the most part, have never been approached or asked anything by the Baylor Group,” admitted Alger.
“Not a word on expansion of boundaries nor any of our visions for the future of our city. I feel we may have been ignored on purpose.”
Regardless, Alger gives the Baylor Study a passing grade.
“Other than that it was a great school project,” said Alger.
