Downtown North Battleford held its annual meeting Thursday and some big plans for 2016 initiatives were announced.
Executive Director Lisa Kissick announced that an “Art Alley NB 2016” project is coming to the downtown area.
The effort is to be a collaboration between the City of North Battleford and Downtown North Battleford. Kissick said the project stemmed from a Community Safety Growth Course she took with the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design initiative.
“Part of the completion of the course was to do a project, and our team selected a project called ‘Art Alley NB 2016,’” Kissick said.
The idea is for local artists to be used to revitalize a section of downtown to attract legitimate users to the space.
The first mural location, Kissick announced, would be at the Moon’s Kitchen location on 100th Street. The intention is to locate murals at other locations as the project progresses.
It is billed as the first mural project of its kind in the city and will take place over the summer months. Other communities, most notably Moose Jaw, have had success with mural projects.
There will be more information about the North Battleford efforts online soon, including an Art Alley Facebook page.
This is not the only major project on the way for the downtown, but for now Kissick is keeping the other news under wraps.
Another major item is the City’s development of a downtown master plan. That work has been ongoing for some time, but is now close to a conclusion and, according to Kissick, it will be released next month.
The focus of the Downtown North Battleford board in 2016 will include more investment in attracting businesses to fill of vacant spaces. A number of new businesses have located downtown including chiropractic offices, a dental office, a women’s clothing boutique, two hair salons, a new restaurant and a hearing centre. To continue to attract business downtown, Downtown North Battleford has also launched a new online investment portfolio website at https://townfolio.co/sk/north-battleford-bid/overview.
It includes a variety of information for potential investors or entrepreneurs looking to set up a business in the downtown, including information on demographics, the labour force, transportation, rent rates, utilities, quality of life and so on. There is also a space available for listings for properties for lease or sale.
Beautification efforts are also ongoing with the “Clean Team,” two staff members, now out on the streets for the 2016 season.
The Downtown BID also continues to put on a number of events downtown including the Live@Lunch series, the Fall Festival and Car Show, the Winter Festival and the International Street Performer Festival, which recently was awarded the 2015 Community Event of the Year.
That was some of the information that came from the meeting.
There was also a panel discussion among a number of local businesses and a question and answer session.
One item that was raised was about tax incentives to attract more businesses downtown.
People asked if the new tax incentive policy passed at a June 13 council meeting would help the downtown, but Councillor Greg Lightfoot explained those particular incentives were really more likely to be attractive to export industries that could set up in the industrial area.
However, Lightfoot added “don’t be surprised” if a targeted incentive program is brought in for the downtown later this year.
