The Sparks Street BIA plans to expand its boundaries beyond the traditional pedestrian mall into a broader part of the downtown core in the new year, the association announced earlier this week.
The BIA began exploring the possibility of a boundary expansion nearly a year ago, as did several other BIAs in the city.
The decision to pursue expansion was originally prompted by the pandemic, as well as the “Freedom Convoy” in 2022. During that time, Sparks Street BIA executive director Kevin McHale said the organization realized that many downtown businesses are outside the boundaries of existing BIAs.
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“What we saw was that there’s going to be a need for better representation for the businesses, the properties, in the areas at the ground level,” he told OBJ on Thursday. “So much of downtown doesn’t have that level of representation.”
Expanding the boundaries formalizes the relationships that began in the pandemic.
The value of the expansion has also been bolstered in the past year by the efforts of local business leaders to revitalize the downtown. Both the Ottawa Board of Trade and a group led by Ottawa Centre MP Yasir Naqvi have released action plans in the past few months, with the needs of business owners in a hybrid work world as core concerns.
“If we’re going to have a proper execution of the plan and all these things it’s calling for, there needs to be something on the ground,” McHale said. “We’re going to be able to take the lessons we learned on Sparks Street, in place-making and programming, property management and project management, and extend them through a bigger part of downtown.”
As part of the effort, the Sparks Street BIA will undergo a rebrand. As McHale explains, the organization currently consists of two entities, the Sparks Street BIA and the Sparks Street Mall Authority, which share the same staff. While the mall authority will remain unchanged and continue representing the unique needs of the pedestrianized street, the BIA will be renamed to better represent its new catchment area.
“We’re creating something new that reflects this new defined community within the community,” he said. “These are businesses that were originally put in place to serve the nine-to-five crowd and now that that has been modified it’s important for us to be out there promoting the downtown and its businesses as a destination and a place for tourism.”
The BIA has been speaking to community members and business owners within the proposed expanded boundaries to gauge support and McHale said the feedback has been positive.
“What’s been well received is this idea of helping to create a proper identity for downtown Ottawa, quite honestly, as separate and more than just the place where the federal government is located,” he said. “It’s got more to offer. To have an office like ours, acting as an agency representing the space, promoting the space and businesses, is hugely important.”
Still, McHale is expecting a learning curve when it comes to translating the BIA’s programming outside of its original area.
“There are obvious things like cleanliness: what’s the frequency of cleaning needed. You’re going to have to figure out the graffiti removal contract and how many lamp posts do you have to strip stickers off of,” he said. “We’re in the process right now of gathering all that information. But there’s certain stuff that may not work. The current BIA sits on the pedestrian street, which provides some advantages that won’t necessarily extend to the new zone.”
There’s still a ways to go before the details of the expansion are finalized, McHale added.
In September, the BIA will conduct public consultations to get feedback from community members and give the organization a better idea of the short- and long-term needs of the new space. In October, the organization’s expansion report will go to the city’s finance committee, then to city council for final approval. If all goes to schedule, the expansion will come into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
McHale expects the rebrand to be officially launched sometime that month, as well.
The expansion will incorporate 29 street blocks of primarily mid- and highrise commercial buildings, with some residential and institutional uses.
The expansion area includes commercial properties on either side of the existing catchment area for the Centretown BIA, meaning the Sparks Street BIA would extend to Laurier Street West in the south, Bay Street to the west, and Elgin Street to the east, with a small additional strip of Wellington Street near the intersection with Elgin.
“The business community that operates downtown wants to do their part to make downtown a greater place,” McHale said. “We think this is going to be an opportunity for positive change.”
How to expand a BIA
Sparks Street BIA is not the only local organization expanding its boundaries.
“An expansion is not an easy or short process,” Michelle Groulx, former executive director of the Ottawa Coalition of Business Improvement Areas (OCOBIA), told OBJ in an interview about the process last September.
BIAs looking to expand their boundaries are required to go door-to-door, with the support of their councillor, to engage with neighbouring businesses and commercial properties to gauge their support. After that, the results of the research are assessed and presented to a city committee.
Businesses also need to have constant means of giving feedback to the BIA.
According to the City of Ottawa website, the purpose of a BIA is to improve, beautify and maintain public lands and buildings within the BIA boundary beyond the services already provided by the municipality.
BIAs are responsible for promoting their area as a business and shopping district to attract residents and businesses. They also implement actions to support economic development and business growth opportunities, as well as identifying ways to attract new businesses to the area.
Once an expansion proposal is approved by city council, businesses within the boundaries become members and pay a BIA levy via their annual property taxes. The city then transfers those amounts to the BIA.
The levy, which is used to fund the BIA’s annual budget (also approved by city council), is determined by multiple factors, including the total assessment value of the entire BIA boundary, individual property assessment values, and tax ratios and rates.
In turn, the BIA provides valuable programming and services that help businesses thrive.
“As we came out of the pandemic, BIAs are looking at expansion to support neighbourhoods and build communities beyond a ‘main street,’” said Groulx last September. “OCOBIA absolutely supports expansion where it means that neighbourhoods flourish with engaging streetscapes and experiences and businesses benefit from the marketing, beautification, events and advocacy a BIA brings.”
