Business North Growth and Challenges In the year of COVID-19

Presentation to Council February 1, 2021 ➢President Brian Wall Plaza Retail REIT ➢Past President Mary Mersereau Swifty’s 15 Minute Oil Change ➢Treasurer Mark MacFadzen Leede Jones Gable ➢Director Gordon Burtt Commercial Property Owners ➢Director Allen Gratto Speedbumps Sports Bar ➢Associate Director Tim Woods Brookside Mall ➢Associate Director Kim Nash-McKinley St. Mary’s First Nations ➢City Representative Councillor Eric Price ➢ Alternate Representative Councillor Dan Keenan Municipal Tax Base in Core BIA $50,072,600 in 2020

60,000,000

50,000,000

40,000,000

30,000,000

20,000,000

10,000,000

0 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 The Northside Core saw an increase in tax base of $3,707,300 from 2019 to 2020 with new developments throughout the BIA BIA’s Pure Economic Development

➢ An association of NON RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY OWNERS, 2.3 KM Rectangle commercial property owners and tenants within a ➢$100,145 Levies defined geographical area who work collectively to create prosperous, competitive and safe business areas ➢91 Levied Properties that attract people to shop, live, work, visit and invest.

BIA’s are the purest form of economic development, commercial property owners levy themselves on the assessed value of their property and that levy is returned to the BIA for their operations and reinvestment in the area.

Not for Profit organization run by a board of directors. 2020 Began with Great Promise

➢ BFN started 2020 working on numerous projects for the coming year. ➢ Updating and approving our new Strategic Plan. ➢ Securing Students for upcoming events. ➢ Booking bands for our Northside Summer Concert Series. ➢ Working with Downtowns Atlantic Canada and Downtown NB By February our world and work changed

➢ All of NB shut down except for essential services. ➢ Our businesses were closed. ➢ People were asked to stay home in single family bubbles. ➢ February, March and April brought fear and uncertainty to the public and the business community. BFN and NB faced the Challenges Of COVID-19

➢ BFN helped businesses embrace the “New Normal” ➢ Disseminating information daily on multiple relief programs for businesses and employees ➢ Helping businesses understand how to operate in a COVID-19 world. ➢ Connecting businesses with where to acquire PPE, signage, barriers, sanitizers. ➢ Created a business listing of operational information for businesses and how they were operating during Red Phase / Orange Phase. BFN and NB faced the Challenges Of COVID-19

➢ BFN, Chamber, DFI, Ignite Fredericton, Opportunities NB, Fredericton Airport, St. Mary’s First Nation and City of Fredericton came together to work collectively to help our business community navigate operating in the pandemic. ➢ BFN, Chamber, DFI and the City created the COVID marketing committee focused on getting the public to support local businesses with social media (facebook, twitter), webpage, banner signs, door decals, take out stickers, and advertising, BFN invested $1500 toward the program. PPE Grants Helped 24 local businesses

➢ Created a PPE Grant for businesses to access $250 toward the cost of PPE, total grant was $6000 which helped 24 local businesses. BFN partnered with the City for Al Fresco

➢ BFN invested $3750 to help local restaurants offer outdoor seating from June to August, this was a partnership with the City of Fredericton ensuring the area was staffed and kept sanitized. Shop Local Major Investment

➢ BFN invested $16,000 in our BFN Dollar Sale, offering a 20% discount on the dollars, selling a total of $80,000 in July and August to help local businesses. ➢ BFN partnered with City Tourism and provided $2100 in discounts and dollars to City Tourism for their support local efforts. ➢ Discounts are expensed in BFN Advertising budget. 2020 BFN Façade Grant Program

➢ In 2020 BFN invested $3658 in Grant Funding which will leveraged $12,200 in property upgrades and investments. ➢3 locations received grants from $850 to $2,000. ➢ These investments result in increases in property assessments which in turn benefit the City of Fredericton through increased tax revenue. Member Communications

➢ As we moved through phases Red, Orange and Yellow, BFN’s communication efforts ensured members were kept informed and information was timely and supportive.

➢ BFN worked closely with members to ensure they had materials needed for COVID operational plans which are required by the Province for all operations. Your Northside

➢ BFN was able to deliver Your Northside 3 times in 2020 to over 7600 Northside homes. ➢ 7th year for this publication and it has become a favourite of our readers. ➢ Word from the Wards provided an opportunity for Northside Councillors to speak to the residents of the Northside during this critical time. ➢ Reinforced shopping local. Graffiti Recording

➢ Graffiti is not a victimless crime, it costs property owners thousands of dollars for clean up and in many cases these property owners have given up on removing the offensive tags.

➢ BFN undertook a full recording of all locations in and around the BIA that had been tagged with graffiti, a total 178 pieces of graffiti were recorded.

➢ The purpose of this was to be able to provide police with a full documentation of tags and locations.

➢ Codiac RCMP member Constable Fader is an expert in graffiti vandalism, he made us aware of the importance of having all graffiti recorded. He has successfully charged vandals which resulted in restitution for property owners in the Moncton area, this recording will allow a cross reference of tags for police locally and provincially when vandals are charged. BFN Clean Team

➢ BFN’s Clean Team continued to work through the summer to help keep the area clean, free of litter and weeded. This represented a $5000 investment.

➢ BFN’s Clean Team used PPE equipment to ensure we kept our employees safe even outdoors. ACOA Relief and Recovery Program

➢ BFN applied for funding for a marketing campaign to promote supporting your local Downtown, Uptown and Main Street during the holiday season. BFN took on this project on behalf of Downtown NB. ➢ BFN was successful in acquiring $47,501.21 for this generic TV and social media campaign to promote all BIA’s and their SME’s in our province. ➢ Entire campaign from production to air was turned around from Nov. 25 – Dec. 25. ➢ 221 English TV commercials aired on CTV and 250 French commercials aired on CBC. ➢ Digital ads on CTV platforms – 55,001 impressions with 144 clicks; CTV news – 100,006 impressions with 228 clicks; CBC English – 422,726 impressions with 899 clicks; and CBC French – 181,058 impressions with 195 clicks. ➢ Downtowns, Uptown and Main Streets reported seeing steady increasing in sales and conscious efforts by the public to support local businesses in our BIA’s during the holiday shopping season. New Development in the face of COVID

➢ This project is a multi-use development at 23 Main with a commercial bottom and high density residential component above.

➢The developer is following the concepts of the Main Street Urban Design Plan. High Density Residential

➢ Phase one of residential units is complete and filled

➢ Pad has been poured for the commercial frontage on Main Street

➢ Developers following the plan Businesses opening and expanding Businesses opening and expanding Businesses opened or expanded in 2020 ➢ HaliMac Axe Throwing ➢ The Looking Glass Salon ➢ Crown Beauty Salon ➢ MP Jenica Atwin Constituency Office ➢ MLA Constituency Office ➢ J’s Asian Kitchen ➢ Fredericton Home Hardware Lumber Yard ➢ Crabapple Kids Boutique ➢ Beautiful Creatures and Friends Gift Boutique ➢ Hana Ethiopian Cafe & takeout ➢ Williams Chiropractic ➢ F & D Auto Sales ➢ Fredericton Physiotherapy ➢ Trailway Brewing Company ➢ North Side Creators Market (coming 2021) 2020’s Challenges Continue but we are resilient ➢ 2nd Wave of COVID-19 has businesses on edge as phases continue to change.

➢ Businesses have learned to adapt to online, curbside and contactless delivery systems so they will be ready should phases change.

➢ The public is more conscious of the importance of shopping local.

➢ Restaurant Industry face extreme challenges and they need everyone’s support to ensure they can survive in 2021.

➢ BFN’s efforts will continue to focus on helping our member businesses and investing in promoting “Shop Local” programs that have positive impacts.

➢ We are optimistic that in 2021 we may be able to bring back many of the activities our organization has organized in years past such as the Summer Concert Series, Fitness in the Park, Networking Events and the Hawkins Memorial Golf Tourney and introduce new events that will allow us to all celebrate our ability to gather again as a community! Business Growth and Challenges In the year of COVID-19

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