According to the AM800 radio discussion happening this morning, there is a landlord in downtown Windsor that wants to offer one heck of an incentive to potential retailers in downtown.
Italo Ferrari, who represents 500 Ouellette Avenue (and much more vacant space) with his Toronto-based company Wilsondale Assets Management Inc., is willing to co-operate with the DWBIA to offer six months free to any retailer with a strong, viable business plan in some of his vacant downtown property. The Windsor Star has the full story here.
The callers were mostly positive, discussing that something has to be done to revitalize the downtown, and to give families more options. But they were positive. They want to see something downtown that applies to them on a regular basis. If lower or free rent for a while might work…try it out!
From the standpoint of the many services and retail spaces located downtown, there are often a lot of myths (not enough parking) and misnomers (there’s no retail) that continue to get circulated in the minds of Windsorites. What we often forget is that the kinds of problems the downtown is facing, are the same problems all smaller cities are facing. But to talk negatively about a subject (downtown) when so few of the people talking about it actually visit/explore it, there’s a hollowness that I hope most people sense.
When people call into radio shows, or comment on newspaper websites, remaining anonymous, giving opinions about a part of the city they rarely visit, there’s not much that can be done to educate. As many residents and business owners in the downtown know, there are a lot of things happening day and night that cater to families. There are theatre shows, daycare facilities, the YMCA summer camps, festivals, the Windsor Public Library, Windsor’s Community Museum, The Woodcarvers Museum, Water World, the waterfront, Charles Clark Square, Windsor Symphony Orchestra performances, films at The Palace Cinemas, and on, and on, and on…
With all these things already happening under most people’s noses, it’s often just the effort of showing people what already happens in order have them understand how amazing downtown will become when landlords make these creative rent incentives happen. It will only diversify the downtown by giving a leg up to entrepreneurs that have been complacent to start something new when tax rates are so difficult for landlords to defer.
Pair this with the DWBIA’s business incubator concept, which will teach new business owners (tech and otherwise) how to organize and plan their new venture, and you have something very exciting going on in our fine city.
You tell us. Would you be willing to start your business idea in the downtown with an incentive like this? After all, we can’t wait for everyone else to be the first to get things going. Someone has to be first. Someone has to have the vision to build something that others will want to rally around with their effort and their dollars. Who’s going to open a new retail space in downtown first?
This Thursday between 10:30am and 12:30pm, potential entrepreneurs interested in seeing these spaces will have a chance, after hearing this formal announcement taking place at 500 Ouellette Avenue. So if you want to get in on the ground floor, so to speak, you need to be at 500 Ouellette Avenue on Thursday at 10:30am!
