– Pat Deakin is the Economic Development Manager for the City of Port Alberni. He can be reached at 250-720-2527 or Patrick_deakin@portalberni.ca.
PORT ALBERNI – Last October, a survey of the Port Alberni business community let us know that many entrepreneurs wanted to make improvements to their commercial buildings. The majority indicated they were planning to spend under $25,000 so in January’s budget deliberations, staff asked City Council if they were willing to support a matching grant Façade Improvement Program. Council said ‘Yes’ and pro-actively allocated $50,000 to the initiative.
Lori Camire, Executive-Director at Community Futures Alberni-Clayoquot then stepped up and offered to research and implement the program in order to get it in place in a faster fashion than what my work load would have allowed. Lori’s Board was so impressed with what they learned about the impact of façade improvement programs; they added $100,000 to the fund!
They also added the cost of an architect’s services to ensure professional advice AND then offered up a loan program for the merchants who wanted to do more with their buildings. The last two elements of the program came out of their research into what makes for a really successful program and what challenges merchants face in participation. A two-stage application process was developed.
The process stipulates that each business must be current with all taxes, licenses, permits, previous work orders and development permit conditions. It also stipulates that the contractors involved must have their business licenses. This has resulted in bringing a few entrepreneurs into complete compliance with over-due issues as a result of requests laid out by our Building Inspector and Fire Marshall on previous code matters.
Each single face improvement project had to have a minimum total renovation cost of $5,000 in order to apply. The maximum reimbursement allowed on those projects is 50 per cent up to $5,000. Reimbursement grants of 50 per cent are also being provided for corner lot, two face improvement projects with up to $7,500 allowed there with an additional $1,000 for buildings in 3 priority areas designated by Council.
We are delighted to report that 26 buildings with improvements totaling over $600,000 are in the process of being approved and the first of the projects has been completed with terrific feedback.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff and Board of Community Futures Alberni-Clayoquot for their huge contribution to and investment in this program. It is improving both our curb-side appeal and business revenues.
