Despite some back-and-forth debate, Belleville’s Economic and Destination Development Committee is recommending the creation of a city-wide pop-up business program, to help kick start the local economy.
Manager of Economic Development Karen Poste says the idea is to have five property owners offer up their vacant buildings for new startups, with those entrepreneurs getting a six month rent discount, in the hopes they’ll continue to run their businesses once that term expires.
“Not necessarily would these just be temporary pop-ups. The hope is we’d be able to choose entrepreneurs and business ideas that would stick around for the long haul. So, yes they’d be given a bit of support initially for the first six months, but then after that they’d be on their own and hopefully profitable and functioning for the long term.”
The recommendation was approved by the committee on Thursday and will now go to council, but during the discussion, committee member Kathryn Brown said while she thought the program “could be a big win in the future”, she didn’t feel the timing was right.
“While we are in lockdown is not the optics that we as EDDC want to convey. And do we want to take the risk of disenfranchising the existing businesses that are working so hard, by saying that somebody else because they’re new gets a benefit on their rent, that will allow their businesses to be more successful at the front end?”
Councillor Kelly McCaw had also disagreed with the plan, citing the same concerns about timing and the unfair advantage it would give to some businesses and not others.
If council gives the final approval, the pilot program would cost about $25,000 and be funded through the Municipal Accommodation Tax, with the aim to start in October.
