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HomeMy WebLinkAboutKitchener BIA - 2011-08-16 August 16th, 2011 9:00 am - 11:00 am Location: Walper Hotel Downtown Kitchener BIA Oak Room Board of Directors Meeting Minutes In attendance: John Vickory, Le-anne Pilecki, Michael VonTeichman, Liz Howie, Margarida Anao, Kevin Ballantyne, Colin Leis, CoK – Frank Etherington, Dan Glenn Graham, Cory Bluhm BIA Staff: Mark Garner Regrets: CoK - Mayor Carl Zehr, Rod Regier, WRPS – Adrian Darman, BIA Darryl Moore, Adrian Conrad Absent: none Guests: KPL (Kitchener Public Library) Sonia Lewis (CEO) and Paul Dickson (Development Manager) Agenda: Welcome – Chair, Margarida Anao ? Call to order at 9:00 am - are there any conflicts of interest to be declared – none declared Agenda: __ ______________________ _ Introductions – Margarida Anao ? Welcome to Board and new Board Members Agenda Item: _ __ Approval of Agenda ? There were no issues identified with the agenda. Motion: To approve the agenda as submitted. The information contained in this document is intended for internal use by the Board of Directors and `Management of the Downtown Kitchener BIA and may contain confidential and/or privileged material, any duplication, distribution, re-transmission or dissemination without the written consent of the Downtown Kitchener BIA is prohibited Motion/Moved by: Dan Glenn Graham and seconded by: Le-Anne Pilecki All in favour unanimous, motion passed. Agenda Item: Presentation from Kitchener Public Library – Sonia Lewis The board of directors received a detailed presentation on the current expansion project initiated at KPL. The presentation highlighted the current membership which is over 100,000 residents and the importance of the Library in the community and the influence and increase traffic flow it creates in the downtown. 25,000 sq feet expansion is well underway with increased underground parking with increased building space being added to the existing building. Additional programming space will be added outside the building linking Civic District. Expansion is estimated to be completed summer 2012 and then KPL will move into the new space while the remaining space is redeveloped. The overall goal is to make the KPL a community centre for all to enjoy with meeting spaces, programmable event experiences and technology access for all. Current traffic flow to the library is approximately 1000 people per day and with the final project expansion increased daily traffic will increase. Sonia thanked the board of directors for the original support from the business community on the initial project and our ongoing support. The KPL and BIA teams will look at working together in the future to leverage this great development for downtown. Agenda Item: Financials – Kevin Ballantyne ? June and July Statements The board of directors review in detail the June financial statements as presented by the board treasurer. Motion: To approve the June 2011 Financials as submitted. Motion/Moved by: Kevin Ballantyne and Seconded by: Dan Glenn Graham, All in favour, motion passed The board of directors review in detail the July financial statements as presented by the board treasurer. Motion: To approve the July 2011 Financials as submitted. The information contained in this document is intended for internal use by the Board of Directors and `Management of the Downtown Kitchener BIA and may contain confidential and/or privileged material, any duplication, distribution, re-transmission or dissemination without the written consent of the Downtown Kitchener BIA is prohibited Motion/Moved by: Kevin Ballantyne and Seconded by: Le-Anne Pilecki, All in favour, motion passed Agenda Item: ______ Approval of Past Minutes – Margarida Anao The Board of Directors reviewed the minutes from the previous meeting (June 2011) Motion/Moved by: To approve the minutes as presented Frank Etherington and Seconded by: Liz Howie, all in favour unanimous, motion passed. Agenda Item: _ _______________ WRPS Update – Supt. Adrian Darmon ? Adrian was unable to attend based on an urgent policing issue. Board will seek an update from WRPS at the next board meeting. Agenda Item: _ Economic Development Update – Cory Bluhm ? Google has purchased Motorola and we could expect to see growth (employee’s) in the downtown core. ? Downtown live is being well received this summer, we are seeing significant growth in people watching the programming. Additionally we are seeing the music community embracing the program and wanting to plan for performing in the coming year. ? The current plan is to bring the Downtown Strategic plan forward for board review at the September meeting. ? Talked in detail about the recent acquisition of Matter of Taste building and the plans for its redevelopment. Updates will be provided to the board as this project moves forward. ? Board discussed the current situation on the buildings which previously caught fire earlier in the year. As information comes available will be shared with the board. Agenda Item: _____ __ _______ Executive Director Update – Mark Garner DIRG (Downtown Interdepartmental Resource Group) Garbage and cleanliness of the Downtown core – ongoing issue. ? Power washing and routine maintenance has increased in the core based on work Economic Development (Downtown team) has taken action on The information contained in this document is intended for internal use by the Board of Directors and `Management of the Downtown Kitchener BIA and may contain confidential and/or privileged material, any duplication, distribution, re-transmission or dissemination without the written consent of the Downtown Kitchener BIA is prohibited with the City Operations teams. This work is being monitored and will be an ongoing project. Arena / Kitchener AUD committee Project is ongoing with regular scheduled meetings in the month(s) to come. Final report is pending and work ongoing to get to final recommendation and direction for the joint teams. Operational items Strategic Plan – Preliminary work done on the “Downtown Strategic Plan” in partnership with Economic Development and BIA. The City (Downtown Vision) strategy will link to the BIA strategy to ensure we are covering the potential opportunities, with culinary development being the prime focus for the BIA. We are expecting additional work to be done in the coming weeks with the intent of having a “draft” discussion document for review in September. We will continue with the BIA strategic plan during this time frame as well. – Lease / Office moveThe relocation to the new office at 29 King Street East has started. Junior Achievement is currently in the new space and KWCF and nd BIA moving into the office the week of August 22. We will doing a phased approach allowing time to set up the storage room and other requirements until th the final Server and Workstation migration on Friday August 26 with full day in th the new location on Monday August 29. Member communication has been completed and posting on the website as well. New signage is being developed for the building in partnership with the KWCF and JA which is expected to be installed within a month. We still need to work out some final details on “reception” requirements for the partners, associated costs and the agreement for the use of the shared space. We will see a drop in operational expense for the phone systems, photocopier and other infrastructure over the last quarter of our fiscal year and going forward. We can expect an open house for all the partners and membership in the coming month. There is an increased requirement for a reception area person to help with the greeting function for the organizations. The joint teams will continue to determine requirements and source accordingly. Committees – initial meeting conducted to level set on the role of the committee’s within the BIA and Downtown. We are looking at (3) three committee’s ie: Marketing and Events, Beautification and Member Engagement. Further work will be done in the coming week(s). rs Downtown Ambassado – program is coming to a close for another summer th (August 26). Program was well received again this year, with increased visibility in the core and all the major events for 2011. HRDC funding has been received The information contained in this document is intended for internal use by the Board of Directors and `Management of the Downtown Kitchener BIA and may contain confidential and/or privileged material, any duplication, distribution, re-transmission or dissemination without the written consent of the Downtown Kitchener BIA is prohibited and final payments should be approved with the close out paperwork being completed. We will continue with the program in 2012. Retail Recruiting – We continue to move forward on our attraction program as we outreach to our identified list of opportunities. In parallel the City continues to look at their opportunities. We are seeing increased interest in the downtown based on the work we are doing as well as organically. This is based and could be contributed to the current press coverage we are seeing on investments, streetscape awards and interest from other BIA’s/municipalities and other catalyst projects. Additionally we are starting to see buildings changing hands, as we are working directly with existing and new building owner’s projects. Since we started this program other BIA’s have now started similar programs and are seeking our thoughts and input on how we developed our program. We have had joint speaking engagements with the City at OBIAA (Ontario Business Improvement Area Association) at the London conference, and will be speaking at IDA (International Downtown Association) at the Carolina conference in partnership with London BIA, Yonge BIA and MJB consulting. Vacancy rate is down from 16% at the start of the summer to 13.5% currently. Events and Marketing – We have executed numerous events since the last update and witnessed significant increase in attendance, specifically during Kitchener Blues Festival. Attendance exceeded 130,000 people; business was up 25% to 35% depending on your business, Restaurants where at capacity and running out of food and we monitored a significant increase in ATM transactions over the 4 days. Overall the 2011 Kitchener Blues Festival was the best event in comparison to the other years, Friday attendance was up and Saturday attendance was at capacity and netted significant dollars for the festival. Congratulations were sent to the Blues Board thanking them for another successful event. KitchenerON – is a joint partnership between various organizations (Walper th Hotel, Museum, KOI festival, RAM, Impact and BIA) Starting September 15 we have significant events happening in the downtown core starting with Employee Appreciation, United way, KOI festival with numerous Arts organizations and new programming at the museum. We partnered and branded the experience “KitchenerON” pulling together experience packages example: $149.00 night stay at the Walper, two tickets to RAM, two tickets Impact and for additional $50 two tickets for KOI. Tourism was engaged in the project and they applied for a grant, which we were successful in obtaining, which will directly help with the marketing and promotion of KitchenerON in southwestern Ontario and in Breslau Airport access in Ottawa and Calgary. We will monitor the success of the promotion and partnership. The information contained in this document is intended for internal use by the Board of Directors and `Management of the Downtown Kitchener BIA and may contain confidential and/or privileged material, any duplication, distribution, re-transmission or dissemination without the written consent of the Downtown Kitchener BIA is prohibited There will be a sponsorship request coming from the KitchenerON teams for minimal ask around $1000 and $1500 in addition KOI festival will be coming forward for sponsorship of $3000 which will be supported by the BIA. Oktoberfest – the team has been working the “Downtown Experience” again this year, as we chair the opening weekend committee, which is tasked with opening day ceremonies at City hall right through to parade day. We have increased programming for the downtown with the core focus on bringing people into the streets during the festival. Some highlights will be the Carnival Midway, Strongman Competition, Oktoberfest Idol, and Bleachers for opening day, pancake breakfast for parade day. In addition we have worked corporate engagement from our membership and will be conducting RBC BBQ Lunch on th Wednesday September 14 and BMO Pancake Breakfast on Friday September ththth 16. We are seeking (2) two other partners for Tuesday 13 and Thursday 15, rounding out our Downtown Experience for this year. The goal is to make the Oktoberfest festival as vibrant downtown like stampede is to Calgary with programming every day, and we continue to see progress in this direction. Food and Drink Expo – Partnership with BIA, Kitchener Market and The Record to execute an event in the East End at the Market for a Culinary experience showcasing our membership. We are working the details currently but it will be a multi-day event with a BIA gala / VIP event, cooking classes, sampling, entertainment, tent on the piazza showcasing local restaurants and food. This will be the start of landmark event for the east end, the market, our membership and the downtown overall. More details will follow as we engage the membership and community. Larger events on Radar: ? Employee Appreciation ? United Way ? KitchenerON ? KOI Festival ? Impact Festival ? Oktoberfest ? Food and Drink Expo ? Downtown Dollars – Websitewe have completed the RFP and selection process for the new BIA website. We will be working with the Laf Design of Kitchener in the development, implementation and launch of the site. Our current timing is to have the new site th up and operation of November 19, which will coincide with our Downtown Dollar program, Christmas shopping initiatives and the Santa Claus parade. We will The information contained in this document is intended for internal use by the Board of Directors and `Management of the Downtown Kitchener BIA and may contain confidential and/or privileged material, any duplication, distribution, re-transmission or dissemination without the written consent of the Downtown Kitchener BIA is prohibited keep the board and membership posted on the progress of the new website project. Members – We partnered with the SBC on training of (6) six BIA members on the use and application of social media to their business, They went through training on the set up and use of social media to market and promote their offerings. WE will continue to follow up with the members on the use of the education and social media and metric the benefits. LRT – Meetings will be held this week with the Region on the issues the board had identified earlier in the year on the project. The intent is to work those issues with the regional team and come to some mutual agreement or understanding on final route and impacts on business. Updates will be provided to board accordingly. On the Radar ? LRT ? Downtown Strategic plan engagement, BIA Strat Plan ? Office Move and Committee’s ? Events (Employee Appreciation, KOI, KitchenerON) in September ? Arena (Kitchener AUD) ? City Centre ? Retail Attraction Agenda Item: ____________________ New Business – Margarida Anao ? Square to Square – discussion, Dan Glenn Graham presented current status on project. The teams are looking at new opportunities and focus for this project to reduce cost and drive people and vitality to King Street. As this project moves forward updates will be provided. ? Governance review – Margarida Anao provided update on current status and the document review and some potential changes will be coming forward. Board will receive updates as the team progress through the project. Agenda Item: ____ Board Meeting Review/Action Items – Margarida Anao ? No action Items from today’s Board meeting, no issues identified. ? We will look at pulling together a list of outstanding action items for the next meeting. The information contained in this document is intended for internal use by the Board of Directors and `Management of the Downtown Kitchener BIA and may contain confidential and/or privileged material, any duplication, distribution, re-transmission or dissemination without the written consent of the Downtown Kitchener BIA is prohibited Agenda Item _____ Adjournment – Margarida Anao Motion/Moved by; Le-Anne Pilecki, Seconded; Dan Glenn Graham, all in favour. Motion Passed. th Next Meeting – September 20 2011, New BIA office 29 King Street East, Unit B at 9:00am to 11:00am. The information contained in this document is intended for internal use by the Board of Directors and `Management of the Downtown Kitchener BIA and may contain confidential and/or privileged material, any duplication, distribution, re-transmission or dissemination without the written consent of the Downtown Kitchener BIA is prohibited