2022 Downtown Niagara Falls BIA Annual Report

Annual Report

Board of Directors

Executive Officers

Ron Charbonneau | Chair of the Board

Cat Thagard | Vice Chair of the Board

Starr Bowes | Treasurer of the Board, Chair of Finance and Audit

Directors

Wayne Campbell | City Councilor, Member of the Board

Chris Dabrowski | City Councilor, Member of the Board

Eddy Pybus | Member of the Board, Chair of Marketing

Jon De Luca | Member of the Board

Lisa Vanderklippe | Member of the Board

Tony Barranca | Member of the Board

Steve Falco | Member of the Board

Wendy Leard | Member of the Board

Staff

Amanda (Nicol-) MacDonald | Executive Director

Jules Fazio | Marketing Manager

Jen Wubs | Events Manager

Taylor McAra | Graphic Designer

Natalie Heighway | Digital Service Squad Member

Message From the Chair

This past year we have seen a lot of success in our downtown and we’re excited to continue to revitalize the area and uplift our local businesses. The past few years have been tough, but that hasn’t stopped our district from thriving thanks to the resilience of our business owners. Now, with the complete lifting of restrictions and the cancelling of the mandatory ArriveCan app to cross borders, we are hopeful that tourism and traffic to the area will only continue to grow and downtown will be even more prosperous in 2023.

I’m thrilled about all the new businesses that have chosen to open storefronts in Downtown Niagara Falls this year. They each bring unique offerings to our area that help us stand out from other tourist districts, and I’m confident that they will remain an important part of our community for years to come.

The BIA is working hard to beautify the street, put on special events that benefit our area, promote our businesses, recruit new members, and make Downtown Niagara Falls an economic hub and community space where locals and tourists alike can enjoy their time.

Looking to the future, I am sure the Downtown Niagara Falls will continue to prosper. With the University of Niagara Falls planning to open it’s doors in our Downtown, plans for new marketing initiatives and events, and more, I am more excited than ever for what is to come!

Ron Charbonneau, Chairman

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Snapshot of Downtown

Downtown Niagara Falls is home to a variety of businesses including Professional Services, Shops & Boutiques, Food & Drink, Arts & Entertainment, and Health & Beauty. Professional Service businesses remain prominent in our downtown, but there has been an increase in other categories which make the district more experiential and unique.

This year, we welcomed several new businesses to Downtown Niagara Falls and we held grand red ribbon cutting events to give them a warm welcoming into their new home. So far, each one has brought something unique and fresh to downtown and we cannot wait to see what is to come. This year, we said farewell to 6 businesses. We thank them for the difference they made to our Downtown community and we wish them well in their future endeavours.

Events

In 2022 we hosted and assisted with many successful events which helped bring foot traffic and attention to Downtown Niagara Falls. Special events are an important part of our mandates as they introduce community members to all the wonderful offerings downtown and help to improve the overall reputation of the district. We’ve received a variety of grants and sponsorships that allow us to host free, fun, and family-friendly events for the community.

Movie Nights

Beginning in July and into September, we hosted Downtown Movie Nights presented by Ronnie Don’s Ice Cream every Wednesday on Queen Street. This year we began projecting the movies onto the BIA office building, which is white, to allow for a better picture and to avoid any wind issues we faced with the inflatable screen. This free event saw dozens of community members each week, and we continue to receive plenty of calls, comments, and messages about how excited people are for Downtown Movie Nights!

StoryWalk

During the summer of 2022, we hosted StoryWalks in partnership with the Niagara Falls Public Library. Panels featuring pages of the stories were displayed in a variety of store windows along Queen Street along with a QR code users could scan to have the story read to them. The panels also featured a secret keyword that children ages 12 and under could use to get a free ice cream cone from Ronnie Don’s Ice Cream. The story was changed three times throughout the summer and acted as a great way for families to explore and engage with Downtown Niagara Falls.

“This weekend at the Farmer’s Market a family came to the booth and said how much they enjoyed the Queen Street StoryWalk. Not only did the kids get to read a story and get free ice cream, but it also introduced the family to downtown businesses they didn’t know existed.” - Laura Martin, Manager of Community Development & Programming for the Niagara Falls Public Library.

Cruising on the Q

Cruising on the Q is a classic event on Queen Street hosted by Ronnie Don’s Ice Cream. Every Tuesday throughout the summer, car enthusiasts gather to show off their wheels and community members from all over peruse the street while admiring the cool vehicles, socializing, and enjoying food and music.

Cruising on the Q concluded with the annual Super Cruise in September, where hundreds of cars made an appearance and hundreds of people came down to enjoy 50/50 draws, prizes, cupcakes, and more.

Season of the Witch

Cat Thagard of Cat and Monkey Events once again hosted a variety of Halloween-themed events this October. These events included numerous witchy crafting workshops, Fortune Friday Tarot Readings, Halloween on Queen, The Witches Market, Movie Mash, and the 5th Annual Witches Ball.

Ribbon Cutting Ceremonies

We welcomed many new businesses this year with ribbon-cutting ceremonies. Joined by Mayor Jim Diodati and other dignitaries, we celebrated the new Downtown businesses with speeches, certificates, and of course the cutting of the red ribbon!

Movie Mash

Beginning in October, as a part of Cat and Monkey Events’ Season of the Witch, we began showing Halloween-themed movies every Wednesday. These spooky movie nights were incredibly popular, seeing over 50 people some nights! We even had a couple of spooky guest appearances from none other than Michael Myers.

Bike Night

Every Thursday, Crazy Macaws Cafe hosts Bike Night. This community event sees tons of bikers and non-bikers gather on Queen Street to eat, socialize, listen to live music, and admire all the awesome motorcycles. Crazy Macaws supports a variety of charities with these events, including Niagara Dog Rescue, Project Share, and more! The BIA provided road occupancy permits, insurance, equipment, photography, videography and marketing to help this event be successful.

Halloween on Queen

This year, Cat and Monkey Events hosted Halloween on Queen, a day full of Halloween festivities presented by Season of the Witch! This free community event was completely free and was packed full of fun for all ages. Community members got to enjoy live music, pumpkin carving, a spooky maze, pumpkin bowling, a costume contest, and many more spooktacular activities.

Street Studio Goosechase Scavenger Hunt

Our newest beautification initiative, Street Studio, included a digital scavenger hunt through the Goosechase app. This interactive element attracted many community members to take a stroll downtown and admire all the art. We received feedback that many of these participants also stopped into a few shops and/or restaurants while they were visiting!

2021 Santa Claus Parade

Being the first parade in the region to return to a traditional format after COVID-19, we saw a great turnout. In fact, Mayor Jim Diodati said that the parade was the ‘biggest’ and ‘best’ parade in our City’s history! We are excited to continue hosting this event for the community in the years to come.

Other Non-BIA Events Tree Lighting Ceremony

Immediately following the Santa Claus Parade, in partnership with Niagara Health Foundation, we hosted a Tree Lighting Ceremony. Hundreds of people gathered to hear speeches and participate in the countdown to light the Niagara Falls official Christmas Tree in front of City Hall.

· Plush Imperial Latin Festival, Carifalls, and more

· Niagara Music and Food Expo - Street Party

· AWA Niagara Festival 2022

· Taps Beer Fest, Music Trivia and more

· Crafty Workshops by The Painted Turtle

· Karaoke, Comedy Shows, live music and more at Camp Cataract

To keep up with all the events happening in Downtown Niagara Falls, head to DowntownNiagaraFalls.com/Events

2021 Christmas Market

The 2021 Christmas Market was a huge success, seeing over 100,000 visitors from all over the Niagara Region, Greater Toronto Area and more throughout the course of the market. The holiday magic took place over six weekends from November 13 to December 19.

The market featured 30 vendor cabins, live music from local bands, Christmas movies, photo-ops, interactive light displays and more. Some fan favourites include the glow swings, glow seesaws, and giant light-up piano!

Santa & Mrs. Claus took the trip from the North Pole to visit the market and take photos with patrons. As you may know, where Saint Nicholas goes, the Grinch isn’t far behind! Mr. Grinch was also stomping around the market, taking photos and interacting with patrons, and of course, trying to steal Christmas.

We also had some super special visitors at the market this year with appearances from Anna, Elsa, Olaf, Mickey Mouse, a Minion, Belle, and the Beast!

The 2021 Niagara Falls Christmas Market was so well-received that we won an OBIAA award for the best Special Event of the year! We are incredibly proud to host this event for the region and hope to continue to make it bigger and better every year.

Beautification and Economic Development

Street Studio Art Installation University of Niagara Falls Announcement

2022 marked the first year of the Downtown Niagara Falls art installation, Street Studio. Thank you to the over 20 community members for their amazing artwork and participation in this initiative, we hope to continue this program for years to come! A special thank you to downtown business owners Steve Wilson from Steve Wilson Studios and The Gallery and Birgie Ludlow from Birgie and Friends for their wonderful contributions to this program.

Digital Main Street

We were awarded a grant from Digital Main Street to cover the cost of hiring a Digital Service Squad member to help Downtown Businesses apply for a digital transformation grant of $2,500. Natalie Heighway, our DSS, was able to successfully assist 30 businesses in receiving this grant.

String Lights

String lights were added to every block along Queen Street and remain up year-round. The lights are LED with low energy consumption, costing only a few dollars a year per strand, the cost of which is covered by the city. Community members and business owners have commented on how the string lights help liven up the street at night.

Global University Systems (GUS) will be building an 10,000-student private university in Downtown Niagara Falls in the proposed Education Corridor of the Niagara Falls Downtown Revitalization Initiative. The university will be offering a multitude of courses with a focus on reskilling and upskilling Ontarians in various sectors that have both a direct and indirect effect on the local economy. Some of the courses that will be offered are: biomedical science, emerging technology, data analysis, business, and digital media. A main goal for the university will be to attract local, national, and international students to the vibrant and historical Niagara Falls. In partner with that the university will also bring a significant direct and indirect impact of the economy.

Flowers Christmas Planters

Once again, we had the streets lined with flowers in planters, bollards, and hung from lamp posts to brighten up the street and bring more colour to the area. We were pleased to see that over only a short period of time, the flowers blossomed and grew two times the size they were when we originally planted them.

When the weather got too cold for the flowers, we wanted to find a way to keep the street full of greenery. We had special Christmas-themed planters replace our flowers that featured mini fir trees, birch, and decorative ornaments.

We continue to hang banners on the street and swap them out each season. This year, we were given 2022 Niagara Summer Games banners to hang along with our normal summertime banners. In the fall we will once again be hanging Veteran banners in honour of the men and women who served our country. In the winter we will be hanging our winter and holiday-themed banners.

Street Banners Parkette Power Box

Vinyl Wrap

The rust and graffiti-covered power box in the Valley Way parkette was an eyesore in our downtown. In the spring of 2022, we had the box wrapped with branded vinyl that has a protective anti-graffiti coating to deter any future vandalism.

Fixing the Garbage Cans

The BIA identified that the garbage cans along Queen Street frequently have their doors left open due to old magnets and have been actively working to have these fixed. We are happy to announce that as of this fall, we have been able to amend this issue.

Painting of the Arches

This year we painted the arches along Queen Street blue to match our new branding. Not only did this cover up graffiti and rust, but this beautification project is a step in aligning our digital presence with the physical appearance of the downtown core.

New Entryway Signage on Bridge

and Victoria

To help welcome and direct people downtown, we updated the entryway signage on Bridge Street and Victoria Street. The poles of the signs were painted in our blue brand colour and new signs were installed that featured our new colours and branding assets to help keep a visual consistency throughout the downtown core.

Halloween Window Decorating

Downtown businesses showed their scary side this Halloween season with themed window displays that haunted the street! From spooktacular window paintings to an animatronic Jack and Sally display, patrons were in awe when visiting the street.

Christmas Window Decorating

Many Downtown businesses also decorated their storefront windows for the holiday season which not only beautified the street but also brought some extra holiday spirit to the area! We look forward to seeing everyone’s window displays for 2022.

Painted Pianos

Local artists Megan Jesik and Lindsay-Ann Chilcott have donated their time and creativity to paint two pianos which we keep outdoors throughout the spring and summer. These pianos are open for anyone to sit down and play a tune, which livens up the street.

Marketing and Social

Our digital presence continues to grow across all channels as we have implemented and maintained a content strategy. We strive to post professionally produced content that is engaging and showcases our businesses and downtown area in a good light. We’ve been able to grow our followers by posting consistently to both our feed and stories, creating more video content, and posting calls to action that urge users to interact with our content, amongst other social media techniques.

We also keep ourselves updated on social media best practices as platforms are ever-evolving and new features are being added all the time. We have taken advantage of new features such as adding collaborators to Instagram photos, which allows the post to be shown to both accounts’ feeds, thus maximizing the number of viewers and helping to increase engagement.

Eat Local Passport Food Guide

Our Eat Local Passport for 2022 was a great success! This year we revised how it works and extended the time period of the program which allowed more individuals to participate. We had 11 businesses take part in the program in 2022. Participants were required to spend $10 in order to receive a sticker, once they filled their passport with 6 stickers from 6 different businesses, they could enter into a draw to win $1,000 in gift cards to a variety of downtown businesses.

We received dozens of completed passports and expect that there were also many more partially-filled passports. Some of our business owners remarked on how many passports and stickers they had given out over the duration of the program.

The 2022 winner, Carl B., commented on how this program encouraged him to visit new places that he had never been to before, like Plush Imperial. We are happy that this program encouraged people to explore the diverse restaurant offerings in Downtown Niagara Falls.

Updates with Eddy

Our board member, Eddy Pybus, continues to film the “Updates with Eddy” series which we post to the Downtown Niagara Falls social media accounts. These updates give BIA members and the community a snapshot of what is happening downtown for the month so that they can get involved.

Promotional Rack Cards

Our in-house graphic designer created rack cards promoting Downtown Niagara Falls which have been placed at the GO Station and distributed to hotels, businesses, and Airbnbs. Staff regularly restocks the rack cards at each of these locations to ensure continued promotion.

GO Station Video

Many businesses participated in a commercial that is now playing on a loop at the GO Station. We hope that this video will encourage tourists coming to Niagara Falls to explore the businesses downtown while they’re here!

We released our first-ever Eat Local Food Guide and have received amazing feedback on this marketing piece. The 14 businesses who participated prepared meals and brought them to the BIA office to be photographed at our photo studio by our in-house professional photographer. The book was then put together by our in-house graphic designer and distributed to a variety of hotels, businesses, and Airbnbs and we even mailed out over 3,000 copies to houses in the Niagara Region. The Food Guide can be viewed online at: www.downtownniagarafalls. com/2022-food-guide/

“I received the booklet this week. What a great idea! I have always wanted something like this so we could instantly see the restaurants and coffee shops downtown to help choose where I can meet with friends. It is perfect! Thank you for putting this wonderful little food guide together.” - Frances C., Cogeco

“I just wanted to say how WELL done this guide is for eating downtown. I think it’s a piece of amazing marketing and a really useful tool for you and your businesses. Outstanding job!” - Jim Diodati, Mayor, City of Niagara Falls.

Website Analytics Report

New Users: 54K

This means 54,000 unuqie users have spent time on our website this year alone.

User Aquasition:

1. Organic search: 23K 2. Direct: 14K 3. Organic Social: 10K 4. Refferal: 7K

Our top user acquisition being organic search shows that our SEO efforts this year have been working. Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines.

Top Users by Country:

United States

United Kingdom

Top Users by City:

Niagara Falls

Rebranding

Christmas Market

As the market becomes a more well-known and popular event, we decided to rebrand the market to have a more professional and meaningful brand identity. Our in-house graphic designer created a new logo which incorporates the theme of Christmas with Niagara Falls by displaying an ornament with the falls in it. As well, new colours were selected that better emulate the Christmas spirit, one of which is the BIA green to keep consistency with the Market’s parent brand.

Rebranding

Santa Claus Parade

Our in-house graphic designer also created new branding for the Niagara Falls Santa Claus Parade to better align with the new Christmas Market branding, as well as the Deck the Falls Awards branding. This helps to keep a cohesive style throughout all of the BIAs events and initiatives which helps with brand recognition.

Rebranding

Deck the Falls

The BIA has taken over the operations for the Sparkle Awards, a city-wide contest to highlight local properties with spectacular outdoor holiday lighting displays. We have rebranded these awards to the Deck the Falls Awards. This rebrand comes complete with a new logo set, which features the Downtown Niagara Falls green shade to connect this project to our main brand. We are thrilled to be coordinating this city-wide event and will be opening application on November 12, 2022.

Communications

Every month, the BIA sends out a newsletter to the membership with updates on events in Downtown, available loans and grants, marketing opportunities, and more. We also send out monthly newsletters to our tourism audience of almost 400 subscribers to let them know what events are happening Downtown, promote local businesses and events, and get them excited about what’s going on in Downtown!

Earned Media

Earned media is coverage or promotion acquired through organic means. As we continue to improve the Downtown area and bring more initiatives and events to the area, we have started to recieve earned media with large outlets such as BlogTO, Narcity, and others. These companies also share links to their articles via social media, where they boast almost 1 million followers each. This free promotion drastically helps our marketing efforts and brings more awareness to the downtown area as well as more traffic to our social channels and website.

Publishing high-quality blogs help us with our SEO, which allows our website to be seen on the first search results page when users are looking up certain keywords or phrases. This aids in directing more traffic to our website which acts as promotion for the area and the businesses downtown. We use SEO best practices when creating blogs such as researching and including keywords in the title and h1 tags as well as the body copy, including alt tags on images and videos, and including metadata.

Press Releases

Monthly Newsletters Blogs Text Notifications

We frequently send out press releases to a list of media contacts. These are often picked up by a variety of media outlets including Niagara This Week, the Niagara Falls Review, Cogeco, and more! Press releases help effectively spread information about Downtown Niagara Falls to current and new audiences across the Niagara Region and beyond.

We use an SMS notification marketing system to notify subscribers about upcoming events and promotions in Downtown. We’ve gained more subscribers this year with a variety of different area codes ranging from locals to the GTA, and even some international subscribers.

Email Blasts

We send out email communications to our members to keep them updated on new developments Downtown. We use these emails to let businesses know about new marketing opportunities, road closures, loans and grants, and other important information.

Community Improvment Plan (CIP)

A Community Improvement Plan (CIP) is a tool that allows a municipality to direct funds and implement policy initiatives toward a specifically defined project area. These CIP grants encourage revitalization and development in the Downtown area. Property owners and tenants located in the City’s Downtown Community Improvement Project Area can apply for grants and loans under a number of programs. There have been 105 applicants since the start of the program, 80 of which were successful in receiving the grant or loan. It is important to note that to date, Council has not rejected an application, however a number of applications remained incomplete and thus were unable to receive the grant or loan. Council is eager to help and approve more applications in the coming year, they just ask that applications be complete and properties have no outstanding taxes prior to their consideration. We highly encourage taking advantage of these grant and loan opportunities.

Commercial Building and Façade Improvement Grant Program

To promote the restoration and improvement of the facades of commercial and mixed-use buildings and promote the maintenance and physical improvement of existing buildings and properties.

Revitalization Grant Program

To provide a financial incentives to help offset the increased property taxes that result from the rehabilitation of downtown residential and commercial properties.

Residential Loan Program

To provide a 0% interest loan to promote the: conversion of non-residential buildings to residential use; upgrade of existing residential buildings to meet building code, fire code and property standards by-law; and construction of residential units on vacant properties.

Safety and Security Initiatives

Initiative : When to call 911

As we are a busy urban area, there may be instances when you or your staff may witness an unpleasant incident or disruptive behaviour, in which case a call to the non-emergency line should be made at 905688-4111. If there is a more severe incident or you or other individuals are in a life-threatening incident, 911 should be called immediately.

Initative : Needle Program

If you or your staff need a contact for needle clean up, or support for vulnerable populations, please contact Positive Living Niagara directly or visit www.positivelivingniagara.com.

Initative : Victoria Avenue Shelter

A new temporary housing facility was opened on Victoria Avenue in an effort to help combat chronic homelessness in our city.

Initiative : Security Cameras

The Niagara Regional Police are taking over the operations of the security cameras downtown. The BIA has purchased them and is awaiting for police service to complete the installation.

Initiative : Witness Impact Statements

If you or your staff witness an illegal or unpleasant activity in Downtown Niagara Falls, we encourage you to document the occurrence and submit it to the Niagara Regional Police Department (NRPD).

Initative : Naloxone Kits

The BIA has a number of Naloxone Kits in the office at all times. Naloxone is a medication used to temporarily reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. We encourage you to get your free Naloxone kits and training for your business at Shopper’s Drug Mart on Victoria Avenue.

Governance

The bylaws and new constitution were created in late 2020 by the Board of Management and Governance Committee. These bylaws were approved by council and can be found at www.DowntownNiagaraFalls.com/ Governance.

Strategic Plan

The Board of Management recognizes the importance of creating a strategic plan for longterm visioning. This document is available at www. DowntownNiagaraFalls.com/strategic-plan/.

Go Station Transit Hub Bylaw

The Transit Station Area Zoning By-law Amendment No. 2021-40, approved on March 23, 2021 is now in effect. Please contact the Planning Department at 905-356-7521 ext. 4234 or 4235 to obtain a copy.

Niagara Falls City Council adopted a Secondary Plan for the area around the VIA Train Station in 2018 to support GO Train service by permitting transit supportive development. The vision for the area is a vibrant and complete neighbourhood that is walkable, has a mix of uses, new housing choices, new employment opportunities including institutional uses, with seamless integration between the existing VIA Rail Station, the Niagara Regional Transit Hub and the rest of Downtown area.

• A mix of commercial and residential uses at a variety of heights so there are more people living and working within the downtown

• More housing opportunities with a range of housing needs including affordable housing

• An enhanced pedestrian environment that supports a walkable urban setting

• Improved transit connectivity

• A mix of new uses and community facilities

• An attractive built form that complements the form, scale and character of the community

• Improved streetscapes with public realm enhancements

• Cycling facilities, linkages and new active transportation connections

• Preserved access and viewing opportunities of the Niagara River

The Zoning By-law amendment will implement these policies by focusing on zoning changes in an area bounded by Bridge Street to the north, Morrison Street to the south, River Road to the east, and Victoria Avenue the west.

2022 Budget

The Downtown Niagara Falls BIA is committed to offering the same or increased services in 2023 compared to 2022, within the cost-of-living and inflation adjustment.

Please note that the portion of grant revenue may be significantly more or less in 2023; however, these numbers are based on semi-guaranteed arrangements and are therefore budgeted for accordingly. The corresponding expense line would be eliminated if these arrangements were unavailable via the provincial and federal governments.

The BIA thanks over 50 respondents for their participation in the annual BIA survey which assisted in the budget creation. The BIA also thanks committees for their hard work and dedication in 2022. We encourage anyone interested to join a committee in 2023, email Info@DowntownNiagaraFalls.com for more information.

The Budget Process

May: Survey created and approved by committees and the Board

June: Survey sent out to the membership

July and August: Committees meet multiple times to review membership input

Beginning of September: Committees form draft budget requests and send them to the Finance and Audit Committee

Mid-September: Finance and Audit Committee forms recommended budget

End of September: Board makes adjustments and approves budget

November 24: Annual General Meeting for discussion

End of November: Board approves budget to go to council

December: Budget sent to council for ratification

Revenue

Non-Levy (Grants, Sponsorships, other): $445,347 Levy: $463,571 Total = $908,918

Expenses

Students from Grants: $258,586

Administration, Human Resources & Other: $253,732 Events: $256,200 Marketing and Promotion: $43,850

Beautification, Economic Development & Maintenance $96,550 Total = $908,918

Survey Results

Looking Ahead

We’ve had a great year in Downtown Niagara Falls and look forward to continuing our efforts to improve and revitalize the district. Check out what we have planned for the next year!

• Welcome more businesses to Downtown

• Continue to build our online presence

• Refurbish or purchase new street furniture

• Sparkle Awards/Deck the Falls

• Downtown Wi-Fi

• Painting garbage cans

• Develop a signage plan that aligns with districts and guide

• Implementation of the signage plan

• Invest in banners to link Victoria Street and guide visitors toward Downtown

• Replace gateway signage on River Road

• Activate underutilized spaces to create unique public spaces and experiences

• Enhance committee involvement

• An experience guide

• Downtown gift card

• Develop brand kits for Downtown members

• Shop Local Passport program

• Holiday shopping catalogue

• Win This Space program to return, funded by grants

• The University of Niagara Falls coming to Downtown

We are incredibly excited about what this next year will bring!