From the Ottawa Business Journal:
The 18 business improvement areas within Ottawa’s city limits currently span from Orleans in the east to Carp Village in the west, but Stittsville is nowhere to be found on that list.
John vanDyk would like that to change.
The owner of the Covered Bridge Brewing Company says a BIA would give small businesses in the west-end community a boost by helping spread the word that there’s more to the area than just big-box stores.
“I think it’s a great way to sort of raise awareness in the community for local businesses, but also for local businesses to connect,” he says from his brewery on Iber Road.
Mr. vanDyk, a former Health Canada employee who took a leap of faith into the beer business in late 2013, says his products are now served in about a dozen pubs around the city and at his own retail outlet.
He sold about 50,000 litres of suds in his first year of operation and forged successful partnerships with a number of other locally owned enterprises. For example, Covered Bridge produces a coffee-flavoured beer using beans from the Gaia Java Coffee Company, located a short drive away on Main Street.
“We find that those connections have really worked well for us because, you know, they might have a slightly different clientele than us, but it helps to expose us to their clientele and vice-versa,” Mr. vanDyk says. It’s a great way of just supporting each other.”
Read the full article, including comments from Amy Walker (Walkerworks Picture Framing), councillor Shad Qadri and StittsvilleCentral.ca editor Glen Gower.
I hope they do a better job than the Sparks St. BIA. Their draconian stance on street food vendors are keeping many potential customers away.