{"id":22845,"date":"2019-02-01T01:06:28","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T06:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=22845"},"modified":"2019-02-07T12:04:31","modified_gmt":"2019-02-07T17:04:31","slug":"new-bia-is-ready-for-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/new-bia-is-ready-for-business\/","title":{"rendered":"New BIA is ready for business"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

After more than a year of preparation and proposals, Aurora\u2019s new BIA \u2013 Business Improvement Area \u2013 is ready to hit the ground running in helping transform the historic downtown core back into a destination.
\nCouncil formally approved the establishment and membership of the BIA last week, putting in place a group of eight community stakeholders to bring their goals to fruition, and these goals include melding the heritage character of the core with incoming developments in the future, including the new Aurora United Church.
\nHelping to steer these objectives are members Mauro Bucci, representing several area building owners, property owner George Condoyannis, Aurora Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Sandra Ferri, restaurateur Mary Georgopoulos, lawyer Jack Laurion, realtor Lenard Lind, consultant Joanne Russo and businessperson Kasie Savage.
\n\u201cThe time is right because of development that is happening on Yonge Street and the push that is happening with Library Square,\u201d says Ms. Georgopoulos on why there is momentum behind a BIA. \u201cTiming is here and the people are a lot more open to it. The Town seems a lot more engaged in wanting to revitalize Yonge Street and have more of a focus \u2013 and I think the election probably helped that as well.\u201d
\nA BIA, according to organizers \u201cis integral to advancing a distinct, livable, vibrant and resilient business district in its local community\u201d and the historic downtown is the obvious candidate for such a district. Downtowns represent \u201csustainable development, making best use of our existing infrastructure and creating compact communities that encourage walking, cycling and transit use\u201d while having \u201chistoric connections to the origins of the community.\u201d
\nThey define their mission statement as \u201ca volunteer-run organization committed to improving and promoting the Aurora Historical Business District through investment and advocacy to build and maintain its position as Aurora\u2019s premier shopping, business and entertainment destination.\u201d
\nTheir goals are to use membership fees and sponsorship opportunities to \u201crevitalize and beautify the Aurora historical centre and make it a destination for local residents to work, shop and play\u201d while \u201cprovide opportunities for area businesses to thrive through community events and focused advertising.\u201d
\nTheir plan includes a three-year outlook to revitalize and beautify the downtown core through street benches, lamp post banners, historic metal building and lawn signs, piped in street music, building murals and a historic metal archway, all to be sourced locally wherever possible.
\nBut all this is for nothing without people coming to the downtown core to enjoy it. To that end, the BIA proposes a number of community events introduce \u2013 or reintroduce \u2013 people to Aurora\u2019s historic centre. These include an on-street kickoff to the Aurora Farmers\u2019 Market season in the spring, an expanded Aurora Chamber Street Festival and Canada Day Parade in the summer, keeping stores open during each occasion and provide incentives to get attendees into the stores. Similar events are proposed for the closure of the Farmers\u2019 Market in the fall and the Santa Under the Stars Parade.
\nThey also hope to introduce new community events such as a \u201cTaste of Aurora\u201d on an August Saturday that will see a street closure with food being served on the street to the sounds of live music and entertainment, and activities for kids. \u201cChristmas Midnight Days\u201d are also proposed for two Saturdays in the winter that would see stores open until Midnight, carollers lining the streets, and special offers from merchants.
\nThis is not the first time Aurora has flirted with a BIA. Others have come and gone over the decades, but this one intends to have staying power \u2013 and they feel the community has their back.
\n\u201cI think you need a lot of community support from all around to be successful, not just from the Board itself,\u201d says Ms. Russo. \u201cYou need to have engagement from other local businesses. [A lot of people have questions] about what change you are going to bring forward and what changes are happening in Aurora more than anything else. There is a movement of wanting to see more livelihood in the downtown core, and we\u2019re looking to bring what Mary calls \u2018the jewel of Aurora\u2019 back. It\u2019s our history.\u201d
\nAdds Ms. Georgopoulos, \u201cWe want people to take pride in their downtown core and want people to visit and not avoid it.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora’s new Business Improvement Area sets out bold vision to make the historic downtown a destination<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/2019-01-31-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5Wt","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 02:28:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}