The Downtown Improvement Area is looking to help a new business get off the ground, and the organization is putting money where its mouth is.
The DIA launched a “Win this Space” competition on Main Street West Tuesday morning.
The partnership between the DIA, the Chamber, the Business Centre of North Bay along with the City’s Economic Development office to name a few, have created a competition where a new business can win free rent for a year at a main street storefront location.
Geoff Richardson, the Win this Space Co-Chair, believes the free rent is a great incentive but the real focus is to get a new business to open its doors successfully.
“We not only want to fill a spot we want to make sure they are ready to go and take advantage of everything that downtown North Bay has to offer,” said Richardson.
But winning the space won’t be easy as the winning business will need to put in a lot of work to make it happen, along with impressing a panel of judges.
“We are going to bring it down to 10 finalists with developed business ideas, they are going to go through the program and then they are going to pitch it to us - to a panel of judges, so it’s kind of like a ‘Dragons Den’ style event,” Richardson explained.
“They are going to have to do a presentation, they will also need to do a business plan and a report so we are going to take a look at all their information but it’s also how impassioned they are when they talk about their business idea which will count for a lot too.”
The winner must lease a commercial property in the DIA district and the prize, roughly $15,000, will be applied toward the cost of their rent. Richardson is also optimistic the rent will be subsidized by major and minor sponsors.
Richardson says to qualify the business must enrol in the small business program at the City of North Bay.
“We not only want to fill a spot we want to make sure they are ready to go and take advantage of everything that downtown North Bay has to offer,” said Richardson.
The competition will close to prospective businesses in mid May and the winner will likely be able to take advantage of the new space in October.
For more information and to submit a business idea, please visit http://winthisspacedowntown.com/
