By: Nicolas Moyer
In January, the City of Ottawa handed over the responsibility for managing the ByWard Market building and commercial tenant spaces in the City parking lot between York and Cumberland to Marchés d’Ottawa Markets, an arms-length Market Services Corporation (MSC) it created for this purpose. Its oversight includes retail space in those buildings, but also programming and stalls along York and George, William and ByWard Market Square. The MSC was created to reverse years of decline and lead the revitalization of a vibrant local food market.
The MSC has faced challenges
Residents and businesses contributed ideas to multiple studies since 2013 which led to the creation of the MSC, and expectations for positive change are high. Yet it may not appear that much has changed since the MSC was put in place. Media coverage of the Market has also not been all that positive. Stories about the MSC have included Board member resignations, a public spat with buskers and tenant concerns with increased property management fees.
As B Marchés d’Ottawa Markets board member Greg Skotnicki, points out, expectations were high for the new corporation and there was a lot of work to do just to get it operational. “We have a responsibility to pursue the mandate we’ve been given and to all stakeholders involved, but we know we can’t please everyone”, says Skotnicki.
Peter Ferguson, Chair of the Lowertown Community Association (LCA) Planning Committee believes that some challenges were inevitable early on, as the new corporation focused on putting the right plans and resources in place. According to him, “residents understand that change will not come easily.”
In the last year, the volunteer Board has negotiated terms with the City and hired and worked with Executive Director Jeff Darwin to build a team, take over property management, assess the situation and develop a strategic plan.
Future directions laid out
Darwin says that the MSC “mandate is above all a successful food-first market”. A strategic plan presented to City Council in June lays out the working vision for the MSC. This plan aligns well with the expectations of residents, with a focus on fresh food, pedestrians and a better retail balance that redresses the increasing dominance of bars and restaurants in the area. To get there, the plan calls for pursuing three overarching outcomes: (1) new Market regulations; (2) a dynamic market experience addressing diverse audiences, including a new retail-mix strategy, programming and stakeholder participation; and (3) long-term transformations such as the creation of a semi-autonomous “precinct”, capital investment and new underground parking.
It is noteworthy that updating regulations is at the top of the plan’s priority list. As Jeff Darwin puts it, “the outdoor vending bylaw for the ByWard Market is 64 pages long and 50 years old, and very few people can understand or interpret them [sic]”. “They need to be modernized […] and we’d like to see them replaced with a 12-15 page guiding policy, similar to what we’ve seen with other farmers’ markets in Ottawa”. This would better align stakeholder expectations with new roles and responsibilities under the new MSC, while doing away with burdensome red tape.
Another significant institutional change proposed is the creation of a new “precinct” for the ByWard Market. Under this proposal, the MSC would have greater autonomy for decision making and revenue generation within its oversight area. The MSC might, for example increase, garbage pick-up frequency beyond city benchmarks, something it isn’t currently allowed to do despite much higher foot traffic than other neighbourhoods. It could also quickly change rules for vendors if necessary without having to turn to bylaw changes, or do its own enforcement without relying on bylaw services. The idea, says Skotnicki, is that someone “needs to be responsible for the whole community impact of the market revitalization project, and not just to some of the stakeholders”.
The strategic plan also includes a reference to a “national brand specialty retail tenant” for the ByWard Market building. Without a better definition, this reference has led many to express concerns that it could lead to the arrival of a chain or even a fast-food franchise. Both Darwin and Skotnicki offered strong assurances that this is not the intention and conceded that wording in the plan could have been more specific to their vision of attracting a retailer complementary to the Market’s fresh-food focus.
This has been proposed as a way to help overcome the financial constraints on the MSC. But is far from certain that such a retailer can be found.
Financial resources don’t match market ambitions
The far-ranging revitalization plans contained in the MSC’s strategic plan run up against significant financial constraints. Since beginning operations, the MSC has discovered that the City of Ottawa’s initial revenue projections, developed in 2017, were overly optimistic. Revenues in 2018 are 24% less than projected. At present, the MSC relies on revenues from tenants in its two buildings. With this they must ensure adequate property management at both ByWard and Parkdale Markets, pay for their staff and operate the only public washroom in Lowertown. Security costs alone for the building approach $100,000, according to Skotnicki. A balanced budget of $1.2M for 2018 leaves no room for major capital projects or new programming.
Skotnicki’s vision for a “St. Lawrence-style market” (a bustling Toronto indoor market), rests upon the knowledge that successful farmers’ markets around the world are publicly funded or subsidized in some way. This means that a fundamental concern will be to solve the revenue needs of ByWard Market revitalization, beyond maintenance of the status quo. Jeff Darwin says he’s open to any model for solving the financial challenge, pointing out that one option is for the “City to simply pay the $500,000 estimated operating costs of the buildings we manage”. But this would still leave the City making decisions about how to invest in and manage the Market, precisely what it wanted to stop doing when it created the MSC.
The proposal for the creation of a Market precinct would lead to a more integrated model, where a revenue mix from parking, patio-sidewalk encroachment and event-space rental would be redirected specifically to re-investment in the Market. This approach was proposed in the studies which led to the creation of the MSC. It would ensure at least part of the funds generated in the Market would be reinvested there, rather than directed to the City’s general coffers. It would offer real flexibility to the MSC, deemed to be one of the most important requirements for a successful revitalization effort.
Success depends on term-of-council priorities
Peter Ferguson says “residents share [the MSC’s] plans and overarching ambitions for the Market area. We just need the political leadership to get this vision in motion.” All the planning and effort that have gone into promoting Market revitalization now depend on City support to begin implementing tangible and sustained progress through capital investment commitments, regulation reviews and revenue sharing terms with the MSC. That will only be possible if the new City Council elected in October includes Lowertown and the ByWard Market in its list of term priorities.
In Jeff Darwin’s words “it’s Lowertown’s turn”. Peter Ferguson agrees and has begun thinking of ways the LCA could contribute towards making it happens. Both encourage local residents to raise the need for new investments in Lowertown during the upcoming municipal election.
After nearly 30 years of silence, the historic ByWard market bell is being rung once more in the mornings to open up the Market. It is intended to be a tangible and symbolic sign of changes to come. With the MSC up and running, it is time for all stakeholders to make sure the resources are available to implement the vision of a revitalized ByWard Market.
The Marchés d’Ottawa Markets strategic plan can be found on its website: ottawamarkets.com