By John Chenier
The New Year started off with new management at the head of our two Business Improvement Areas (BIA). The new executive director of the Downtown Rideau BIA (DRBIA) is Andrew Peck. The new head of the ByWard Market BIA is Kalin McCluskey.
Mr. Peck comes to his new position after nine years as head of the Glebe BIA. While there, he was the recipient of several BIA awards for Special Events and Promotions, Streetscaping and Public Realm Improvements, and Marketing & Communications. The DRBIA will definitely present him with challenges in all of those areas.
Before going to the Glebe BIA, Mr. Peck had his own business, Milkshake Marketing & Communications. His skills in those areas and his experience running a small business were key factors in his appointment to the Glebe BIA. In announcing Mr. Peck’s appointment to the Glebe BIA, Gilbert Russell, then the chair of the BIA board, noted that “He has a lot of good experience. Coming from a small business background, it will help understand our world. That is the experience that the Glebe is selling and if he didn’t understand that, how could he promote it?”
The DRBIA milieu is very different from the Glebe. Only a small part of the membership — which includes all the stores in the Rideau Centre and the shops on Rideau Street from Sussex to the Cummings Bridge — are small, locally run businesses. As the previous head of the DRBIA described it to the Echo last January, “the majority of the members are multinationals which can have a steady turnover of store management.” The management of the Rideau Centre fits somewhere between the BIA and these transient store managers, making for an interesting clientele and a very different milieu.
As if dealing with the complications presented by COVID weren’t enough, barely weeks into the job a major part of Peck’s “Improvement Area” has been forced to close its doors because of anti-mandate protesters. Barely a month into the job, Mr. Peck says he is still taking stock and is not ready to lay out any plans for the future. But the community looks forward to seeing these plans and enjoying the results.
Kalin McCluskey, the new executive Director of the ByWard Market BIA, comes from a slightly different background. Her previous job was Executive Director of the Canadian Alliance of Students Associations (CASA).
Like her counterpart at the DRBIA, she is doing a major assessment of the BIA programs designed to bring people to the Market precinct. She has already enlisted the local Cundell Stables to provide free carriage rides in the Market on Thursday nights and weekend afternoons in February. She says they will be looking to hire students for the popular Ambassadors who help tourists find their way around and, perhaps, to offer guided history and art tours of the Market.
She is also looking to be working closely with the executive director of Marché Ottawa Markets Zach Dayler, on how best to design and promote events such as Barket (Dogs day at the market) to entice people to come and patronize the shops and restaurants. Businesses in her BIA have been hit hard by the COVID restrictions over the past two years and they will be looking to her organization to ensure the area is safe and welcoming in the months to come.
Andrew Peck, Kalin McCluskey and Zach Dayler have a lot in common. Messrs. Dayler and Peck know each other from when Dayler was head of the Wellington West BIA. And, by an odd coincidence, Dayler was also once the Executive Director of CASA. So there is a lot of common ground and understanding among the three.
This bodes well for the future of Lowertown business and the strengthening of our 15-minute community.