Twenty-five years ago, 17th Ave. S.W. faced serious threats to its vitality, says Uptown 17 BRZ founding chair Richard Pootmans, now Calgary Economic Development manager of business development. The oil boom of the day had gone bust, and retail competition was mounting. Though a local volunteer business association existed, it didn’t have the resources to sell the area’s 400 fragmented, locally owned and managed businesses as a cohesive unit.
Visiting Ottawa’s Bank Street Promenade shopping district, Pootmans was struck by its put-together streetscape. Facilitated by municipal legislation allowing Ontario cities to levy their business taxes, revitalization boards could open offices and hire staff. Fortuitously, Alberta’s municipal government act had just been amended to do the same. Pootmans proposed forming a 17th Avenue BRZ (Business Revitalization Zone), and local politicians — MLA Brian Lee, Calgary mayor Ralph Klein and area alderman Barb Scott, as well as city council and commissioners — gave unanimous support. Mary Axworthy, now director of land-use planning and policy with the city, was the planner assigned to the job. A cast of dozens worked tirelessly to bring the BRZ together, says Pootmans. “And everyone, frankly, ignored their businesses for a goodly period of time while we pulled all this together.”
The newly formed BRZ addressed the avenue’s physical unattractiveness. “It was pretty brutal,” says Pootmans, who recalls deteriorating sidewalks, and traffic lights hanging from bare wires. Though it seems a mundane list today, the BRZ envisioned the banners, flags, benches, bike stands and wastepaper baskets that the avenue now takes for granted. The group also created programming — music festivals, fairs and more — for Tomkins Park.
“We just thought there were a ton of people living around there that deserved a better place,” says Pootmans. “We were trying to make a shopping and dining experience for the community.” Though the avenue didn’t have a distinct identity, nor did its businesses display much team spirit prior to the formation of the BRZ. Now it has both in great measure.
Over the last 25 years, the somewhat dilapidated avenue with its small-town feel has grown into a well-maintained big-city shopping and dining destination. Today’s BRZ addresses the same esthetic and infrastructure maintenance that its founders did, but now, says Pootmans, the oft-asked question is, has the avenue become too successful? “I look at it positively,” he says. “Maybe this isn’t a startup environment anymore. As tough and callous as it may seem, the increase in rental rates has got to be seen as a symptom of success.”
Dewey Noordorf, co-owner of Brava Bistro and current BRZ board member, believes the two big issues facing 17th Ave. today are indeed success related. “The biggest challenge is to keep it family friendly,” he says, “and keep it a place where independent business owners can still afford to open boutiques, bistros, little bars.” He stresses that he likes the corporate shops, which give the street vibrant, national authenticity, but with other new and interesting districts emerging, it’s the cachet of indie businesses that will continue to draw people to 17th Ave. now and in the future.
- Ian Doig (FFWD Weekly)
