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Over the past few weeks and months, our team at the Downtown BIZ has been working on plans and the budget for 2025, ensuring our efforts align with your priorities and continue to provide member value. BIZ members are always a priority, but we want to devote more time and energy to help you succeed. Increased promotion, shifting perception of downtown, supporting more events, adapting our services, and working with our partners to improve public safety are some of the things you can look forward to and count on from us in 2025.
As we head into the final year of our three-year strategic plan, we are excited to build on the positive momentum downtown, while continuing to work together collaboratively to address ongoing challenges.
Financial challenges are real for everyone, including the BIZ. Like many organizations, we have been affected by inflation and our operating costs have continued to increase. Demands for our services have also increased, yet our zone’s Annual Rental Value (ARV) – which helps determine the levy fees paid by BIZ members that make up our primary funding source – has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. These levy fees support critical services such as litter pick-up, graffiti removal, cleaning bus shacks and sidewalks, information sharing, and promoting downtown and member activities. We also leverage your levy contributions to secure additional funding through sponsorships, grants and other funding partnerships.
Since 2020, we have seen an 11% drop in our ARV, meaning we are consistently trying to do more with less. That makes moving the needle on our strategic priorities and continuing to provide quality services and value a challenge. Our team has worked hard to find efficiencies and savings and has weighed multiple scenarios to support budget 2025. Instead of a more significant increase to the levy, our Board of Directors, made up of downtown business owners and employees, is proposing a mid-range increase, combined with using reserve funds to balance the budget. We believe this approach will minimize impact on BIZ members and provide greater flexibility in the future, while we work together to build back the ARV and our downtown neighbourhood.
The decision to increase the levy – the first planned increase since 2017 – was not taken lightly. Members will have the opportunity to vote on the proposed 2025 budget at our AGM next week. We look forward to sharing more details about our plans for 2025 to support BIZ members and continue to move our downtown forward in a positive direction.
Registration closes on Friday, don’t miss out!
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If you have any questions about how the ARV works or next year’s plans and budget, please contact us by emailing info@downtownwinnipegbiz.com or by phone at 204-958-4640. Our team will be sure to connect you with the appropriate person.
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