Putting the city core on the radar

A successful downtown doesn’t just attract new business — it retains the ones that are already there.

It’s Samir Husika’s job to make sure both of those things happen.

Husika is St. Catharines’ downtown development officer, on the job since 2014 after working in Port Colborne’s economic development office. His role was created from the city’s 2008 Downtown Creative Cluster Master Plan, which outlined the need for a position devoted to the core.

“It’s important to stay focused on the businesses that are already here in the downtown, and some of whom have been here for quite a long time and through tough times and good times,” Husika says, explaining his role is about communication, learning about business challenges and trying to solve problems together.

“My position is focused on supporting those businesses that are here, and also getting new businesses into the downtown.”

Part of that is promotion through social media and marketing. It’s also about getting out to other communities and telling them about the changes happening in St. Catharines.

He highlights the big investments — the Meridian Centre, the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre and Brock University’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. He talks of the student residences opened by Penn Terra at 136 James St. and 51 Lake St. that mean young people are circulating through the downtown along with the professionals working in offices.

And he shares news of the upcoming large retirement development that’s planned by Four Seasons Retirement Communities on the 10-acre former Ontario Street hospital site near Montebello Park.

“The interesting thing is that you tell them about this and they say, ‘Well I haven’t been to downtown St. Catharines in six, seven years. I pass by it on the 406 or whatnot, but I’ve never really seen it. So when you tell them about it they’re quite surprised,” he says.

“Or you get the other reaction, which is, ‘I have heard about it’ and they’re quite impressed with what’s happening.

“My sense is that people are finding out gradually about what’s been happening here and I think it is getting on other people’s radars, particularly in the business private sector.”

Selling the downtown to those outside St. Catharines will take time, Husika says. Attracting a business to invest doesn’t happen overnight, and relationships have to be built.

Husika says big changes downtown aren’t going to take place in the next year or two, but in five to 10 years.

“The real spark is having your Meridians and FirstOntario Performing Arts Centres open up and hopefully using that as a catalyst to eventually see some growth in the downtown,” he says.

“So the recognition that something like this is more long-term, I think, really needs to be understood.”