A long-dormant business improvement association (BIA) has a new board, but could not drum up support from local businesses to fund their budget in 2025.
Toronto Centre Coun. Chris Moise has spearheaded the resurrection of the Historic Queen Street East BIA, which has been inactive since 2008, and aims to enliven and encourage business in the area.
But while a volunteer board has been recently appointed, the vast majority of the 30 business and commercial property owners who participated in the BIA’s annual general meeting on Dec. 4 voted down a proposed budget for 2025.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” local printing shop owner Ramy Elaasar told TorontoToday, on the existence of a BIA for Queen East.
“It might work very good for other areas, but for this area, I don’t think so.”
The 2025 budget for the Historic Queen Street East BIA would have been about $130,000 — funded by a levy from the 170-odd local commercial property owners in the BIA’s catchment area, according to a city spokesperson. At the BIA’s annual general meeting (AGM) in December, 26 people voted against the budget, while just four voted in favour, the spokesperson said.
As levies are the primary way BIAs are funded, the association’s capacity will be limited in 2025. However, the group’s newly constituted volunteer board will remain active.
Is the levy worth it?
At a meeting of the Toronto and East York Community Council on Tuesday, Moise said the budget vote failed because a “block” of property owners — composed of investors that don’t have a vested interest in the community — voted against it.
“They're not there seeing the sweat, blood and tears of those who actually live there and try to improve the community,” he said.
But Elaasar said he voted against the budget because he doesn’t believe the BIA can address his chief concern for the area — safety.
The business owner, who has worked in the neighbourhood for more than 20 years, said his front window has been smashed three times and that the BIA would have no power to resolve such issues.
Christopher Johnson, owner of a Queen Street East art shop, said he also does not support the revival of the BIA because he doesn’t believe the levy will be worth it for his business.
“If they're going to hike the taxes, what are we actually getting for that?” he asked. “If it's just going to be flower pots and a little bit of a face lift, then what's the point?”
Tyler Johnson, chief of staff to Coun. Moise said in an interview with TorontoToday that the proposed 2025 levy would have cost Queen Street East businesses about $250.
Local developers, whose businesses have higher property values, would have paid more, while small businesses with lower property values would have paid less, he said.
BIAs, a Toronto invention, typically beautify streetscapes, host campaigns to bring people to their neighbourhoods, and run events and street festivals.
These associations have been incredibly popular in Toronto, which boasts over 80 BIAs — the most associations of any urban centre in the world, according to Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas.
Johnson said a portion of the funds proposed in the BIA's 2025 budget would have been used to hire a staff member, who could have fundraised additional money to support local businesses.
Others believe BIA will bring vibrancy
Not all local business owners are opposed to the revival of the BIA, however.
Jim Giontsis, a pharmacist who co-owns Moss Park PharmaChoice, said he believes the BIA can support the community to be prepared for the wave of “gentrification” occurring across the association’s territory, which runs from Victoria Street to River Street.
City council has approved several new large developments in the area and the proposed Ontario Line will run along Queen Street East through the association’s boundaries.
Giontsis, who has recently become a member of the Historic Queen Street East board, pointed to the success of the Danforth Street BIA, and others like it across the city.
“In principle, it’s a good idea,” he said.
Devin Glowinski, a realtor and the owner of a commercial property on Queen St. East, said he is supportive of the idea, believing it will bring vibrancy to the neighbourhood.
Does a ‘fragmented’ street make a BIA tricky?
However, Andre Bermon, the former president of the Corktown Residents and Business Association (CRBA), said there are particularities about Queen Street East that make a BIA difficult.
“The commercial properties are not like the Danforth, where you can walk block after block after block,” he said. “On historic Queen Street East the businesses are fragmented.”
Bermon said that there are many churches, homeless shelters and parks in between businesses along the strip.
This would make it challenging, he said, for a BIA to develop a cohesive streetscape.
Coralina Lemos, the current chair of the CRBA, sent a letter to Coun. Moise in August, expressing concern that the boundaries of the resurrected BIA also overlap with their turf. Unlike many residents’ associations, the CBRA also has programming to support local businesses.
In an interview with TorontoToday, Lemos said she believes the revival of the BIA could detract from participation in her association, which has been active for years.
She asked Coun. Moise to intervene by terminating the revived BIA's boundary at Ontario Street.
But Moise, in an interview with TorontoToday, countered that in many neighbourhoods local residents’ associations work in harmony with the BIA.
“We could have multiple events at various times of the year to bring people down to Corktown and the Downtown East area,” he said.
Where to go from here?
Glowinski, a new member of the Historic Queen Street East board, said the group still has value, despite the failed vote.
The realtor said that at their AGM on Dec. 4, they had a chance to bring businesses together to build relationships and explore ways to improve the neighbourhood.
“I really want to make sure that I can do whatever I can to make sure that no neighbourhood is left behind,” he said.
“Unless we're civically engaged and organized, that's just not going to happen.”
