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Marine Avenue revitalization continues

Business district looks for new ideas to improve downtown area
MABA
FACE LIFT: Ideas for Marine Avenue area revitalization range from landscaping to enticing businesses to make room for more of an entertainment district. Dave Brindle photo

As Powell River’s highway and main street, Marine Avenue provides access to the downtown business area, but its future is a topic of discussion between various organizations and a subject of public conversation.

One stakeholder involved is Marine Area Business Association (MABA), which hosts, among other events, this week’s Blackberry Festival and street party and the annual Santa Claus parade, and also lobbies for revitalization of the business area.

MABA president Cathy MacDonald has been working on Marine Avenue revitalization area since becoming involved with the organization 10 years ago and said progress has been slow.

“We’ve got nothing but frustration with the City of Powell River,” said MacDonald. “Just when you think you’re getting somewhere, it will all fall apart again.”

Regulations, bylaws and lack of funding in MABA’s dealings with the city have blocked many improvements the association has championed, according to MacDonald.

City of Powell River senior planner Jason Gow said MABA will certainly be involved in the discussions as the city moves forward with area improvements.

“They’re an important player along the Marine strip,” said Gow. “If there has been any bad blood, it is the city’s intent to smooth it over. Our interest is to work with all the interested parties, including connecting with MABA and involving them.”

In addition to coordinating Blackberry Festival and organizing the street party, MABA is responsible for the historical murals along Marine and annual Santa Claus parade. The association encourages beautification of the area, such as landscaping, street-scaping and painting buildings.

According to MacDonald, approximately 40 business members are involved with MABA. Base Camp co-owner Colin MacRae said his business is not a member and he would like to see a new direction for improving the area.

“I would like to see Marine as a corridor that is a reflection of a new era of our economy and creates a vibrant, creative and modern take,” said MacRae.

MacRae said creating an attraction, including cultural influences such as more shops, entertainment and food would be economically beneficial to the city. To do that, he said one idea might be to move offices off the avenue and into a business district.

“Maybe we need to have some stacked office space here, multi-use buildings geared more toward professional services,” he said.

According to MacRae, the problem of street parking would be addressed by a district with office buildings.

“It would make so much sense because of parking issues and people’s frustrations with that,” he said. “There are a lot of people who need to run into the accounting office for five minutes and are frustrated because they can’t find parking.”

MacDonald said the question of business survival is not just connected to a revitalization plan, but also depends on who owns the building and how much rent they charge. She also said many  buildings are owned by absentee landlords.

MacDonald said MABA will be presenting to Powell River Chamber of Commerce in the fall on revitalization ideas for the downtown Marine area.