Calgary businesses impacted by city-led construction could be eligible for a $5,000 lump sum grant to help offset the impact of the work.

The pilot project was unanimously approved by the Infrastructure and Planning Committee at the March 13 meeting in response to continual feedback from residents and business owners in various areas in Calgary. It will still need final approval at a full meeting of Calgary city council.

Along with a potential grant through a pilot project, the City said they would continue to explore other construction mitigation tactics, including business liaisons to directly reach out to shop owners. Those would complement the business community office hours they hold in key construction areas, project teams at community events, pedestrian and business wayfinding, bike parking with on-street parking removed, and marketing to support local businesses.

Graham Gerylo, infrastructure services manager of community business relations with the City of Calgary, said that Wednesday’s report was the result of a growing number of requests to have business-friendly construction approaches.

“We’re hearing from businesses that they would like to city to implement strategies to help mitigate the impacts on their operations,” he said.

“We’re hearing from businesses that they’re also seeking financial support from the city through means, such as tax relief, or by implementing financial support programs, such as those that the City of Montreal established in 2023.”

For the pilot program, only businesses affected in the Marda Loop or Bridgeland Main Streets project boundaries in 2024. The City said this is due to the extended duration and cumulative impact that construction, road closures and detours have had in those areas.

Businesses must operate a storefront location within one city block of construction and require customers to attend the physical location to complete a business transaction. 228 businesses could qualify for the assistance, meaning a potential City subsidy of more than $1.1 million.

The City said they hope to use the program results to inform potential future grant programs in city-led construction areas.

Marda Loop construction has been ongoing to help deliver utility upgrades in the area, along with improvements along 33 and 34 Avenue SW to allow for more mobility options. The city has done a handful of things to ease construction pressures, including changing construction during the busy holiday season and providing the area business district marketing cash to bring people to the area.

Businesses want the city to work with them

Leslie Echino, owner of Annabelle’s Kitchen restaurant in Marda Loop said that she’s struggled to survive through the pandemic, plus the compounded impact of construction in the Marda Loop area.

She said that people have trouble accessing her business, sometimes parking 30 minutes away on foot. Echino said she hasn’t had communication with the City or easily accessed information on what roads are being closed or where there are detours.

“I want solutions and real answers. It’s so great to sit there and complain with all my people in my neighbourhood and be like, ‘Oh, this is hard. This sucks,’” Echino said.  

“But we need solutions and I want to be here in two years or it’s going to be a neighbourhood absolutely bereft of local small owner-operators.”

Fellow Marda Loop business owner Cameron Fraser of Fraser & Fig said it’s not realistic to expect business owners, many of whom are small business owners overwhelmed with the day-to-day of running their shops, to keep up with the constant fluctuation in details around closures and detours.

“The website is really difficult to work if you’re trying to find information,” he said.

“The idea that we’re going to go to the website and find out information on how traffic is changing in our community is not realistic.”

Vincent Wong of Diner Deluxe said that along with employee challenges accessing work, that issue extends to customers. He said parking is critical.

City officials said they are working with area landowners to open up parcels of land for surface parking for the area. Details will be available in the coming weeks.

Like other business owners, Wong said the $5,000 is nice, but it doesn’t go far when you have a $70,000 payroll each month, or $120,000 a month in overhead.

Bob van Wegen, executive director of the Marda Loop Business Improvement Area (BIA), said that he appreciates the assistance the City has tried to provide along the way with construction in the area.

“There are a lot of positive things happening out there that can be documented and replicated in other projects,” he said.

“There are a lot of things that aren’t working that we can learn from on this report. The team acted very fast to respond to the needs to look at what might be helpful or possible and they kicked it up a notch.”

One thing van Wegen would like to see is for the city to include businesses that don’t require City of Calgary business licences. He said it represents 18 per cent of businesses in the area.

‘Communication sucks’

Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness questioned city administration on their outreach, or lack thereof, before the start of the Marda Loop construction. She asked why businesses weren’t consulted before the start of the project.

Feisel Lakha with the City of Calgary said that they were in a planning mode for many years. Then, when council approved funding, they shifted right into design. He said they recognized how they communicated and how they could be better.

“As I told businesses last week, we will do better, we have to do better, and we’re working actively to try to be better,” Lakha said.

Coun. Wyness responded.

“Thank you for wanting to be better, but the commonality and the critique of the City is our communication sucks,” she said.

“So, what does better look like to you?”

Lakha said one of the reasons for providing the business-friendly construction approach was to deliver a clear approach and policy for handling these projects. He pointed out that there’s not even a policy around an appropriate notice period. Clearer expectations are needed.

Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp, who chairs the committee, said that the Marda Loop situation is different from others like Bowness/Montgomery, 17 Avenue or even Inglewood, where there are multiple entry points to the area.  This is an area with increasing density and need for services, combined with minimal entry points. They also had the compounding effect of work starting as Covid-19 struck.

“You’re talking about businesses that have seen so many impacts over the last four years and now construction impacts that were created by the city and communicated during a time where businesses are just trying to keep their heads above water,” she said.

Sharp said communication is the big lesson through this process.

‘I’d say communication is key. If you don’t communicate with businesses that you’re going to go in and impact, you’re going to lose trust and confidence,” she said.

“Trust is important with the business community.”

Details on the grant program and the eligible areas will be available in Q2 2024, the city said.