A little love for downtown businesses

The City of Victoria is considering a program that will help spruce up the look of businesses in the downtown core. The Business Façade Beautification Reimbursement Program is on the agenda for Thursday’s council meeting. The city and the Downtown Victoria Business Association would split the cost of the program.
 
“This is an incentive to the property owners and the businesses on that block to join together and make their block look better,” DVBA CEO Jeff Bray told the Times Colonist. “And I think when you do that over a handful of key blocks, it will be very noticeable.”
 
The Township of Esquimalt and the Esquimalt Chamber of Commerce introduced the Business Façade Improvement Project this year.
 
“As the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce, we support investment in our very important downtown centres,” Chamber CEO Bruce Williams said. “They’re not all the same, of course, but they all need to be safe communities. The best way to do that is to support community pride led by local business.”