A potential expansion of services provided through the Downtown Kamloops Business Improvement Area is being offered through a potential redrawing of the map itself.

The Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association has a proposal to expand the boundaries of the BIA to include about 100 new businesses in total.

This would include around 25 businesses along Victoria Street West and about 75 businesses running from 10th Avenue to Highway 5.

Interim Downtown BIA Executive Director Jeremy Heighton says while businesses included in this redrawn map will have to pay an annual fee, he argues there is a greater cost-benefit to joining a Business Improvement Area.

“If you were to undertake, for example, one marketing campaign with one consultant, while maximizing for a period of one or two months, you would get a return on investment,” argued Heighton. “However, if you join the BIA, you get that for 12 months.”

“Plus, we have the CAP Team. Plus we have the Clean Team. Plus we advocate for you on community beautification,” he added.

Heighton says the hope it to have the expansion of the Downtown BIA voted on by potential members by mid-August, and then have a new bylaw drafted and on the desk of city council before the municipal election window opens up in mid-September and sees the current council dissolved.

“The organization has launched a community engagement process regarding the proposed renewal of the Downtown BIA levy for the 2027–2031 term, along with a proposed expansion of its boundaries to include additional commercial areas connected to the downtown core,” said the BIA through a media statement.

“Through information sessions, direct outreach, and online engagement opportunities, stakeholders will have the opportunity to learn more about the proposal, ask questions, and provide feedback ahead of the formal City of Kamloops review process beginning in July.”

Heighton argues this would be an opportune time for businesses along Victoria Street West and to the east of 10th Avenue to get involved, noting they’re simply reviving an older map which was redrawn in the lead-up to 2002, when the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association and Area was originally formed.

“The Performing Arts Centre is coming… a new Racquetball and Curling Centre is coming,” noted Heighton.  “There’s all sorts of amenities are coming into that eastern end of the downtown core.”

“We want to ensure that the businesses down there have the opportunity to take advantage of those, both from a branding and marketing perspective, but also from a community vibrancy perspective,” He added.