Business owners say more can be added to city’s downtown incentive program
A new incentive program for downtown development projects announced by the City of Red Deer this week is getting mixed reviews from at least two local businesses.
Ken Heywood, owner of Heyrock Chartered Accountant on 47 Street, describes them as mostly a “bricks and mortar thing.”
“The City and the Downtown Business Association (DBA) have promoted those sorts of things a number of times and there’s certainly nothing wrong with them, but I don’t think it’s addressing the issue,” says Heywood. “It’s not the bricks and mortar as much as it’s what’s inside the bricks and mortar that we need to deal with to revitalize our downtown. I think we need a little better focus from governance.”
Heywood says downtown’s reputation and perceived safety issues are obvious challenges to overcome.