After investing in Minden’s main shopping hub this summer, purchasing a three-unit building on Bobcaygeon Road, realtor Brandon Nimigon is leading the charge for a downtown business improvement area (BIA) – though some longtime merchants aren’t convinced.
Nimigon purchased 105-107 Bobcaygeon Rd. in July, wanting to move Century 21’s Minden operation closer to the community’s beating heart along the Gull River. He’s in the process of renovating the 130-year-old building and has had talks about renting out two units – one for retail and the other a sit-down restaurant. Nimigon feels Minden’s main street is a sleeping giant and wants to help transform the downtown into a shopping destination, akin to Haliburton village.
“I want to help reinvigorate this downtown core… there’s so much potential here. We have the Gull running through the downtown, there’s a beautiful river walk, all the tools are there,” Nimigon said. “We just need more people to invest – that can then bring more businesses, which brings more shoppers and tourists and just improves the
whole feel and mood of the downtown.
“Haliburton has got a really cute cottage town vibe, where people want to go shopping. Minden is getting there, but
I think it needs more of a focus, more attention put on developing the downtown,” he added.
Nimigon says ‘no-brainer’ to start Minden BIA
As president of the Haliburton BIA and serving on the board of the Bancroft BIA, Nimigon said he’s seen firsthand the benefits an overarching organization can have on local merchants, believing it’s a “no-brainer” to start one in Minden. He said a BIA can help beautify the downtown, organize public events, and provide a direct line of communication between council and the local business community.
Nimigon said he’s been a member of the Haliburton BIA since 2016, serving as president since February 2024. The BIA has been in place since 1988.
“I grew up in Haliburton and know what it was like before the BIA – there were so many empty storefronts. The mindset was ‘I need to get out of this town because there’s nothing to do here,’ but now every storefront is packed with successful businesses. Minden, I think, is in a similar spot to where Haliburton was,” Nimigon said.
No interest in BIA
Minden Hills mayor Bob Carter said he’s not sure there’s enough appetite among existing business owners to launch a BIA, saying it’s been almost a decade since the idea was last floated.
“There was the start of a BIA conversation when we had an economic development staff person [around 2016], but it fell off once economic development got turned over to the County,” Carter said. “There are a couple of interesting things about a BIA – it’s a formally-governed process where a municipality is involved with businesses, which some people don’t like, and it involves the businesses paying extra taxes to run the BIA, which a lot of people don’t like.
“At the time, there wasn’t enough interest among business owners to be a part of this,” Carter added.
He said the money is typically spent improving the downtown through marketing, event planning and physical
improvements.
While he isn’t interested in forcing a BIA on a business community that might not want it, Carter said he and councillors Ivan Ingram and Shirley Johannessen have recently launched a new working group to help improve the downtown. They have invited business owners to participate and have held one meeting so far, with another scheduled this winter.
‘We need something’
Shawn Chamberlin, owner of the Dominion Hotel, said it’s been about 50 years since Minden merchants had an overarching business group, which he said was strong through the 1970s – though it was never run under the banner of a BIA.
“A BIA and business association are two desperately different things that people talk about as if they’re the same – they’re not,” Chamberlin said. “A BIA comes under the control of council, whereas a business association is run by the owners.”
Through a BIA, Chamberlin said the municipality communicates with commercial property owners, and not the
tenanted businesses, which he believes would lead to a disconnect.
“Business owners don’t get a vote in a BIA – the landlord does… meanwhile, the costs all get passed down,” Chamberlin said. “So many of our businesses are just hanging on, I’m not sure this is something every business would or could take on.” As well as the financial challenges, Chamberlin said he doesn’t think many downtown merchants have the capacity to give another five or six hours a week to a business association.
“It’s a lot of work, a lot of meeting and planning and figuring things out. Most of our businesses here are owner-operated, they’re working all day, all week long. They just don’t have anything else to give once their day is done,” Chamberlin said. Shawn Smandych, owner of Ommmh Beauty Boutique, has been a part of the downtown core for 14 years.
“I want to see this town succeed and for it to succeed things need to actually start happening,” Smandych said. “Do we need something, maybe a business association? Absolutely. Do I think a BIA is the best option? I don’t know.”
He feels there’s very little driving people downtown, especially in the mornings, and thinks a new restaurant could go a long way to increasing traffic.
Smandych is also concerned about the growing trend of vacant buildings along the main strip.
“It’s not a good look seeing places sit empty – we have three or four vacant units at one of the most important points in town. That concerns me, because it gives the downtown a bit of an icky feeling. We need to fill the spaces we do have to give people a reason to visit, that’s got to be a priority,” Smandych said.
