Blog Articles

Embracing the Grit of Spring

Friday, April 26, 2019

Ahh, the season of grit. Somewhere in between the relief that comes with the end of winter and the energetic anticipation of spring, we’re all found dealing with the grit. Before the sprouting of beautiful flowers and green leaves, we have to deal with the sprouting sand, salt stains and garbage that were all once buried below the snow. Cleaning up this winter grit so we can unpack spring is the responsibility of our entire community and a great way to get started is with the City of Barrie’s Spring into Clean.

This year, Spring in Downtown Barrie will be sprouting growth and development at various stages of progress. The Downtown Barrie development garden will be in full bloom with a number of large growth developments including The Residences at Five Points, the LakHouse Lakefront Residences and the YMCA’s new location at the SW corner of Dunlop St. W. and Bradford St. partnered with HIP Development’s mixed use residential plans and more.

Just like a garden, large growth supports mid-size and small growth. With large development projects within our downtown, opportunities for local developers to invest in the downtown sprout up too. While these investments may not be as noticeable, collectively they have a significant impact. Many local developers not only invest into the street-level aspects of their buildings, but also the second and third storeys with new residential and commercial developments. When you’re walking along Dunlop Street, look up and you’ll see many of our creative class businesses along with modern loft-style residences. Keep your eye on what these local developers are up to: Viaplex, Harbour Management and The Cube – it’s pretty cool stuff.

A lush garden always has great ground cover. This is what keeps the soil moist and fertile and ultimately supports large and mid-size growth. In the garden of Downtown Barrie, our ground cover is the 400+ businesses and 200+ property owners. You may recognize many longstanding businesses including Bill LeBoeuf Jewellers, Rinaldi’s Salon & Spa, Our House, The Queens Hotel, Nutrition Plus and more. What you may not know is that many of these business owners also own their property. These deeply rooted investments keep the downtown garden familiar year after year as new businesses begin to sprout up.

Get outside, unpack Spring and support our incredible local businesses and check out May Days – an incredible prize pack is up for grabs! Happy Spring!