Downtown Guelph is, and always has been, a work in progress. Everything that is here was, at one time, something else. Even the oldest buildings are replacements for what once was: the Albion Hotel began as a modest wood-framed structure; the Church of our Lady Immaculate is the third Roman Catholic Church on that site. Our wonderful new civic museum doubles the point: in the beautifully re-purposed building that once was a convent, there is an exhibit showing the ever-changing face of St. George’s Square.  Guelph knows change.
And yet, even in this context, this is a transformative time. Downtown Guelph is beginning to boom. We are building anew, adding yet another layer to the solid ground of our social, cultural, economic and architectural heritage. Investments on Carden Street are bearing beautiful fruit, with thousands of people discovering and re-discovering the heart of their city one splash-pad-soaked kid at a time. The Gummer Building is nearing completion and will bring us brand new retail, office, and residential options. The process for building new housing stock at Macdonell and Woolwich, and on the Woods site, has begun. Façades are being improved, dilapidated buildings are being renovated, and what were once late-night businesses are now operating as daytime businesses as well.
It is in this context that Guelph’s Downtown Advisory Committee is working with consultants to assess the economic situation in downtown – with a particular focus on the Baker Street parking lot as a site for intensification and infill. We are trying to determine the right balance of residential, office, commercial, recreational, institutional and civic space, to understand what role there is for public and private investments, to see what mix makes sense. We need to know what fits within the confines of the site in every dimension, where the untapped demand for each type of building might be. We also want to know what the ripple effects of this project might be and what the ripple effects of other developments in the core might be on it.
At the heart of our examination is a very old idea: prosperity is driven by proximity; we need more people living and working downtown to drive the economic engine.
People in proximity sustain businesses and attract new ones. The economic activity generated supports cultural and civic life, which attracts more people and even more business. In other words, people living and working in the core build a more lively and prosperous downtown, one which attracts visitors from within the city and beyond it.
In K-W, once empty industrial properties have been converted into condos and offices and post-secondary institutions. The influx of people has brought new life into the city centres there.
In Guelph the situation is different. Our problem is that we lack a full spectrum of housing and office options for those who would like to live and/or work in the core. We need to address these issues, to make an impact, to promote the right mix that will build and sustain us.
These development projects are important to Guelph as a whole, since a prosperous and lively downtown Guelph attracts business investment throughout the city. Like good schools, parks, recreation, and culture, a thriving historic city centre helps attract investment. It means more jobs for more Guelphites, it means a bigger contribution to the tax base, and it means the entire city is more attractive as a place to live. In other words, Guelph’s future and the future of downtown are inextricably linked.
And that is one thing that will never change.
Marty Williams is executive director
of the Guelph Downtown Business Association