We felt inclined to offer some thorough insights into what the Lower Lonsdale BIA (business improvement area) is and so you can easily find resources. The geographic area that creates this neighbourhood is going west on Esplanade, then turning right and going north onto Forbes Ave and then again a right turn onto 4th street and drive until your reach St. George’s Ave where you again turn right and head south to the waterfront that loops west around Lonsdale Quay, The Shipyards and the Polygon Gallery. The map is below.
As there are many local businesses in North Vancouver who are considering the move to the Shipyards District to take advantage of the foot traffic associated with the Lonsdale Quay Seabus and Bus Exchange. The business improvement area is the defined zone where the business improvement association operates.
With the recent adoption of our exact media model at the Lower Lonsdale Business Improvement Association, we want to say thank you for highlighting the people behind the brands throughout the waterfront district. Lonsdale Avenue Magazine has been interviewing local business owners throughout the corridor for the past year or so, and now the Association is doing that too. Which is awesome to see as we do believe wholeheartedly in supporting the people behind the brands. Especially with regards to local tourism.
As well the team at the Association is great at letting the City and other stakeholders know if you misspell The Shipyards or The Shipyards District, they will follow up to ensure you get the spelling correct. Which once again, is awesome to see such dedication, as it’s surprising they have the time to look so closely into website spelling. Well done across the board.
Lastly, we as a community are supposed to stop referring to Lower Lonsdale as ‘Lolo‘, instead using The Shipyards District. As the City and other stakeholders are trying to get away from using that brand to ensure geographic clarity. With all of the historic shipbuilding taking place at the waterfront it is logical to support the wide adoption of the new branding.
Founded in 2016 after months of meetings and back and forth discussions in the community, which you can read about on this PDF download.
Representing all of the local businesses throughout the business improvement area and uplifting them with media, business support and hosting events such as The Shipyards Festival which puts the area on the map globally and encourages people to visit from across the Lower Mainland.
Funded by tax payers through the City with operational costs of $500,000 per year or $41,600 a month, there is plenty of funds to allow a high level of execution in workflow, reflecting well on the local entrepreneurs doing business in the area. They have recently launched a new website platform moving from LowerLonsdaleBIA.ca to the new URL of TheShipyardsDistrict.ca. However, when the new website was launched there were no 301 redirects to subpages of the new domain so all of the historical search engine placements for local business owners were lost. Over time the new website domain will rise in search results.
Managed by Greg Holmes who works alongside the board of directors and the local business owners, he has been spearheading the BIA since day one as well as being active in business improvement area marketing for the past 25 years. Greg is easily approachable and tons of fun to be around.
For more information you can visit the Lower Lonsdale BIA website and also check out the official tourism Vancouver website.