Hi everyone, welcome to Sudbury Interviews.

Today we have a special guest, Jeff McIntyre.

He's the Executive Director of Downtown Sudbury BIA.

And that's the business improvement area and they take care of businesses down there and just make sure that everybody's taken care of before we begin.

You can find us on Sudstown and join the conversation.

If you would like to be a guest on the show, please reach out.

Hey, Jeff, how you doing?

Good.

How are you?

Great.

Thanks for coming on.

It took a little while for the the scheduling to to line up.

Huh?

Yeah, for sure, But glad to be here.

So tell us, how did you just give us a little history of how you came to be the executive director of Downtown SEBRI?

It's a bit of a windy Rd.

Had a marketing company called Fuel Media and when I was there I had a lot of clientele that wanted to see some improvements downtown because a big part of what we were getting hired for at the time was attracting people to Sudbury to work.

And through that, I ended up doing some efforts to try and do some advance and things downtown and got in contact with the BIA and ended up running to be on the board of the BIA.

And then I became chair of the BIA and that was God.

Probably around 2010 and been here for quite a while.

Our executive director at the time, Marie Maloma, did an amazing job.

We had some changes over COVID.

We had a new executive director, Kyle Marcus.

He left and we didn't have a ton of notice, so we had to get somebody in quick.

And the board kind of looked at me and said, Hey, is this something you could do temporarily?

So I took it on temporarily and pretty quickly I, I, I was really enjoying the job and I had a lot of people twisting my arm to stick around.

So I, I stuck around and now I'm, I'm not a volunteer anymore.

I work here, but I love it.

I guess I got demoted, but now I get paid.

So, you know, it was, it was just a good timing in my life.

I was moving more into consulting instead of day-to-day work with my old job.

So the timing kind of lined up.

I saw, you know, we're kind of at a down point in the downtown and it, it, it seemed like an exciting opportunity at the time to, to really help start turning that tide and getting my hands dirty to, to make things happen as quick as we could down here.

Nice.

So in terms of businesses down there, do you know roughly how many businesses there are in the downtown core?

There's about 400 between services, retail, hospitality and event businesses.

So quick bet on the on the BIA.

People often get confused what we are.

We're funded by the businesses specifically downtown.

So our map a good we're basically a geography right.

So our map is Paris St.

up, Paris St.

to Notre Dame, up to Saint Anne's Road, and then it follows the railroad tracks back to Paris St.

So that triangle is the downtown Sudbury DIA.

There's lots of areas around that that people consider downtown, but they're not part of the BIA district.

Those members pay into us an additional levy on taxes and that's what funds the BIA.

We're not the city, but we work with the city on quite a bit.

We're really here to support the business members downtown and try and make an attractive place for people to to come.

So you guys are on the downtown side of the tracks like not past that, like where the courthouse is.

Yeah, we don't go that far.

We just go up to the railroad tracks.

Nice.

I didn't know that.

That's pretty cool.

Yeah, right.

So vacancies, how's that looking right now for buildings?

We, we really saw a lot after COVID.

I mean, the business model changed for so many types of businesses and then the, the stress of a lot of places made it through COVID, but they didn't make it through the payback from COVID.

You know, a lot of businesses don't necessarily have massive resources in their back pocket to, to survive that kind of impact.

Some of them got government loans, but then we were trying to pay back those government loans and still pay your staff and, and, and make it through.

It was hard on a lot of them.

It's still hard on some of them.

So we really saw like a bit of a delayed effect on that and it kind of bottomed out.

I'd say around 2023-2024, we started seeing some new businesses start opening again.

We got a few new restaurants opened up.

And then 2025 we've been seeing, you know, an impressive amount of new businesses opening up.

We had booked 7 open recently.

We've got a few more that are getting ready to open.

So you know, we're starting to see that turn around happen.

It's never as as quick as people would love like to see it, but we're starting to see that those businesses start coming back downtown.

So I know you guys do a lot of events, so maybe we can we can talk some some about that.

The community yard sale was last weekend.

Yeah, it was actually a lot of fun.

It was actually 3 events in one.

It was, you know, yard sale and a group, Africa Market Connect, a bunch of different African businesses, little pop up businesses come together to throw mini festivals.

So they had thrown in as part of that.

And then we also had Jazz Sudbury doing their Family Day, so they had some great concerts on the street.

The same time we had our yard sales a really good time.

Nice.

What about how Palooza?

What's that all about?

Oh, that's that.

We'll kick off to the Wolves season, so we'll have a a nice Little St.

party that for the home opener this Friday.

So that's going to be a lot of fun.

They're working with the Townhouse Tavern to have some food on the street and be a great little party before the game.

Did you always know that you were going to be involved in this type of work?

Oh God, no.

I had no, no concept that this is where I'd end up.

I started in advance, actually.

So I was running the ground closed in the shelf for quite a while.

Started in 2000.

I was very young.

I think I started running the place when I was 20 and we had massive success, huge turnouts and got to bring in some really great Canadian acts.

And then as I was doing that, I was planning to, to get into restaurants at the time and I actually, you know, have some schooling in restaurant management.

But then I, I started getting poached and I ran the Laughing Buddha for a little while, managed it.

And then I started getting asked by different companies to help them with their social media.

I got involved in social media when Myspace was a thing.

I was the first person kind of commercially doing social media at the time in, in Sudbury.

And then Facebook came on board and then people started really seeing the value of that.

And I started working with different marketers and marketing agencies to to help people with their social media.

And then that grew into an ad agent, a full blown ad agency and was there for in 15 years quite successfully.

COVID hit the same time as AI was really starting to show it's changes and felt like my value of the company was changing.

So I went into consulting and and was helping businesses kind of readjust their marketing based on, on, on the changing world.

Value of the website had changed a lot in the course of two years.

The value of online marketing changed a lot in the course of two years.

How you do all of that stuff Design changed a lot in two years with products like Canva and those things really taking over and making it easier for people to to do their own design work.

So a lot of people are moving stuff in house and but they still needed some help in the theory and the strategy behind it.

So I still work with a few companies on that stuff now and just help them kind of design the strategies around how they how they market themselves to the world, but more with an in house team now than than contracting everything.

So when it comes to like planning the next year or two, how do you keep the train on the tracks?

Like how do you stay motivated and and on the and the right course with all this?

Well, I mean, there's so much opportunity coming downtown right now.

In some ways it's easy.

There's, you know, with the new Event Center, Library, art gallery coming downtown for the next few years, we're going to have some pretty big openings happening on a regular basis.

We've seen some really big successes.

So the farmers market moving into the the mall downtown has been just a dynamic success.

We've seen since that farmers market moved in, a bunch of new businesses open in that mall.

So we see the success of of, you know, when you bring in one of these attractor type businesses and really make the investment in it, how much of a difference it can make.

And a lot of that's just, you know, people have a little bit more confidence in what's going to happen.

So people are willing to make those personal investments and they all start laddering up on top of each other.

So one person starts doing well, another person comes on top.

The first person actually starts doing better as well because you, you increase the demand in the area.

So we've seen that happen in a few locations downtown now.

And we're starting, I mean, conversations this morning with people looking to make investments downtown.

It, it, it's happening more and more.

So it's exciting to see, you know, people locally and then even people from out of town that are coming into Sudbury and seeing the investment opportunities because they've seen what a community looks like when it's turning around.

And a community that believes itself in itself and makes the kind of investment the city's making are are the types of cities that the private sector likes to invest in.

And we're starting to see those things come forward.

So as far as like new projects you mentioned, the the library and the art gallery are those combined?

So they're in one building, right?

So that they're both moving into Tom Navy Square.

So the area that everybody's familiar with, where city staff was working, they're moving over to where the provincial tower was.

And because there was some vacancy there.

And then the library and the art gallery are both moving into the rest of of that Tom Davis Square building.

It's actually like when you go in there, it's a really impressive building to begin with.

You know, the mayor joked when he first came on that it already looks like a library and it does.

It looks like a like a feature library.

In other communities, people get confused by libraries.

Now they're like, oh, you know, I'm like, do we really need libraries anymore?

You know, I go online for my books or I, I read it on my tablet.

I mean, libraries have become so much more.

And when you go to communities that have like open new libraries in the last 10 years, they're not what we're used to in Sudbury.

They're, they're community group spaces, places where people can go and have like community meetings.

You know, I've seen like knitting guilds in libraries.

My nephews in Vancouver use their library quite a bit.

You know, there was opportunities to like practice the guitar at the library, which is a fantastic thing for like a lot of families.

You know, if you can't, you buy your kids, you know, a guitar and then a drum set and then you know, the next hobby.

Sometimes you know, it would be nice that be able to send them somewhere and try something out for a little while, find out if they like it and then make those purchases once you're sure.

That's the types of things that libraries are doing now.

So even our local library, you can borrow snowshoes for the day and go try snowshoeing.

You can use the Maker's Market and go down and like make yourself custom buttons or 3D printouts and all of these types of things that people don't realize is part of what a library's become.

It's just really a place to have a lot of shared assets where people in the community can try and do new things and explore new ideas.

And it's not just books anymore.

Books are still a part of it.

Book lovers, don't despair.

Your books will be there, but there's so much more to what a library can be now.

It's really a a starting point for creativity.

And, and I'm really excited to see what they can do with a space that's built for a modern library.

I'm not like trying to shoot a horn into the old ones that we have.

And, and you know, hopefully that that spurs some new creativity in the community.

The art gallery coming in is Franklin Carmichael Art Gallery.

So a group of seven artists world famous has their his family has agreed to put his name on this art gallery.

There's Kleinberg has a group of seven art gallery as well.

The McMichael Art Gallery gets the significant amount of tourism to it.

Kleinberg is a gorgeous small town and one of the main drivers of their economy is that little library.

It, it has spectacular displays on a regular basis.

We have some great art sitting in our art gallery right now that's not able to be displayed just because it it, it's not in an art gallery of appropriate standards.

So there's a certain standard that art galleries need to have to display certain types of art because these are historical artifacts and, you know, they deteriorate in the wrong environment.

So by having another gallery that can house the the art of this group of seven artists, Franklin Carmichael, it also means that we can tour other other equally impressive art shows into that art gallery that we weren't able to do in the past because we just didn't have a venue that was suitable.

So having that will, you know, bring that into our community.

You know, if you go to any town in Northern Ontario, they can tell you all of the NHL players that that grew up in their town and came up in their town.

And the reason they had they all have NHL players is they've all made these investments in the sports, right?

Sudbury's got lots of great little arenas or people can, you know, go from baby steps of learning how to skate, becoming a great skater to becoming a really good hockey player and, you know, cheering on the wolves and dreaming of becoming a wolf and then dreaming of becoming an NHL player.

Not every kid was suited to be a hockey player.

Some kids were suited to become an artist or a musician or, you know, something else.

Those kids are born in Sudbury, too.

They just don't necessarily have those opportunities.

So downtown's becoming a really great place.

Now we're not only do we have the Oichel Arena, we're going to have this amazing art gallery where people can come and see the work of Franklin Carmichael that did his art in in the areas around Sudbury and became world renowned.

We've got great music venues now like Place the Zah or Knox Hall, where you know, both local musicians and touring musicians are able to hold those stages and do some amazing shows.

We're giving opportunities to our kids, regardless of of where their dreams may lie to, to see those opportunities.

So I think it's a really big win for the community.

Is that going to be happening like this year or next year?

The moving into the Tom Davies.

So they're currently doing the renovations right now.

They're moving city staff over to the old provincial side and they're starting some of the renovations.

2027, I believe is the current opening date.

And then 2028, we'll be seeing the new, new arena open up.

So I mean, it's a significant investment happening in downtown, but it's an investment that'll pay across the city.

In big dividends, you know, downtown when people build and invest downtown, there's no new expenses to the general taxpayer because those that those new on the private building side, those new private builds don't require new sewers, new roads, new electricity.

All of those types of infrastructure improvements are already being serviced in the downtown.

So as the downtown grows and the downtown's vacancy rate lowers, the tax impact of the downtown provides to the rest of the community is massive and it continues to grow Every time we do that, you know, we're only about .1% of the built form of, of Sudbury, but we contribute way more in taxes back than that .1%.

So you know, having a thriving downtown is a success for everybody, whether you live in the valley or or downtown.

So we have about 8 minutes left Jeff and two questions.

OK.

The first question is going to be about the arena and where that's at with the the lots and stuff.

Can you tell us about that?

Yeah, so excited.

The arena ground breaking is happening very soon.

They are already, I mean, there's already some shovels on site, but we're seeing things start to move forward pretty quickly on that.

I mean, these are always kind of a hurry up and wait kind of project, right?

It it, it takes a lot of planning to get something like this off the ground, but all of those elements now are lining up.

So we're going to see the the beginning more happened.

I believe the 24th is the the official groundbreaking for the arena or sorry, the 23rd is the construction kick off for the Event Center.

So it's it's on schedule so far from when when the mayor and council move to to get the downtown Event Center going, the Land's all assembled, everything's ready to go.

Shovels are hitting the ground in days, so you know, we've got a lot, a lot happening there.

Take about 2-3 years to get the thing built, but you know 2028 is when they expect hockey to to be being played in the center.

And that's being built like beside the current the the current arena.

Yeah.

So it'll go right next to where the current arena is.

That current arena there's, you know, still discussions happening exactly what what's going to happen there.

The hope is that we'll see a hotel Convention Center in that space, private sector funded.

But you know, it sounds like there's a significant amount of interest in that type of build.

You know, if we can get a Convention Center in Sudbury, it's a massive amount of tourism dollars that those bring in and a massive amount of opportunity for local businesses.

That's really exciting.

I didn't even know that they were going to start building it this month, September 23rd.

Yeah.

That's great news.

Cool.

I'd, I probably should watch the news once in a while and see what's going on.

OK, so the last question here, Jeff is the daily segment.

And it's it's a question that I ask every guest, but we've been talking about Sudbury the whole time.

But I'm going to ask you anyways, what is one thing that you feel would make Sudbury greater?

You know what I think it's if we can all start hoping for each other to win.

I think Sudbury, there's so much opportunity in this community.

When I go visit friends and family, they look at at Sudbury and they go, God, why aren't you guys just kicking it out of the park on a regular basis?

You've got a, a beautiful area to live, unbelievable natural resources.

You've got, you know, a great like structure for your downtown, like physical, you have good bones in the downtown.

You have everything it takes to have just an amazing city.

And sometimes we have a hard time seeing the forest for the trees on it, You know, there, there's a certain amount of looking down on ourselves in Sudbury because of our, our mining history.

And I was actually talking to some young folks just a few days ago.

I'm not that old, but they, they, you know, the, the, the people that are just starting to work in our community from Sudbury have 0 recollection of, you know, the Black Rock in the community driving by Big Nickel Mine Rd.

that they had no idea that those used to be slag heaps.

You know, they don't remember the re greening of Sudbury.

They hear about it, but they don't, they don't remember it right.

And it's intrinsic to some of us and it's such a spectacular achievement that was made, but it, it's almost an achievement that we're ashamed of that the, the city had gotten so bad.

But I think it's something we need to remember.

And, and I'd love to see some posters up about how bad things were 'cause like, I go to BC and there's these huge trees and I come back to Sudbury and the trees are kind of small.

And I'm like, yeah, but it was rock.

Like it was, it was barren rock when I was a kid.

And, and, you know, just to see how far we've come in, you know, one generation and just my generation is spectacular.

And, you know, I'm not dead yet.

I still got a fair bit of life to go.

So, you know, to see how far we can continue to go just in my generation and and, you know, start having pride in the amazing success that we've had.

Jane Goodall comes to Sudbury and goes, you know, you're the example to the world.

God, if Sudbury can do what it's done to regain itself, what can the world do if we started working together and if we start taking pride in those successes and start looking at, you know, not this neighborhood versus that neighborhood, But I want to see every neighborhood in Sudbury just succeed and thrive because it's just a win for for everybody, right?

Like I want to be a local tourist.

I want to go to neighborhood after neighborhood and experience the different uniqueness of, you know, what's happening in Capriole or what's happening in the valley.

What's happening lively.

We've got so much opportunity in this community.

My my biggest thing for making Subway crater it's just we all gonna just start believing in each other.

Wow, good answer.

I I remember those those slag rocks too, Jeff.

Like when I was a kid, it was all black.

And, you know, especially that road, Big Nickel Rd.

Yeah, that was just, you know, I didn't even know what that was.

It looked like Mars or something, you know, but good answer.

So Sudbury interviews everyone.

Jeff McIntyre, you're, you're a gem to all of us, to our community, to our downtown.

And thank you for your your time today because I know that you're a busy guy.

And sincerely thank you on behalf of me and all the listeners for taking a moment to talk with us all.

Right.

Thanks, Daddy.

Yeah.

Anything else you'd like to add before we go?

No, that's great.

OK man, thanks for your time.

Bye all.

Right, bye.