Barrie councillors would not draw a line on more Sandbox funding.
On Monday night, they gave initial approval to provide $300,000 in capital funding to the downtown entrepreneurship and business centre, to cover overrun costs, along with continuing an annual partnership commitment of $45,000.
“It’s an entrepreneurial and innovation centre,” Coun. Mike McCann said of the Sandbox. “It really helps the small business, the start-ups. The Sandbox is there to guide them, to help them, to connect them…free of charge.
“They also help out large businesses that maybe have been around for decades, but because we are living in a world right now where everything needs to change dramatically…now if they don’t make change, they’re going to sink. The Sandbox is here to give them some of that innovative spirit," he added.
The $300,000 would come from the community benefit reserve.
Located at 24 Maple Ave., above the Transit Terminal, the Sandbox Entrepreneurship Centre provides a single location for entrepreneurs to meet, learn and mentor. During its first year of operations from April 2019-2020, the Sandbox reported more than 10,000 visitors for meetings and events, more than 1,500 hours of hosted meetings and more than 80 educational seminars, panel discussions and workshops.
City council will consider final approval of this funding at its Oct. 26 meeting.
Monday’s vote was not unanimous, however.
Coun. Gary Harvey noted the city has already invested $877,000 in Sandbox, yet Barrie’s neighbours are also receiving the benefits. And the city is facing a $2-million deficit by year’s end.
“Is this really the right time to be considering this?” Harvey asked of the funding. “It’s just a difficult one to justify to my residents.”
Coun. Keenan Aylwin said he was feeling the same way.
“I don’t doubt that the Sandbox does great work and does help the business community in this city…but I think it would be premature for us to dump another $300,000 into the project,” he said. “This is a private sector-led initiative. I think we should keep it that way and really encourage that private-sector investment.”
But Mayor Jeff Lehman noted the Sandbox has received more than $1 million of in-kind support by private-sector partners, value which goes straight to a city asset, the building itself.
“This project is completely unique compared to any other city project where we contributed funding in the sense that it was driven by a series of partners in the business community,” he said. “They have had a remarkable impact, a kind of very clear demonstrable impact that we look for in organizations that we partner with to support the business community.
“Councillors are quite right to say ‘we didn’t approve this, it’s over-budget’,” he said of the $300,000. “I think we’re in our rights to question how we got here and no, I’m not happy about it.”
But Lehman also said the city will need the Sandbox in the months ahead.
“We’re going to need all the business resources we have in this community to recover from COVID,” he said. “This is one of the most effective business resources in our community and yes we support it, and that support has a real cost.”
City staff and Sandbox officials have also been asked to seek funding from surrounding municipal governments, with all repayments back to the community benefit reserve if successful.
Last February, Sandbox officials asked council to increase its capital contribution to the downtown centre by $300,000, to support additional and unanticipated build-out costs associated with the construction of their space.
The Sandbox is a tenant of the city with a five-year lease that will expire Sept. 18, 2023. Its doors opened in April 2019, after significant renovations to the 9,000 square feet of the second floor. The connected rooftop patio space of 1,100 sq. ft. was also renovated and subsequently opened in September 2019.
Also located within the Sandbox is the Small Business Centre of Barrie, Orillia and Simcoe County — funded in partnership between the city and province.
