From Operational to Aspirational? Business Improvement Areas (BIAs) in Mid-Sized Cities

Since their advent in the 1970s, Business Improvement Areas (BIAs) have played a central role in downtown renewal in cities around the world. With wide-ranging mandates to market, promote, beautify and advocate on behalf of their membership, the activities of each BIA reflect the diverse needs of their respective downtowns. While the number of BIAs continues to grow, little attention has been paid to their role in urban affairs in the context of mid-sized cities, and this paper seeks to address that gap in the literature.Using a local economic development (LED) framework that highlights the role of community allies in urban affairs, this paper explores the role BIAs can play partners to downtown revitalization within the context of a series of mid-sized cities in a designated growth area in Ontario, Canada. Findings from this research show that incremental improvements are occurring in the downtowns of these mid-sized cities, and that BIAs, through a combination of operational activities and broad-based coalition building, are contributing to downtown revitalization by pursuing a downtown-first agenda. However, as the scholarship continues to evolve around downtowns, this research explores the limitations of merchant-led associations and offers recommendations that re-envision the BIA model to meet the challenges of revitalization in the downtowns of mid-sized cities.