halfway point of the program last September<\/a>, Nasr Nasr, owner of Juice Dudez, which has a location on Clarence Street, said he had seen an increase in foot traffic during the summer of 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019ve had a great summer and I\u2019m sure (the ambassadors) had a big impact on that,\u201d Nasr told OBJ then. \u201cWe didn\u2019t see as much trouble as we used to see in the Market. It\u2019s making a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nasr added that by making the Market safer, it\u2019s making the area a more attractive destination for visitors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe less trouble in the Market, the better it is for business. People feel safer and are more likely to come back to the Market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
With foot traffic levels reaching pre-pandemic levels, Alex Sirois, managing partner of Ottawa Venues, the company that operates ByWard Markets spots such as Lowertown Brewery and Sky Lounge, told OBJ last September that a change in the makeup of businesses had also impacted the Market\u2019s \u201cvibe\u201d after dark.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe businesses down there have changed a lot. There are fewer nightclubs than there used to be and there\u2019s more restaurants,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s great to see that the Market is alive again and that there\u2019s so many different pieces coming together to make the Market as great as it always was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mathieu Grondin, Ottawa\u2019s nightlife commissioner, told OBJ last September that he had walked around the ByWard Market with the night ambassador team and local police and received positive feedback.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYoung people were happy to see people like them bringing a positive energy to the street \u2026 I would also like to see that type of project implemented elsewhere in nightlife hubs around town,\u201d Grondin said at the time.<\/p>\n
In 2025, the BMDA said its economic mandate was to \u201cprotect the operators already in the district, lower the barrier for the next ones and channel every dollar earned in the district back into it.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the BMDA\u2019s public markets being \u201ca low-cost, low-risk entry point to test an idea in front of real customers without the overhead of a permanent lease,\u201d the BMDA supported 260 vendors in 2025, up 82 per cent from 2024, with two vendors opening permanent storefronts in the district.<\/p>\n
The BMDA also presented the data from its first business census, carried out by Acacia Consulting & Research.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of the 535 businesses in the area, 52 per cent have operated in the district for 10 or more years, with about a third opening in the last five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the census, 60 per cent of businesses in the Market believe the area is on the path to revitalization. Nightlife and entertainment businesses were even more optimistic, with 86 per cent saying they thought the Market was on the path to revitalization.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When looking ahead at 2026, the BMDA said it will focus on shifting to an operator-focused model, creating strategic investments and continuing the work it put in motion in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The BMDA said it operated in a \u201cdual posture\u201d by delivering district operations directly and funding third-party organizers last year. In 2026, major events in the Market will receive reduced direct financial support as resources are concentrated on the BMDA\u2019s operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThird-party organizers remain vital partners, but the BMDA\u2019s role returns to what space brokers do best: coordination, logistics and district-level enabling rather than direct funding,\u201d the BMDA said in the report. \u201cThis is not a retreat from animation; it is a rebalancing of how animation happens. Events draw visitors for a day; placemaking, safety and a well-kept public realm draw them every day. Resources redirected from event funding will be reinvested in the elements that animate the district year-round.\u201d<\/p>\n
With its 2026 budget set at $3.684 million, leaner than 2025\u2019s $4.54 million, the BMDA said it reflects fewer dollars going to event underwriting and more resources concentrated on its operational core.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBeyond the operating budget, the BMDA has secured an additional $800,000 from the City of Ottawa dedicated to placemaking in 2026, funding not reflected in the operating budget above. This dedicated investment directly advances the year\u2019s placemaking priorities,\u201d the authority said in the report.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The authority has already launched its vendor village, a restructured public market footprint, the ACE district and the ByWard Market Square beautification project in 2026. The rest of the year will focus on continuing these projects, getting ready for Ottawa\u2019s bicentennial this fall and preparing for the Market\u2019s bicentennial in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Visits to the ByWard Market exceeded pre-pandemic benchmarks in seven of 12 months last year, according to new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-776040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}