Kenora downtown revitalization is job booster

The reconstruction of Kenora's downtown streets and waterfront has proven to be a job generator.

The Lake of the Woods Development Commission released the results of a survey indicated that 261 new jobs have been created in 59 restaurant and retail businesses since the first of three construction phases was completed in 2008.
The original projections were 100 jobs over 10 years. Among those new jobs are 129 full-timers and 132 part-timers.

“This is great news for Kenora and for the businesses in the downtown core” said Don Denver, Lake of the Woods Development Chair in a Sept. 10 press release. “We were fairly certain that the numbers had exceeded those original projections, but not by this much.”

“We have watched new businesses come into the downtown and fill up the storefronts that were vacant five years ago,” added Mort Goss, chairman of the Harbourtown BIZ, the downtown business association. “We have seen some existing businesses expand. The business response to the public sector investment in the downtown is palpable. You can see the improvements to the building facades, signs and lighting as well as new awnings.”