Holiday Shopping Passports Are Now Available For Downtown Shopping

Make sure to shop downtown with your Holiday Shopping Passport over the holiday season for your chance to win up to $3,000 in downtown money.

There are more than 140 places to collect stamps this holiday season in downtown. The passports feature three early bird prizes of $500 in downtown money to be drawn December 5th, 12th and 19th with the grand prize of $1,500 in downtown money to be drawn January 9th.

The Holiday Shopping Passports program rewards people for supporting local businesses by shopping, dining and enjoying downtown. Last year’s program saw shoppers stamp a whopping $1.9 million worth of Holiday Shopping Passports.

Left to right: Joel Wiebe, Terry Guiel, Theresa Foley, Jonathan Moreno, James Wallwork and Lena Wallwork

HOW THE HOLIDAY SHOPPING PASSPORT PROGRAM WORKS

-> Every time you spend $10 at a participating business, a box on your passport will be stamped.

-> When your passport is filled (20 stamps), complete the form and drop it off at a ballot box at one of the participating businesses.

-> Each completed passport is a ballot for a draw to win downtown money. There are more than 100 participating businesses downtown.

-> Bring your Holiday Shopping Passport downtown on November 23rd for Black Friday as more than 100 downtown businesses put on some of the biggest sales of the year.

FREE PARKING DOWNTOWN

Also, the DBIA’s annual promotion of two hours free street parking starts on Black Friday and runs until the end of December thanks to the City of Peterborough Parking Division.

Check out downtownptbo.ca for the full list of participating passport locations.

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Why VentureNorth Hub Has Quickly Emerged As One Of The Most Innovative & Important Spaces In Peterborough

“Startups are at the core of everything we do. An individual’s life is a startup that begins at birth. Every city was once a startup, as was every company, every institution, and every project. As humans, we are wired to start things.” —Brad Feld in “Startup Communities: Building An Entrepreneurial Ecosystem In Your City”

Since opening in 2016, VentureNorth (270 George St. N.) has emerged as one of the most important buildings—”spaces” is perhaps a better word to describe it—in Peterborough, standing tall in the heart of downtown and symbolizing the city’s path as an innovative, entrepreneurial destination to encourage startups and existing businesses to grow and thrive.

VentureNorth building

Housing the likes of Innovation Cluster, Peterborough Economic Development, JA Peterborough, Community Futures Eastern Ontario, Peterborough & The Kawarthas Tourism and now Community Futures Peterborough, the VentureNorth hub has become a gateway to growth and networking for multiple startups and entrepreneurs, and those visiting or considering relocating to Peterborough. Not to mention it’s just a stone’s throw away from the business-growth, community-minded DBIA and Peterborough Chamber offices.

VentureNorth lobby

“We have been very excited about the success of the hub,” VentureNorth Co-Founder Paul Bennett tells PTBOCanada. “Now, Peterborough has a true one door location to start/expand/help a business grow and succeed. What we have seen in the last couple years has been amazing. The success of the Innovation Cluster, PED and JA has been inspiring. With Community Futures joining EOCFDC as part of the VentureNorth team, the sky is the limit for the future of entrepreneurship in our great community.”

The hub—which overlooks both the downtown and Otonabee River—took inspiration from similar successful models in Waterloo (Communitech), Toronto (DMZ) and Oshawa (Spark). But it has now forged a unique identify itself, fuelling an ecosystem of local leaders and innovators with its own “all-inclusive” ethos of offerings and organizations—a concierge service, if you will, to experts with a wide range of subject experise in various areas with a want to help you succeed.

”When the concept of VentureNorth was first envisioned, the goal was to bring all these great organizations together to help entrepreneurs and showcase the competitive advantage that we believe Peterborough has—the people and the place,” Bennett tells PTBOCanada. “We have an overwhelming supportive community and a way of life that is truly second to none. Once people are able to experience living and working in this great community, the roots get planted very quickly.   

Indeed, collaboration has been a key ingredient in building momentum in Peterborough for forward thinkers and progress. Breaking down silos (something that can prevent you from thinking outside the box, excecuting on ideas, and just getting stuff done) has shed the barriers to growth, innovation and beta testing.

Growth can be accelerated here as Peterborough—with all the amenities of a big city but a small town feel—is primed to become an entrepreneurial region. It has great support partners at the hub and beyond, and Trent University and Fleming College are absolutely key ingredients and partners in training students and talent, many of which will stay here (retention is key) and become entrepreneurs and leaders.

The concept of VentureNorth from the get-go was to create an ecosystem where entrepreneurs and business people can connect and work alongside each other in open concept spaces to drive success and thrive. Startups and organizations can grow and succeed when they work side-by-side—learn from each other, motivate each other, push each other.

That is happening at VentureNorth, and indeed this hub—itself a startup still in its infancy—has been so successful that it is encountering a problem many startups face: running out of space. “Our struggle moving forward is that we don’t have any more space to offer,” Bennett tells PTBOCanada. “We have had many private businesses (local and from outside town) show interest in being part of this exciting ecosystem, but we don’t have anything to offer them.”

Rendering of what Phase 2 of VentureNorth Building could look like

In response to this, the VentureNorth founders have begun planning a second phase to their vision for the building (see renderings above and below), which would bring much needed expanded space along with further aesthetic exterior and interior upgrades to a hub that has a contemporary design and feel.

“The idea would be to extend the same overall concept that was started with VentureNorth but expand to include some exciting private businesses and a banking partner,” Bennett tells PTBOCanada. “Much the way that Communitech in Waterloo expanded, we want to see VentureNorth expand and bring a great deal of life to our business sector downtown. This will hopefully spur more residential demand and supply in our core to see a new level of vibrancy in our downtown.”

Night rendering of what Phase 2 of VentureNorth Building could look like

These are exciting times for VentureNorth, which is helping put Peterborough on the map right up there with other Canadian cities like Waterloo that have fully embraced the innovation and tech economy. They are willing to play the long game to execute on their vision for building our innovation economy.

To further engage the community about VentureNorth and its promising future, there will be an Open House and Christmas Party on December 4th that the public is welcome to attend, where they can check out the building and see some of the exciting new businesses showcased in the Innovation Cluster showcase. More details will be coming on that soon.

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Downtown Soap Shop Simple Not Reopening After Fire

PHOTO COURTESY SIMPLE

Simple (370 George Street North) has been closed since a fire hit the building on November 17th, 2017. Their neighbour Natas who were also affected have since reopened, then opened a new location at 382 George Street called Cork & Bean.

Simple had opened a temporary location at the Peterborough Square but have decided not to re-open.

PHOTO Of TEMPORARY PETERBOROUGH SQUARE LOCATION COURTESY DBIA

Owner Alex Fitzgerald posted the following note to customers on their Facebook page…

“Happy Fall, everyone!
I’ve had a much longer hiatus than I’d originally planned, but I hope everyone had as great a summer as I did.
I’ve had some interesting opportunities come up during my downtime and I think I’d like to take advantage of them rather than reopen the shop. It was a hard decision to make, but I’m going to make a huge left turn and become… a travel consultant.
I’m as surprised as anyone, it sort of manifested itself. I had some stress-related health issues this summer, so it’s been a good time to rethink my lifestyle. I’ve always known that travel is important (there’s no one that tries harder to get out of the snow). Now I’m sure that wellness travel is a great way to continue the same thing I’ve been doing for a couple of decades – helping people get better, healthier, practical choices. But now with margaritas 😊
I will miss the shop though. I’ve been very lucky to work downtown my entire life. I can’t think of another environment where you get to be a part of so much community involvement. It’s always been inspiring to be around so many exceptional businesses that put their product over profit and genuinely care about their customers.
Everything’s always ultimately about people. I’d like to think we provided a good product, but it was actually you guys that made our shop a welcoming place that was great to work in every day. Inclusive, unpretentious, authentic… everything that I was proud of in the shop came directly from and was enabled by our awesome customers. You made a great space, thank you. (While I’m thinking about it, I’d also like to take the opportunity to thank you for almost 2 decades of enduring my awesomely horrific soundtracks.)
It has been my absolute pleasure serving you.
High Five”

— Alex

—post by Evan Holt

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Amusé Coffee Co. Launches Second Location The Edison In VentureNorth Building

After pursuing her entrepreneurship dreams opening an authentic Paris themed café Amusé Coffee Co. in 2015 on George St., Lindsay Brock is celebrating her third anniversary in operation on August 23rd by opening a permanent second location called The Edison (Powered by Amusé).

The espresso and pastry bar is housed the lobby of the VentureNorth building at 270 George St. North. In a sense, it's like coming home for Lindsay, as The Edison is located in the building where various economic development establishments reside that helped her originally start her business.

Entrepreneur Lindsay Brock at The Edison, located in VentureNorth Building in downtown Peterborough

Through entering the FastStart program—a partnership with the Innovation Cluster, Trent University and Fleming College that provides youth startup business support and funding through Community Futures Peterborough—Brock was able to learn the skills needed to open her own café.

Brock has hosted a pop-up cafe in the VentureNorth lobby since March 2018 as a business test running two days per week, providing fair trade organic whole bean coffee and baked goods. With the overwhelming success in sales, Brock says there was no question about opening a permanent location there.

“The past five months serving at the VentureNorth building has been a great experience for Amusé’s business,” says Brock. “Being able to cover two locations downtown has allowed us to provide our specialty products on either sides of the downtown core, and with the new permanent location, we will now be providing more meal options.”

The grand opening of The Edison is Thursday, August 23rd from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and its hours will be from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday starting the following week.

You can also visit Lindsay's Amusé location at 641 George St. N.—we spotlighted it in a post in August 2015—pictured below...

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Dr. Doug’s New Centre Peterborough Max Living Chiropractic Centre To Have Celebration September 19th

Dr. Doug’s Family Chiropractic Centre has been a household name in Peterborough for 18 years.

Owner Dr. Doug Lukinuk has made massive contributions to this community through his support of numerous local charities and events, and was instrumental in raising $250,000 that helped build the basketball park at Bethune and Hunter Streets.

Dr. Doug pictured with a client

On September 19th, Dr. Doug's centre will offically reopen its doors under its new name Peterborough Max Living Chiropractic Centre with a community celebration from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. It will include Mayor Bennett and other dignitaries doing a ribbon-cutting at 2 p.m.

They are opening with an extensive roster of new and expanded services. These new services transform the clinic into a multi-disciplinary centre to serve the entire community event better.

New services include wellness service, workshops and fitness classes. Dr. Doug’s vision to make Peterborough the “healthiest city in Canada” is now shared with and executed by many other professional practitioners and staff.

Dr. Doug and his team invite the community to join in the celebrations on September 19th. The clinic will be open for tours, demos and refreshments, and the first 50 people to register here receive a free gift.

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