Growth is on the horizon near both ends of downtown Orillia’s main street thanks to grants from the city.
Mariposa Market owner Bob Willsey and the new owners of the former Swinton building, Chris and Charlotte Montgomery, are the recipients of grants from the Downtown Tomorrow Community Improvement Plan (CIP), announced Tuesday at the Swinton building.
Mariposa Market received $25,000, which will go toward a project to open the 3,000 square feet on the second floor above the café and the Mariposa Scent Shop to customers.
The first phase of that project will be completing the sprinkler system, while the second will be the installation of a staircase.
Willsey envisions a tea room, where customers can enjoy some goodies while peering out the large picture window facing Mississaga Street.
“This also gives us the ability to possibly have an event room,” he said.
Chris Montgomery, a Toronto-based architect who grew up in Orillia, purchased the former Swinton building at 27 Mississaga St. W. It was most recently occupied by Carousel Collectables. With the $62,500 CIP grant, Montgomery is planning a mixture of commercial and residential space. There will be one accessible residential unit on the main floor at the back of the building and five more units on the second floor. He will be installing a staircase to allow for access to the second floor, which currently can only be reached via an outdoor staircase.
He hopes to have facade improvements, including new doors and windows, completed within a few months.
Montgomery is excited about the potential for growth on that block of Mississaga Street.
“From a commercial and residential point of view, this block has, in some ways, been a block too far,” he said.
Montgomery was thankful for the grant and said the CIP program is an effective way to encourage the type of growth Orillia needs.
“Community spaces and community places cannot just be left to chance,” he said.
“No matter where you travel in the world, the healthiest downtowns have a good mixture of residential and commercial, having people living and working downtown.”
Willsey agreed, and said Orillia’s unique downtown core is part of the reason he continues to expand and improve his business at 109 Mississaga St. E.
“There’s just not that many waterfront downtowns,” he said. “You’ve got this beautiful downtown, great architecture. There are so many lifestyle benefits.”
The first expansion was mainly to provide more room for customers, who regularly pack the market. This project will be “a bit of a celebration of a really nice, unused space downtown,” Willsey said.
The deadline for the next CIP intake is April 30, followed by another on Oct. 31. To find out more about the CIP program, visit orillia.ca/downtowncip.
