A discussion on hospitality in Windsor's downtown core.
Ward 3 councillor Renaldo Agostino will be hosting a town hall on Wednesday evening, alongside Andrew Corbett, the vice-chair of the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association.
The discussion will cover the challenges facing the hospitality industry, and how various partners and stakeholders can solve them by working together.
Speaking on AM800's the Morning Drive, Agostino says they're encouraging stakeholders, business owners, residents with ideas, or people who may be interested in investing in the downtown.
He says a lot of interest is being shown both in the meeting, and continuing to work to revitalize downtown Windsor.
"Making people feel like they have a stake in the game here. Having skin in the game, having interest, feeling like you're part of something and actually being part of a solution. People just want to be involved, and that's a lot of what these meetings are about," he said.
Agostino says there are ideas brewing, things are happening, and everybody wants to see downtown win so it's about making a plan to get there.
"Now's the perfect opportunity to take that momentum and put it in a rocket ship. To take it to the next level by doing more, and letting people know that the downtown is going to be the new hot place in the city. And really start bringing some focus back to tourism."
He says the fact that there's 10 million people across the border in Michigan is something they need to capitalize on, because there's numerous business owners downtown that have no idea about how things were 15 to 20 years ago.
Agostino says amazing things are coming downtown, so they've got to make sure they're mindful of what they're doing, how they're doing it, and what the overall game plan is.
"And that to me is the most important thing, is getting all the stakeholders together, all the players on the team together in a room. And then coming up with a game plan and plotting it out. Coming up with a marketing campaign and working not only with the BIA, but also TWEPI, our tourism board which we have a great relationship with. So there's a lot of different components here," he said.
The town hall will take place in the lobby at City Hall beginning at 6 p.m.
This is the second town hall put on by Councillor Agostino, back in March he held one about the issues surrounding the Downtown Mission.
- with files from AM800's The Morning Drive