The Town of Essex is getting some help with its plan for Colchester Harbour.
Students from the University of Windsor's Entrepreneurship Practice and Innovation Centre have put together a report outlining recommendations for the facility which has been operating with an average deficit of $146,000 for the past five years.
Student Consultant, Amanda Lim, says a number of changes could be made including renting out vacant space for community events, increasing signage and parking and making the marina a more family friendly space.
She says if the town can cut the annual operating deficit in half it'll be heading in the right direction.
"Harbours are not intended to make money, in a sense. They're just a central drawing point to promote tourism, to promote a sense of community, things like that. Realistically, optimistically you'd like to break even, but it's very hard."
University of Windsor student Amanda Lim presents to the Town of Essex (Photo by AM800's Zander Broeckel)
Lim says getting families to the harbour is very important.
"Other marinas in the area, they had a lot more activities that were a lot more focused on families in terms of live music weekends, things like that. To have a more family friendly atmosphere, I think, would draw Colchester Harbour as the place to be in the summer. It promotes revenue generation, economic stimulation."
She says the harbour needs to increase its social media presence as well.
"By having a stand alone website it helps them, in a sense, where we're promoting the Colchester Harbour as a unique entity. So by using a social media strategy we can bring in a different crowd of people. It'll be easier for people to find out more about the commodities and the other things that they have going on."
The town has began the process of acquiring the harbour from the federal government.
A condition assessment report has been completed and recommends $700,000 in maintenance over the next two years with another $4.5-million needed within five to ten years.
An environmental assessment still needs to be done.