PRESCOTT, ON SMALL TOWN, BIG MOVES WWW.PRESCOTT.CA
SMALL TOWN, B PRESCOTT, ON AT A GLANCE TOWN OF PRESCOTT WHAT: A waterfront municipality undergoing economic transformation through downtown revitalization, tourism development, and strategic infrastructure investments WHERE: Southeastern Ontario WEBSITE: www.prescott.ca 1 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 07
BIG MOVES A WATERFRONT ONTARIO TOWN OF 4,000 PROVES THAT SIZE DOESN’T DICTATE AMBITION WITH NEW HOTELS, DOWNTOWN REVIVAL, AND REGIONAL PARTNERSHIPS For decades, the Town of Prescott sat quietly in the shadow of its larger neighbor Brockville, watching opportunity flow past on Highway 401 like ships on the St. Lawrence River. Today, this compact waterfront community of 4,078 residents is rewriting its story with new hotels, revitalized streetscapes, and ambitious waterfront plans that position it as Eastern Ontario’s next investment destination. “It’s really that quality of life piece and the location that 2 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 07
are two of the critical calling cards we have for Prescott,” says Dana Valentyne, the town’s Economic Development Officer. “It’s truly one of those undiscovered gems, and that’s what everyone says, whether you’re a visitor or a longstanding resident or a new resident or business.” The town’s strategic advantages include its position between Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto, five minutes from the US border via the Prescott-Ogdensburg International Bridge, and direct access to major distribution channels through Highway 401 and the Canadian National Railway. Mayor Dr. Gauri Shankar acknowledges the transformation underway. “We’ve always been considered the little brother of Brockville and now we’re becoming more part of the family,” he says. The shift reflects tangible progress: the town’s first branded hotel, a 69-room Quality Inn & Suites, opened in 2024, while the Community Improvement Programme has reduced downtown vacancies to fewer than half a dozen properties. “It’s really amazing to me that Prescott hasn’t really taken off the way some of the surrounding communities have,” Valentyne says,“and I think it’s finally becoming our turn.” REVITALIZING THE HISTORIC DOWNTOWN CORE Prescott’s downtown transformation began with a calculated investment strategy that has delivered results beyond expectations. The Community Improvement Program, launched in 2018, has channeled several hundred thousand dollars in matching grants and loans to property owners, spurring multimillion-dollar private investments along the historic main street. “We’ve invested along with private property owners in that downtown area,” Armstrong explains. The program welcomes established businesses and newcomers, with more than half of applicants being new enterprises. “Anybody that is a business owner or a new tenant can apply to the program just as current property owners and tenants can,” he says. “We’re helping to support them get off the ground and make those leasehold improvements that really take their toll on the first several months or in the first year of a new business.” The Main Street funding program amplified these efforts, securing $150,000 in provincial funding that the town matched for a total $250,000 investment in downtown improvements. Mayor Shankar points to visible changes throughout the district. “We’ve got some wayfinding signage. We’re doing a nice big downtown mural that will have a business directory on it. We just built a Riverwalk waterfront patio that has handicap accessibility,” he says. The new waterfront patio features picnic areas for 3 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 07 PRESCOTT, ON
this fall, setting the stage for future infrastructure improvements. WATERFRONT TRANSFORMATION FROM MARINA TO RECREATION HUB The St. Lawrence River waterfront serves as Prescott’s crown jewel, with the town investing heavily to maximize this natural asset.“This year we’re finishing our dock replacements at the marina,” Armstrong says.“We have about 120 slip recreation front that’s takeout dining and viewfinders for boat watching and birdwatching. Valentyne credits the combined programs with dramatic occupancy improvements. “That CIP program has put us in a position where we now have less than half a dozen vacancies downtown, and it’s just amazing to see the transformation that’s happened,” she says. The town has also approved a streetscaping design study scheduled to begin 4 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 07
waterfront trails, unusual for a municipality of just 4.9 square kilometers. Recent additions include a splash pad in Centennial Park and plans for a recreation lending library. The town’s amphitheater hosts the acclaimed St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival each summer, which has seen attendance grow 600 percent over twelve years and attracts thousands of visitors annually. Mayor Shankar highlights recent enhancements municipally owned, and we started about five years ago in replacing all of those docks and this will be our final year.” Looking ahead, he envisions expanded capacity. “We’d love to be able to start to increase the capacity of the overall recreation front, perhaps providing larger boats, transient slips, things like that.” The waterfront district extends well beyond the marina. Prescott boasts nearly two kilometers of 5 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 07 PRESCOTT, ON
designed to activate public spaces. “We’ve also got a couple of down main street patios, again, just for people to sit and enjoy the sun and enjoy the day,” he says. “Very welcoming to the public when they see something like that that they can participate in.” At the same time, Armstrong emphasizes the importance of flood mitigation infrastructure.“We’re doing flood mitigation for our water treatment plant, which is obviously very important,” he notes. The town has also installed floating docks in Centennial Park, providing safe water access for swimming and relaxation. Future plans include partnerships with private landowners to develop mixed-use waterfront properties combining residential, commercial, and tourism amenities. HOTELS, RECREATION, AND RETAIL Two major developments have transformed Prescott’s economic landscape and community life.The Quality Inn & Suites, which opened in 2024 as the town’s first branded hotel, and the Alaine Chartrand Community Centre represent decades of planning finally realized. “That has been on the town council’s bucket list for decades,” Mayor Shankar says of the new 69room hotel. The Choice Hotels property selected Prescott for specific reasons, according to Valentyne. “They really prioritized looking to smaller to medium communities for their developments. They found a lot of success in those and received a lot of local support,” she explains. “Because we are smaller in size, but we’re very mighty when it comes to the support that we can offer. We don’t have an upper tier that we have to consult and go through for approval. So, when it comes to red tape, we can eliminate a lot of that.” The Alaine Chartrand Community Centre has catalyzed downtown business activity in unexpected ways.“It’s really been game changing in addition to the new Quality Inn hotel that just opened about a month ago now,” Valentyne says. “Our downtown has a nightlife now. We have new restaurants that have come online that are constantly busy with users of that facility and it’s really been a fantastic partnership with those businesses.” Retail expansion continues with Food Basics. “We 6 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 07
have a Food Basics that’s just going through site planning right now and hoping to see them break ground in late 2025 or early 2026,”Valentyne reports. She emphasizes the town’s focus on business retention alongside attraction. “We have some key industrial businesses that are actively growing, expanding, bringing on new employees, looking to new divisions, and that’s something that we’ve really made a priority of supporting as well.” GREEN INITIATIVES AND CLIMATE RESILIENCE Prescott positioned itself ahead of the curve on environmental initiatives, installing electric vehicle charging infrastructure before many larger municipalities.The town applied for federal funding through Natural Resources Canada to install 12 to 13 charging stations throughout the community three years ago. “We were a little bit ahead of the curve when it came to electric car charging,”Armstrong says.“For the first couple of years it was free of charge so to speak, or free to charge.And so, I think that put us on the map.” Private developers have followed suit, with a recently renovated gas station adding fast chargers and the upcoming Food Basics grocery store planning EV infrastructure. The town’s environmental efforts also cover a complete conversion to LED street lighting to reduce energy consumption while improving visibility. “A few years ago, again, being ahead of the curve, we switched all our street lighting to LED lighting,” Mayor Shankar notes. “So that was a big environmentally charged program.” Climate adaptation measures address the riverside community’s vulnerability to flooding. Armstrong outlines comprehensive protection strategies. “We are working on about a half a million dollar project to really fortify our water treatment plant from flood mitigation,” he says.“Over the last several years we’ve also done shoreline fortification so that as the rivers rise, more frequent or violent storms, things like that, that we’re not losing that shoreline.” Prescott also earned Bicycle Friendly Community designation from Share the Road Cycling Coalition, installing bicycle repair stations and dedicated infrastructure downtown. The town piloted a subsidized countertop composter program, providing hundred-dollar rebates to over a hundred homeowners. “We’ve been trying to do it in a multifaceted approach where we’re reacting to climate change, we’re trying to provide incentives for people to really change the way that they do things,” Armstrong explains. 7 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 07 PRESCOTT, ON
REGIONAL COLLABORATION AND GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND Prescott’s growth strategy relies heavily on strategic partnerships and exceptional municipal service, distinguishing it from competitors in Eastern Ontario. The town’s collaborative approach with neighboring municipalities has unlocked significant infrastructure funding and regional services. “We’ve been developing partnerships with our neighbors and that is born out of the initiative of the River Route, which has been a fantastic rural transit service running between Brockville and Cardinal,” Armstrong explains. The town’s biggest partnership success came through the Housing Enabled Water Fund, securing $32 million for wastewater plant expansion.“Our belief and our understanding is that the province wants to see us working together, and that’s what we strive to do,” he says. Mayor Shankar reflects on the shift in regional dynamics. “The two other municipalities that are closest to us haven’t always collaborated like we have lately. They used to be like three kings in their three little kingdoms,” he says. “I think the three of us that are now the mayors of those communities realize that we get more done together than apart. The provincial government loves that, and I think that’s why we’ve been so successful in getting water tower funding, getting the Hughes grant, getting our arena built.” What sets Prescott apart is its approach to development support. “What we hear time and again is that Prescott is great to deal with because we take a team approach,” Armstrong emphasizes. “When the developer or development is coming in, we bring on our economic development officer, myself, our building official, our planner, our director of operations, and we start right from the beginning and work all the way through the process with them.” PROGRESSIVE LEADERSHIP AND WATERFRONT ACTIVATION Prescott’s transformation reflects a fundamental shift in municipal leadership philosophy, embodied by Mayor Shankar’s approach to governance. “I do believe in lifelong learning, and I do believe that every day if you can learn one thing, you’re better off for it,” he says, explaining his deliberate path from councilor to mayor.“By doing that for four years, you get a good sense of what’s right and what’s wrong and how to proceed and how to get things done.” This progressive mindset permeates council decisions, enabling ambitious waterfront activation plans. Valentyne envisions a vibrant recreational hub emerging over the next decade. “I would love to see waterfront activations, everything from boat 8 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 07
rentals, more passenger cruise boats coming into the community and actively exploring the town and possibly having some actually based and operating right out of Prescott,” she says. The town has already secured floating docks for Centennial Park and added a boat rental operator offering canoes, kayaks, paddleboards, and paddle boats to the popup vendor program. Future development opportunities center on strategic waterfront properties. “There’s some key properties along the waterfront or waterfront adjacent that have great potential for redevelopment as mixeduse spaces with residential, commercial tourism, pedestrian amenities,” Valentyne explains. “We would love to look at partnerships down the road with some of those private landowners and public 9 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 07 PRESCOTT, ON
landowners to really, again, fully capitalize on these great waterfront lands that we have.” Mayor Shankar credits council unity for enabling transformation. “Most of our council is right on board with all these enhancements that we’ve put forward in the town and would like to see the town keep growing,” he says. “I think past councils were PREFERRED VENDOR/PARTNER n Town of Prescott www.prescott.ca/invest hesitant to try anything new, but this one is much more progressive.” As Prescott sheds its “little brother” image, the waterfront town demonstrates how strategic investments, regional partnerships, and progressive leadership can transform small communities into competitive destinations for business and tourism. 10 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 07
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