A delegation from the City of Castlegar attended the International Council of Shopping Centers’ (ICSC) Whistler Conference at the end of January to promote Castlegar to developers.
Specifically, the delegation focused on promoting the area out near the airport.
“We were selling Castlegar,” explained Councillor Kevin Chernoff, who helped form the delegation along with councillors Florio Vassilakakis and Dan Rye. “We’ve been trying as a city to market some airport lands, and that was our main focus, was to meet up with the right people that do these type of developments.”
The delegation talked with about 38 different developers, 26 of whom Chernoff felt had “above average interest.”
The city found out about the conference too late to pay for a booth, but Chernoff felt like that ended up being an advantage.
“I think it worked out to our advantage, not having a booth. We had about an hour and a half time slot where we could set up right at the main entrance,” explains Chernoff. That meant that any attendees entering the conference at that time had to come past the Castlegar delegation.
They also made up for not having a booth by dressing in matching orange hats and ties, which got them some attention and helped make them recognizable.
“We got singled out quite a few times,” said Chernoff. “People were taking selfies with us.”
Now that the conference is over, the city will follow up with interested developers.
“We basically took a lot of names, made a lot of pitches. Some of them have already requested more data, which we’ll provide in the next couple of weeks,” said Chernoff.