North Bay's downtown area has seen a rather significant boost in business recently, particularly along Oak Street.
The city says over $50-million has been invested by new and expanding businesses in the area, including a new hotel near the water front
With the expansion of a local retirement residence and the local health unit also moving right next door, officials said the steady growth is expected to continue.
Building permits have increased 40% since 2015 and the Downtown Improvement Area said the new businesses will contribute to the downtown economy in a number of ways.
"It helps in filling some of the vacancies we have downtown and in the development in people improving their buildings," said Jeff Serran, DIA executive director.
"It's going to increase the tax base through the MPAC assessment when the city gets that assessment it's going to bring more high paid jobs to the area and those people are going to be spending time on their lunch breaks. During their lunch time they shop, they eat at local restaurants, so that's an economic impact for the small, independent businesses."
Serran said the DIA is currently working on bringing more businesses to the downtown core in the coming months.
