Downtown Strategy

The City of Fort Saskatchewan's Economic Development team are developing an Economic Development Strategy for the City's downtown. The Strategy will give Council and administration a tool for understanding the community's downtown vision and will provide a set of actions for attracting people and businesses to the City's core.

Downtown Development Strategy

The Downtown Development Strategy builds on the momentum of the Downtown Action Plan and aims to attract private investment while addressing key development challenges. Leveraging Downtown Fort Saskatchewan’s unique advantages—such as lower-cost land, walkable amenities, and existing incentive programs—the Strategy seeks to identify barriers, improve incentives, and promote infill opportunities, with the primary goal of enhancing downtown’s investment appeal.

The Plan presents initiatives and activities designed to achieve three primary goals:

  1. Increasing residential density in downtown
  2. Promoting the development of underutilized or vacant spaces
  3. Reducing commercial vacancy

View the Downtown Development Strategy Document

Fort Sask Mural

Downtown Action Plan

Council unanimous supported the implementation for the Downtown Action Plan. The Plan is designed to be short-term in nature and to identify those initiatives that will have a more immediate impact, and are readily achievable within a reasonable amount of resources. These initiatives aim to position downtown as a community gathering place where people meet, socialize, and celebrate. This approach will help downtown achieve a greater vibrancy and boost consumer spending in the district, increasing business profitability and increasing investment.

The Plan presents initiatives and activities designed to achieve four primary goals:

  1. Increase the number of visitors to the downtown
  2. Increase the frequency in which visitors come downtown
  3. Increase the length of time visitors stay downtown
  4. Increase private sector investment in the downtown

Check out the Downtown Action Plan

View the current Downtown Action Plan Strategy Progress

Pergola in Downtown Fort Sask

Vibrant Downtown Summary of Findings

The report found the public was most in support of initiatives which center around activation of public spaces enhancement of vacant lots. Additional ideas which were well supported included improving connection to the river valley, development of a central gathering plaza, and improvements to signage and wayfinding.

The three most supported ideas to improve the vibrancy of Downtown, in order of magnitude, were:

  1. Activate Legacy Park (89.2%)
  2. Activate Vacant Lots (87.8%)
  3. Beautify Vacant Lots (85%)

The three most supported actions to improve the vibrancy of Downtown, in order of magnitude, were:

  1. Grants for sidewalk cafes and patios (71.4%)
  2. Remove barriers to restaurant patios (62.4%)
  3. Grants to create event (47.8%)

View the full Vibrant Downtown Summary Report