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Town of Riverview / News / Sneak Preview of new Shipping Container Cafe

Sneak Preview of new Shipping Container Cafe

RIVERVIEW (N.B.) As an extra surprise during the Mayor’s Christmas Light Launch tonight, we are thrilled to welcome the newest addition to the Riverview business community, drum roll please… Buddha Bear Café! Stop in for a visit tonight next to the Fundy Chocolate River Station (hint: they will be the ones in the shipping container!) and sample some of their locally roasted coffee, delicious hot chocolate and yummy sweets. Meet the Buddha Bear team and learn about their plans for an official opening in January!

The Town of Riverview helped facilitate the addition of a shipping container space for tourism and business activity on the Riverfront thanks to a Government of New Brunswick grant under the Program for Municipal Development to Commemorate Canada’s 150th Anniversary. A major criteria of the provincial funding was for all investments to be made in the downtown area of a municipality.

Four of the nine areas of focus for the program stipulated that projects must:

• Spur economic activity
• Attract/improve the tourist experience
• Support local artists 
• Support local growth

To address the above areas, the Department of Economic Development proposed the concept of a shipping container café.

The conversation around a shipping container business in Riverview had been developing over the past two years with other members of the local business community open to exploring unique and engaging ways to grow Riverview’s offering to local residents and visitors.

A call for interest was issued on the Town of Riverview’s Facebook page on September 26, 2017. The post was shared 79 times and reached over 22,000 people. We has 14 requests for the vendor application from which we received four completed applications.

The application required interested vendors to clearly explain the following:

• How their business concept and product offering reflected the spirit and values of the Envision Riverview Sustainability Plan;
• Their existing business plan and /or strategy for growth;
• Their plans for advertising and promotion;
• Experience in the industry.

Economic Development staff met with the top three applicants which included a visit to the planned container location as well as the container itself so that applicants could envision their business in the space and share a clearer description of how they would operate out of the space and take advantage of the location surroundings, as well as Town festivals and events.

You can learn more about the Town’s successful funding application here and here.

Media Contact

Meghan Cross

Communications Coordinator
Town of Riverview
506-387-2072
mcross@townofriverview.ca

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