Canberra CBD

Canberra CBD Limited was formed in 2007-08 to deliver the objectives of the City Centre Marketing & Improvements Grant. The company has only one agenda, which is to bring together private and public sector skills to achieve an ideal, world-class City Centre recognised for its vitality, liveability, commercial success and outstanding sense of community. Canberra CBD Limited came about as a direct result of the efforts of the Property Council and Canberra City Heart Association, which wanted to see a new not-for-profit organisation representing the interests of the Levy Payers and achieving the Grant objectives. Canberra City Centre is one of thousands of cities around the world that has taken up the challenge to self-tax and self-manage its destiny, in a form of what is commonly known as a Business Improvement District (BID). BIDS have been described as 'a conspicuous illustration of creative thinking at the local level'. BIDs are not new. The world's first BID was the idea of a retailer in Toronto, Canada. Frightened that a new underground transit line shopping centre would extinguish business in the Bloor West commercial precinct, the retailer asked his council if 400 local properties could tax themselves to raise funds to market the area - an activity outside the scope of normal government services. That was back in the 1960s. y establishing the Canberra City Centre Marketing and Improvements Grant program, the ACT Government has created the right environment for a successful BID in the Canberra City Centre. The structure of Canberra CBD Limited offers Levy Payers direct participation in decision making about activities designed to improve the value of their City Centre investments. CBD Limited only provides services over and above usual government services - services to improve and position the City Centre as an attractive, safe, clean, dynamic, vital, liveable City Centre where businesses and community prosper in the Canberra's dominant centre for business activity, retailing, commerce, culture, entertainment and recreation.