By Nate Medd 

W2 Media Arts Centre—an ambitious initiative bringing together a range of arts and Downtown Eastside service organizations under one roof for dynamic collaborations and events—has a new hoop to jump through.

Before moving in to the space it was awarded in a competitive process in 2006 by the Woodward's Community Advisory Committee and Vancouver city council, it will have to compete a second time for a street-level section of its floorplan. 

A cafe at Woodward's that W2 created and designed is again being offered up in a public request for proposals by the City of Vancouver as a social-enterprise opportunity. 

At City Hall, concern has arisen over W2's limited formal business expertise toward managing its entire space, an amenity drawn from the project's developer, Westbank. 

As designed, the cafe represents W2's welcome mat, a public entrance connecting its two separate interior spaces. 

Over the past 14 months, it was designed with the support of the City of Vancouver's real estate services department, with a draft business plan developed by SFU students with W2 staff and volunteers.

The cafe would serve as a social enterprise, employing an expected 12 Downtown Eastside residents, drawing traffic into W2's interior spaces, and helping mix the new Woodward's population with existing Downtown Eastside residents. 

Importantly, the cafe would also generate revenues to subsidize W2's public programs and operating costs on the part of its space that hasn't been witheld.

In initiating an innovative, shared hub for some of Vancouver's more important nonprofit organizations, W2 has demonstrated its perseverence and ability to learn on the job throughout the development process. 

If we agree that W2 was awarded its place at Woodward's fairly in the first place, and that the cafe forms a vital part of its business and programming plan, let's hope this new competition confirms it as the most-deserving tenant. The development, the neighbourhood, and the participating organizations will all benefit.

 Nate Medd is a resident of the Downtown Eastside.