The inaugural Downtown North Bay Win This Space competition has wrapped up and the winner is… SugarDaddy Cupcakes and Catering.

They win a years worth of rent at a location downtown, up to $15,000.

Owners John and Nathan Serran say they’re hoping to open their retail storefront by the beginning of October.

“We’re going to have a nice spot for people to come in and purchase their cupcakes, a seating area so people can sit down and enjoy some coffee with their cupcakes,” says John. “It’ll be a way for us to promote the other side of our business too, the catering side and we do event rentals.”

He says having the storefront will allow them to sell cupcakes on a daily basis, which limit them from having to turn down orders, which they don’t want to do.

They also plan on hiring.

“We will want some people to work for us in the store so we’re definitely going to be working on that over the next month or so,” says John.

“(We) definitely need some more bakers,” added Nathan.

Win This Space Committee Co-chair Geoff Richardson says they were pleased with the competition, pointing out they had over 10 initial entries.

He says they plan on holding the contest again.

“We truly believe in the idea,” Richardson says. “We wouldn’t just do it for one year, we’d want to make sure that it’s a continual process, as long as we can support it”.

He says they’d need community partners to get involved to help cover the costs of the program.

This year’s contest was presented by Downtown North Bay, the City of North Bay, the Business Centre Nipissing Parry Sound, North Bay and District Chamber of Commerce and NECO.