Tim Horton’s Wants Drive-Through Lane at Rock City Plaza Outlet
MARK MACDONALD
NANAIMO – Scott Klippenstein‘s Blueprint Custom Homes in Mill Bay has joined the Alair Homes team as an independent partner office. It will now be called Alair Homes Mill Bay. Alair Homes has franchisees throughout North America, and their head office is on Wallace Street in downtown Nanaimo.
Parksville Mayor Ed Mayne owns two Tim Horton’s franchises in Nanaimo, at Nanaimo North Town Centre, and at Rock City Plaza. He is currently working towards adding a drive-through lane for the Rock City store.
FetchPanda Convenience is opening soon at the corner of Milton Street and the Trans Canada Highway. That location was a 7-Eleven store in times past.
Adam Fraser, Regional Manager, Commercial Services at Coastal Community Credit Union, is moving on after nearly 12 years at the institution. As of January 10, he will be Vice President, Innovation and Credit at First Credit Union.
Nanaimo Honda is now set up at their temporary dwelling at 2321 Cienar Drive for the next year or so as IWCD builds their new building at their existing location just up the street, facing Bowen Road.
Greg Constable and his team at IWCD are busy all over the Island, it seems. Besides starting the huge new Commons development in Royal Bay near Victoria, they’ve also just started working on the Silva Bay Resort and Marina on Gabriola Island. It will feature 16 rooms, restaurant, bar and new marina facility.
Congratulations to the GEM Real Estate Group for being recognized as one of the top five teams in B.C. for 2021 by Royal LePage. The team is led by Clinton Miller, BJ Estes and Robyn Gervais.
Stuart Olsen is the construction services company that will be building the Nanaimo Correctional Centre redevelopment project.
There’s a new President of the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board, as Ian Mackay has passed the gavel to Erica Kavanaugh of Royal LePage Parksville-Qualicum. President-elect is Kelly O’Dwyer of eXp Realty in Nanaimo. Other Nanaimo Directors on the Board are Deana Baumel of RE/MAX of Nanaimo and Janet Scotland of eXp Realty, and they are joined by Sue Perrey of Royal LePage Nanaimo Realty of Ladysmith.
The Nanaimo Affordable Housing Society has completed its six-storey, 159 unit facility on Buttertubs Place. The average price range for a one-bedroom unit is between $880 and $940 a month.
With the COVID panic hopefully behind us, the newest entry in the West Coast League, the Nanaimo NightOwls, are looking forward to their inaugural season at refurbished Serauxmen Stadium this summer. The ownership group of Nanaimo and the Victoria HarbourCats, including John Wilson of Wilson’s Transportation, Rich Harder, Ken Swanson and Jim Swanson has added six new partners: Helen Edwards, Bob Swanson, Mike Macdonell, John Schnaderbeck, Victor Vendetti and another silent partner.
Ralph Nilson
Congratulations to former Vancouver Island University President Ralph Nilson upon being appointed to the Order of Canada. Ralph, who served three terms at the helm of VIU, retired in 2019 and is the first person from Nanaimo to be named to the Order since 2017. The Order of Canada was created in 1967 to recognize achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation.
A tip of the hat to Graham Williamson and his team at Nanaimo-based LifeSupport Air Medical Services Inc., for helping Edmonton Oilers forward Jesse Puljujarvi for getting home from Seattle after a positive COVID test recently. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to get back to Edmonton, and would have been stuck in quarantine in Washington state. Williamson dealt with Canadian Border Services to help the transfer happen, which was difficult as Puljujarvi is from Finland and in Canada on work permit. LifeSupport operates five medivac planes that bring Canadians in need of medical treatment home from all over the world.
The BC Used Oil Management Association has provided a grant to GFL (formerly the Alpine Group) and MTB Auto Service in Nanaimo to expand their existing and used oil recycling facilities.
The City of Nanaimo has issued a development permit for a 38-unit, five-storey condominium building at 41 and 45 Haliburton Street, between Finlayson and Crace Streets.
Parkshore Projects Ltd., which has already built one building on Haliburton and received approval for two more in the neighbourhood, made the application for the building on behalf of a numbered company.
British Columbia’s oldest wooden tugboat, the MV Sea Lion, built in 1905, is being scrapped at the Canadian Maritime Engineering shipyard in Nanaimo.
Jan Ference is the new Executive Director of the Haven Society starting in February, starting after serving as Director at Pathways To Healing Partnership.
Jan Ference
A comprehensive service review is underway at the Regional District of Nanaimo, to attempt to identify the reasons for a substantial backlog in the issuing of building permits.
The problem is systemic in BC, especially since the lack of home building means less houses on the market, which inevitably leads to higher prices. If regional districts, cities and municipalities would loosen their grip on issuing building permits, more product would become available on the market, and the increase in supply would inevitably lead to lower housing prices.
7-Eleven Canada Inc. wants to put a liquor store next to its gas station and convenience store at the corner of Dover and Blueback roads in north Nanaimo. 7-Eleven has made a rezoning application for the premises currently occupied by Off the Vine Winemaking, next to the convenience store.
Insight Holdings Ltd. has put forward a rezoning application for 6033 and 6053 Nelson Road, next to Randerson Ridge Elementary School, which, if successful, could see 168 new homes built on the property.
City council has approved 22 townhouses at 497 Menzies Ridge Drive near Buttertubs Marsh in the Hawthorne neighborhood. The units, roughly 1,450 square feet in size, would be in seven, two-storey buildings on the property,
Mark MacDonald is President of Communication Ink Media & Public Relations Ltd. and Author of the book “It Worked For Them, It Will Work For Me: The 8 Secrets of Small Business I Learned From Successful Friends”, which can be obtained by reaching him through: mark@communicationink.ca