Air Canada Rouge To Resume Direct Flights To Toronto In June
MARK MACDONALD
NANAIMO – The owner of Woodgrove Centre has purchased one of the largest shopping malls in the province, Tsawwassen Mills.
Central Walk, which owns Woodgrove, Mayfair Centre in Victoria and Arbutus Ridge Golf Club in Cobble Hill, recently closed the deal with Ivanhoe Cambridge, which built the shopping centre near the Tsawwassen BC Ferry terminal five years ago that contains about 200 stores and features 1.2 million square feet.
The Tsawwassen Mills property was recently assessed at $407 million. The Mayfair purchase, for $258 million, closed in 2021. Central Walk acquired Woodgrove in 2020.
Air Canada Rouge will resume its seasonal direct flights from Nanaimo Airport to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport on June 29. The flights will be on an Airbus 319 airliner and be on Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week throughout the summer.
Congratulations to Trent Kaese, owner of Cottonwood Golf Club, on the upcoming induction of the 1997 Powell River Regals team he played on that won the Allan Cup national senior men’s hockey championship.
A Nanaimo Minor Hockey graduate and former coach, Trent also joined his Regals teammates several years ago when the club was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in Penticton.
Nanaimo Forest Products Ltd., which owns Harmac Pacific, has committed 27 acres of the adjacent property it purchased recently next to the pulp mill as a buffer for Cable Bay Trail.
The property was to be part of the once-planned project called Oceanview that was to be a Bear Mountain-type golf and residential development. Former owners could never receive needed road access to the property.
Congratulations to Lyle Sharkey and his family upon completion of a fine new outdoor patio at their Smitty’s Restaurant in Chase River.
The Sharkeys also operate Smitty’s at Rock City Centre.
Mark Chase has joined Finning as an Integration Specialist.
Saywell Contracting Ltd. has been busy clearing land at the southern entrance of Parksville, just beyond the bridge over the Englishman River, where they’ll be building new Popeye’s Chicken and Wendy’s Hamburger outlets, notes Saywell’s Operations Manager Karl Binder.
DOUG WHITE
Lawyer Doug White III has been reappointed as a Director to the Port of Nanaimo by the province of British Columbia. This will be his second three-year term.
Rod Alop and Jon Ludtke are co-owners of Bayview Brewery, which is now open at 204 Dogwood Drive in Ladysmith.
Alpha Doghouse Training & Pet Care held a grand opening for its new location at 7193 Lantzville Road on April 30.
Fresh Slice Pizza in Port Place Mall is now called Local-Pizza.
Nanaimo Mitsubishi is now open for business in its new 20,000 square foot design-build project built by IWCD. IWCD also received notification in May that for the seventh straight year, it has been named to the Platinum Club Member in the list of Canada’s Best Managed Companies awards.
VMAC has achieved the Gold Standard for Canada’s Best Managed Companies for the fourth consecutive year.
Congratulations to Mazzei Electric for winning two awards, for Safety Excellence and Employer of the Year, by the Vancouver Island Construction Association.
Congratulations to Conner Mowatt for being named District Manager for Omni Foods based in Nanaimo.
Japanese fast food restaurant Edo’s has opened at 601 Bruce Avenue in Harewood.
After 30 years at the office of Ives Burger Law in Courtenay, lawyer and former Comox Mayor Paul Ives is moving his solicitors practice to the Courtenay office of Ramsay Lampman Rhodes in the Riverwalk Centre at #211-1978 Cliffe Avenue in Courtenay. Ramsay Lampman Rhodes is headquartered in Nanaimo.
Bill Yoachim, Executive Director of Kw’umut Lelum Child and Family Services, has been named a recipient of the BC Achievement Foundation’s Community Awards.
Bill is a former local baseball star player and current councilor at Snuneymuxw First Nation.
Mosaic Forest Management has announced that its President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Zweig will retire effective August 31.
Congratulations to 49th Parallel Grocery upon receiving the Heritage Award from the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers recently. Peter and Kathy Richmond’s chain of stores includes an outlet in Cedar, as well as in Ladysmith, Chemainus and Duncan.
A tip of the hat to Steve Marshall, founder of the Steve Marshall Auto Group on Vancouver Island, upon receiving an award in recognition of his 55-plus years of running Ford Canada dealerships on Vancouver Island. The group includes Steve Marshall Ford in Campbell River, Family Ford in Parksville, and Steve Marshall Ford Lincoln in Nanaimo, which is operated by Steve’s daughter Ann Marie Clark.
Seamor Marine has had one of its underwater, remotely operated vehicles involved in a project to recover fishing gear from within the Lax Kw’alaams marine territory near Prince Rupert.
Plans to transform the former A&B Sound building at the corner of Commercial Street, Terminal Avenue and Wallace Street into a public market with several businesses are proceeding.
Steiner Properties owns the property, and have hired Colin Harper Architect, which is presenting the project to the City of Nanaimo.
Snuneymuxw First Nation’s Petroglyph Development Group is working through the development permit process to renovate the Sealand Market property at 1840 Stewart Avenue. Glenn Hill of DHK Architects is working on the project.
Vanderkooi Farms at 1300 Chartwell Road in Cedar has opened a little barn store to sell farm fresh eggs and beef.
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