by Darren Davidson
With spring arriving in a hurry there’s all sort of business news sproutin’ up.
The Buzz starts out on the West Arm lakeshore where after a few years of marketing and a couple failed deals, the Kokanee Park Marina has sold. Businessmen Adrian Court and Dave Mann have purchased the property from owner Dayl Summersides.
“We’re hoping to restore the marina and all its amenities to its former glory,” says Mann, a long-time Kootenay Lake holidayer and managing parter at Blue Rock Law, a boutique commercial firm in Calgary. Having shared a family summer property on the lake for 40 years, Mann knows the historical importance of the marina, with locals relying on the store, beer coolers and vehicle fuel services 10 months a year.
“The store has a long history in the area,” says Mann. “It’s a gathering place for the local community. We want to restore that and make it a show piece for the area.”
Court’s background is in e-commerce and the tennis sector. But lake life was in his blood from the get-go.
“Being around water is a big part of my life,” says Court. He and his family spent a heap of time on the crystal clear waters surrounding Lake Huron’s Manitoulin Island growing up.
The first order of business Mann explains is to get going on some substantial clean-up and property remediation, bolster ice cream and coffee provision, and build a green space with picnic tables and a place for locals and holidayers alike to kick back.
On the infrastructure front, Kokanee’s docks will undergo a major overhaul, and the overruns will look into the return of gas pumps for marina customers — something locals would love to see.
There’s no word on the marina’s final purchase price. Originally posted in 2022 for $2 million on the Imagine Kootenay site, it was last listed on MLS via realtor Tristan Chart, for $1.8 million.
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Nelson Kootenay Lake Tourism is close to landing a new executive director six months after its last retired.
Dianna Ducs took over the position way back in 2012, helping market the region between Nelson, Kaslo and the East Shore — that’s a few hundred kilometres of lakeshore, six communities, and over 330 partner businesses. NKL saw its annual revenues increase over 100 per cent to nearly $500,000 during Duc’s tenure. Maybe NKL’s new chapter will see the return of the organization’s office to the historic CP Railway building, home to the Nelson Visitors Centre and the Chamber of Commerce. The DMO (that’s short for “destination marketing organization”) is currently on the first floor of City Hall.
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Still on the hiring front… Saskatchewan-raised tech entrepreneur Riley Iverson is the new ED at the Kootenays Association of Science and Technology. Iverson and his wife will be moving full time to Nelson in the next few months from Vancouver, where he’s most recently worked in the technology sector. We’ll have more on Riley in an upcoming column.
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Reps from Oso Negro Coffee returned from a remarkable trip to Guatemala last month with a few tales of adventure and great news for coffee bean growers in the Latin American country’s impoverished high plains.
Head roaster Ned Woods and co-owner Anne Bokser Wishlow saw first-hand the difference Oso and other Canadian coffee roasters are making to the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) organization — an Indigenous peasant project started in 1982 in response to rising human rights problems. The CCDA’s chair will be travelling to Nelson to share the organization’s story in May.
Oso, which celebrated 30 years in 2023, marked the 19th year in its Ward Street location —a must-see for visitors and popular haunt for hundreds of daily local-yokels — on April 1.
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It’s not an official record-maker, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone around who can recall the last time Granite Pointe opened its fairways while the lifts at Whitewater were still turning. But sure enough, that’s what happened last weekend. This coming Saturday-Sunday marks Whitewater’s closing.
On the development front: There’s no updates yet on the golf course’s development plans. The city has approved a blueprint for up to 300 residences at Granite. A portion of that plan is moving ahead as of last season’s final rounds.
Meanwhile, Whitewater’s owners revealed longer term development plans during February’s Coldsmoke Festival, at an info session in the beautiful new Hummingbird Lodge. (In addition to being the only place on the hill where guests can stay overnight, the Hummingbird also provides wifi. No surprise, the lodge served as a de facto remote office this season for a lot of sly workers needing to check in with clients and supervisors, while still satiating their powder day fomo).
Back to the info session… Whitewater’s bosses explained that the master plan calls for the development of up to 30 residential units. Those are options they’ve started to explore this year, while managing the resort’s first season with its new Raven quad and 120 acres of challenging new terrain. Also on the resort’s to-do list: patch up the rowdy road — which is in fact the domain of the provincial government.
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Former local NDP MLA and provincial minister Michelle Mungall has landed a monthly op-ed writing job with the Vancouver Sun. After 15-years in public office, the mom-of-two is writing about what she knows well. Her debut piece appeared last month. The headline? “Facing threats and hostility shouldn’t be the price of life in politics.”
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In an insightful glimpse into the sort of entrepreneurial talent being turned out from Selkirk College, four students in Selkirk’s School of Business recently took first place in a showdown against top-notch post-secondary peers.
Held at New Westminster’s Douglas College in early-March, the annual Western Canadian Business Competition (WCBC) brought together schools from across B.C. and Alberta for the intense three-day event. In the strategic plan division, Selkirk’s team of Karminder Singh, Jaspreet Kaur, Carmen Lucia Ponce Cruz and Manmohan Nair Puthuvalputhan Udayakumaran took top prize.
“This competition allows the top students to showcase their skills that they have developed through their course work,” says Trail businessman Mike Konkin, a veteran instructor in the School of Business and the team’s coach.
See you in another month!