by Darren Davidson
A year and a half after the former Pacific Insight plant was purchased by Vancouver’s MacDonald Development Corporation, the new Purcell Business Centre on Highway 3A just west of town has landed an anchor tenant.
EECOL Electric — a big national supplier for commercial electric materials — will be moving into the 70,000 square foot building’s front space when construction is done in May. Twenty local contractors and suppliers have helped build out 16 commercial strata spaces between 3,300 and 33,000 square feet.
Realtor Tristan Chart says the spaces are for sale only and that the property has undergone quite an upgrade with new building systems, septic, entrances, glazed windows, highway-facing signage, mezzanine space and rear overhead doors.
Asking price for the building was $5.5 million. There’s no word on what MacDonald paid for the place.
The Pacific Insight back story: operated here since 1989, the automotive electronic and lighting manufacturer was purchased by Chicago-based multinational Methode for $144 million in 2018, in a deal that included a promise there’d be no changes to the substantial local workforce. But in 2019, the entire operation was moved south to Mexico.
As for EECOL — once Canadian-owned, founded in 1919, the company grew to become a distributor of electrical equipment, products, and services with $900 million in annual sales, 57 locations Canada and 20 in South America. EECOL was bought by WESCO International for $1.14 billion. WESCO is ranked No. 181 in the Fortune 500.
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Local MP Rob Morrison had a disappointing visit over to this side of the Kootenay-Columbia riding earlier this month.
A 90-minute meet-and-great was poorly attended. No one from the business community was there. There were however Gaza supporters and climate change crusaders waiting outside the Nelson and District Chamber of Commerce building. The retired RCMP officer and Canadian diplomat has also held “Pints and Politics” chats in the East Kootenay.
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The local business sector is happy to see the inclusion of some cost-savings for businesses in the new provincial budget, including a cut to the Employer Health Tax (EHT). Businesses with payrolls of up to $1 million will now be exempt from paying the EHT. The previous threshold was $500,000.
“We also welcome the much-needed investments in health care, housing, and education,” says Nelson and District Chamber executive director Tom Thomson.
Other wins for business include a tax incentive aimed at encouraging more purpose-built rental construction and a modest one-time BC Electricity Affordability Credit that reduces electricity costs for residential, commercial, and industrial users. The budget’s bad news? Thompson says the rise in the province’s planned deficit over the next three years is “simply staggering.”
The Chamber Annual General Meeting is Thursday, March 21 at the Adventure Hotel. The always popular Business Excellence Awards will be a stand-alone event held in May. Watch for links to vote on Discover Nelson’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Still in Chamber news, Matt Hanlon of Kays Contracting and Trent Zooboff of SMT Lawyers are joining the board. Long-time board members Michael Borch of Baker Street Menswear and Pacific West Builders owner Ed Olthof are hanging up their hats.
Cloudside Hotel’s Chris Drysdale, Whitewater Ski Resort’s GM Rebeckah Hornung, Selkirk College’s Bob Hall, Adventure Hotel boss Rob Little and Roger Quayle from CIBC have been nominated to stay on another two years.
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Over at the Nelson and District Credit Union, board directors Andy Shute and Cam Stokes, while longtime Nelson businessman Bruce Lacroix has returned. Lacroix was a board member in the 90s. Karina Farr and John Kortram meanwhile are moving on.
Of note — the NDCU gave out over $160,000 last year to the community. That’s more than 10 per cent of the local credit union’s net income over the past five years, making for one of the highest donation levels of any credit union in Canada.
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A quick correction to last month’s Buzz. As most folks know, the Nelson Box Office did not close, it just moved a few doors down West Arm. Thanks to former owner Bob Fortin — who sold to Sean Stinson five years ago — for the heads up.
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There’s an entire family of realtors posted up in a new micro-office at 556 Baker Street. The Bennett family — Chuck, Karen, daughter Carley Naka and now son Dylan, the newest realtor in the bunch — have “outgrown working from home.”
“It’s a great little family business,” says Chuck Bennett, “and we’re pretty excited about it.”
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They say a bird in hand is worth two in the bush, but a birdie at the bar or back nine might be even better.
Local entrepreneur Clay Rickaby, along with food scientist and author Robert George and beverage sales vet Al McLeod, will be rolling out Birdie’s Beverages next month. With mixes of grapefruit, prickly pear, lime juice and premium vodka, Birdie’s will share the shelves with other RTDs (ready-to-drink cocktails). Rickaby says after working for his legendary dad Danny at both the Empire Coffee shop and New Grand Liquor Store, he got a good read on the beverage landscape’s missing skews.
“In an industry dominated by a few conglomerates who’s goal is to maximize profits and volume, they often let the quality of their products suffer,” says Rickaby. “I found that products in the RTD category were either flavourless, or loaded with sugar and artificial flavourings. We wanted to create something more natural, and something we would actually enjoy drinking.”
Birdies will be licensed, produced and warehoused through Kelowna’s Orchard City Distilling. Branding was tackled by Janneke Guenther and the team at Tamarack Media Co.
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Speaking of branding, there’s a new copy writer in town. Jaymes Bowman used to perform across North America as rapper Young Braised, graduated from clown school — yes he says, it’s a real thing — and travelled around the world in literally seven months.
After seven years running social media accounts, blogging, and writing websites, he’s putting it all together — writing and edit ads, content, SEO-specific verbiage and emails for brands, he says, “with visions that go beyond the bottom line.”
See y’all next month.