It’s now just months away before the major construction begins on the thirteen Target Canada store in B.C. 

Ledcor Construction Ltd. has the contract for all thirteen B.C. stores. All the stores have to be finished on the same date.

Target Canada will spend upwards of $11 million on each store’s makeover. The construction is said to begin in October to be ready for opening in the fall of 2013.

Two of the stores are in the Okanagan: the current Zellers in Kelowna and Vernon. The Kelowna store is going to be made wider, expanding out to Springfield Road.

The three remaining stores - Salmon Arm, West Kelowna and Penticton - have not been mentioned in any press release, which would mean they are going to be closed by Zellers. Zellers doesn’t say much these days but I’m sure the company doesn’t want to truck all that merchandise away. When everything started a few months ago there were rumours of major sales to unload the stock in the stores.

The Salmon Arm store will be remodeled into a Canadian Tire store.

The Minneapolis based Target Stores bought 139 Zellers from the Hudson Bay Company. All have to be remodeled. I also believe they purchased a closed Walmart store in Quebec.

Twenty-four of the stores will open in the early part of 2013 and those stores are all in Ontario. Then the second phase of opening includes all the stores in B.C. for Fall of 2013.

Just think of the merchandise that has to be trucked from distribution centres before the stores hit the ground running!

******

Rumours and Things  

Manning Park Resort is in receivership and the "For Sale" sign is up. The resort owes $700,000 in taxes and more than a million to suppliers...

I was walking through the Capital News Centre and got called over to the counter by one of the employees, and was asked a question because he said,  "I have something your readers don’t know."

Frank Zappa has four children with very cool names, and the two most people know is Moon Unit and Dweezil.
The other two are Ahmet Emuuka Rodan and Diva The Muffin Pigeen.

Lucky kids....

When it’s wine festival time, I always think back to one of the first wine festival meetings I attended at the Capri Hotel.

If I remember correctly there were twelve wineries in the valley.  Now the province is producing 17,778 tonnes of grapes; way back when it was 1,478 tonnes for the valley. There are 209 licensed wineries in the province, and the business continues to grow….

This one has been bothering me for months, actually years: Len Lindstrom and his Liberty International Mineral Corp.

This e-mail from a reader:

I noticed today in your online, 'Rumours and Things', 2010, that people cannot get in touch with Len Lindstrom.

I tried the phone number that is still appearing online - and sure enough - a lady answered who is not with Len.  She had the phone number for about 3 weeks.

Can you tell me what you found out about Len? People – including me - have invested money into his organization.

What do we do? Where do we turn for answers?

I don’t what to tell you because in these kinds of schemes, money is always lost, and the perpetrator gone from the scene.

Here is his bio from the old web site:

Len Lindstrom
Director, President, CEO
The founder of Liberty International and has been directly involved in all aspects of the development and exploration of the Liberian and Canadian properties as President and CEO of the Liberty Group of companies since their inception. His related education includes numerous Accelerated Education courses in geology, business administration and associated subjects through BCIT, UBC, SFU and the Sauder School of Business. He has over 30 years experience as an entrepreneur, businessman, promoter and humanitarian.

Now someone out there knows where this guy is. Give me some help, let's see what we can do.

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I was driving along Gordon Road North just after noon on Tuesday, and everything seemed fine when all of a sudden there was a dark coloured SUV behind me with flashing blue lights pulling me over to the curb.

Two officers got out of the SUV and came to the window. The first one said, “There seems to be something wrong with your rear license plate.”

The other states, “It’s the wrong colour. Your license plate date sticker is missing, the entire sticker has been cut off.”

The first officer steps in after going to the SUV to check if the car is registered and has car insurance. He says it has.

They warned me that I should get to my insurance agent as soon as possible because I’m going to end up with a fine.

I went to the insurance agent and gave her my papers and explained what had happened, and she immediately started to work, and the first thing I had to do was report it stolen.

I asked if this was a normal thing and she said there are quite a lot of them.

It all cost $18 to get a new sticker.

I was surprised at the dark SUV with the blue flashing lights. Is this something new? The officers were in lighter blue uniforms with an RCMP patch; very friendly and helpful.

******

A 24-station Ontario radio network that includes Moose FM is being acquired by Vista Broadcast Group, which currently operates in western Canada.

The parent of Vista Radio will buy Haliburton Broadcasting Group Inc. for an undisclosed price, subject to approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

Haliburton operates primarily in Central Ontario but also as far north as Timmins, Ont., and as far south as the Niagara region.

Vista was founded in 2004 by its senior management team and currently has 38 broadcast licenses serving 50 communities in British Columbia, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, making the move into Ontario with financial backing from Westerkirk Capital Inc., which will buy all the shares of Vista Broadcast Group Inc. that aren't owned by Vista's management.

Vista Radio CEO and president Margot Micallef said Haliburton's business in Ontario provides a base for further expansion.

"With our strong management team and our new partnership with Westerkirk we are well positioned to see our vision for Vista become a reality. Quite simply, we want to become the pre-eminent radio broadcaster in Canada," Micallef said.

"Vista cares in the same way as Haliburton about its employees, listeners and advertisers. Vista will take our radio business to the next level and that will create tremendous opportunities for our employees."

The Mann family were right there from the beginning and capture an FM license for Kelowna The Juice..

Until now, Micallef’s group has operated solely along the west coast of Canada with 38 broadcast licenses in B.C., Alberta and the Northwest Territories.

I believe the amount involved here is $27 million.

When we came to the city 34 years ago there wasn’t much talk about Dilworth Mountain. It was just up there.

The developer from Calgary, Jack Poole, co-founded Daon Development Corporation, the second-largest real estate development company in North America until its collapse in 1982.

Jack is the man who headed the committee trying and succeeding with the selection of Vancouver as the site for last year’s Winter Olympics.

Daon was about to go bankrupt big time; the Calgary Company had properties and development all over North America, like the skyscraper across the street from The Hyatt Hotel in downtown Vancouver.

A great deal of credit has to go to those visionaries in Daon’s Calgary office - who were years ahead of the clock. A mountain community in Kelowna B.C… when our local developers were thinking four or five homes was a large project.

These visionaries were ahead of their time.

Local talk was that Dilworth Mountain was too far away. People weren’t going to drive home and back everyday.

It went into receivership in 1987.

This is about the time Emil Anderson Construction decided it was time to collect the money they had invested in the project as the contractor for the infrastructure - the first phase of the development. Anderson was caught up in the bankruptcy as one of the major creditors. Their management team took a hard look at the prospects and said, “Let’s build houses.”

The price came down and they made an offer to the bank in Toronto to buy the entire mountain. I can just imagine the executive in Toronto handling the account and wondering, “what’s so important about this mountain in a small town in B.C. interior.  On top of that, where is Kelowna anyway?”

Two million dollars later in Sept. 1989, the Emil Anderson folks owned a mountain.

It didn’t take them long to decide that they indeed would become the homebuilder something in construction they have never done before.

Dilworth homes was incorporated in 1989.

The city now has a community of 1400 homes and 3000 people happy to be there.  It’s the right address.

I asked Mike Jacobs the president of Dilworth Homes to comment on what is still to be finished at the mountain.

“Opening in the next couple of weeks is a town home project at the summit of Selkirk at the very top. Twenty spectacular view homes - they are basically in a half circle, some of them have lake views and in others where they can almost see to Merritt. That’s the last of the high-end town homes.

We will have some town home land just above the railway tracks below are Cascade Point development and then we still own Mount Baldy just next to Dilworth,” he said.

******

Dirk Stroda is hosting the upcoming 1st Okanagan Real Estate Investors Summit in Kelowna.

He sends this message: 

Our four presenters are experts in the field of Commercial Real Estate - Apartment Financing, Funding & Strategies.

This is a fantastic opportunity to hear first-hand what kind of investment opportunities are currently facilitated by Canada’s largest mortgage underwriters. No matter if you are planning to increase your real estate portfolio or
re-finance your existing one – you can’t afford to miss out on this event if real estate is your business.
Real examples of current projects will be presented to you at this event!

After 2008 the Real Estate industry in the Okanagan began to look very grim and predictions were ranging between devastation and (slim) optimism. But no matter were we are standing now – the question is: “Where are we going?”

The Okanagan Real Estate Investors Summit 2012 is a free event and is supported by First National and CMHC and the two largest apartment owner and manager associations in BC: BCAOMA & ROMS BC.

There is also a complementary lunch and that your generous donation at the door goes directly
to the Kelowna General Hospital Foundation … A tax receipt will be mailed to you.

I look forward to welcome you on May 9th at the Okanagan College.

All the best in investing,

Dirk Stroda – Host for the Okanagan RE Investors Summit 2012 –

******

The Truong family, the successful operators of the Mekong Chinese food restaurant on Harvey at Gordon, are celebrating their 25th year in the business with a special deal for their customers Saturday and Sunday 5:30pm.

It is a Chinese buffet and it’s a way for the family to give back and all the meals purchased all the money will go direct to the KGH for use in the new hospital.

I was thinking back to the beginning when the family started their restaurant in downtown Kelowna just across from the sails upstairs. They were in that location for eleven years before there was a move to this present location.

What a good family.

******

The biggest rumours in retail at the moment concern two high-end retailers from the U.S. are looking at Canada for future expansion. When Sears announced they were closing stores in Vancouver, Calgary and Ottawa, Nordstrom from Seattle was quick to say they are looking at the possibilities of those three stores.

Then along comes word that Bloomingdale’s is talking a deal with The Bay to add a Bloomingdale’s to some of the major Bay stores in places like Vancouver and Calgary. These would just be sections set aside for the U.S. retailer.

******

I have been writing about this story for years and it all started because Walmart wanted to have a store the Salmon Arm area. It was on their list way back when Walmart was dealing with cities in the interior for stores in the marketplace. There were some long battles there too.

This month the action in court was dealing with The Neskolith Indian Band challenging the city’s handling of the SmartCentres development permit.

The Band said in their claim that the city of Salmon Arm had a constitutional obligation to consult with it before making a decision that would affect its aboriginal rights or title.

The band’s land is next to the SmartCentre property.

The court handed down a decision that dismissed the claim…

I wonder if this means SmartCentres will go ahead with their plans for construction of a shopping centre with Walmart as the anchor?

Walmart has already committed to a redesign on forty stores in Canada to bring them up to SuperCentre status. The company also purchased thirty-nine stores from the Zellers package.

 

I have been quite ill for the last few weeks and didn’t know quite what was wrong. Cold, flu, coughing from my boot tops. All the things you don’t want to happen when you’re on dialysis. It leaves you so weak and tired, but things are on the mend and positive.

It has been quite a year.

******

Across the nation, companies involved in the healthcare industry are moving into national organizations and this is the latest one in the Okanagan to make such a new move for their future and expansion in the years to come.

Pinnacle Physiotherapy’s three Kelowna and West Kelowna-based clinics have now joined Canada’s most respected network of healthcare professionals, Centric Health.

Pinnacle, long recognized as the region’s premiere provider of physiotherapy care by serving a wide range of clientele including some of the country’s leading amateur and professional athletes, is now a partner in Centric’s nationwide group of healthcare service providers.

“Centric’s vision is to become Canada's premier healthcare company with a complete range of innovative and whole-life solutions centred on patients. Our vision for Pinnacle mirrors Centric’s commitment to healthcare excellence. Joining the Centric family was a natural fit for us,” says Pinnacle Physiotherapy’s Randy Goodman.

“Already we’re being asked if this will make a difference to the services we offer, and our answer is yes. We’ve always prided ourselves on providing a level of patient care that far exceeds industry standards. Now, backed by the depth, experience and resources that Centric has built their reputation upon, we’ll be able to provide even better care than ever before.”

From Pharmacies to Clinical Rehabilitation Centres, Centric Health has woven together a national community of professional partners from coast-to-coast, and now Pinnacle joins that ‘A’ list of healthcare providers.

“At its core,“ says Randy, “Centric is about putting the patient first. It’s a company passionately dedicated, from top to bottom, to the well-being of the people in the communities it serves.  Centric’s also an innovator in the industry, leading the way when it comes to pioneering progressive, integrated health and whole-life health solutions.”

“Every one of our employees is excited about joining the Centric family and we can see only better things coming from the partnership in the future, both for our company and the community as a whole. For our patients, it’s everything good about our clinic, plus now a whole lot more. Basically, the way we look at it, it’s Pinnacle version 2.0.“

Pinnacle will continue to operate its three clinics in the Capital News Centre on Gordon Drive, on Richter Street and in West Kelowna on Elliott Road.

I have known Randy Goodman since he moved to the marketplace with his first clinic in the 1990’s when he opened in Westbank.

Expectation is very high for positive development of the company in the future, and the growth of the local operation was important to that future and the ability to serve their long list of clients with the best in service and health care. It doesn’t matter whether the athletes are elite class or pros home for some personal training, everyone is treated as “the client.”

They care . . .

******

The staff at Capri Insurance Services was recently individually surveyed by the Great Places To Work Institute Canada for the purpose of determining the 100 best workplaces in Canada with 50 to 999 employees. 



Capri has close to 300 employees in 10 branches throughout the Interior of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nunavut, Yukon and Northwest Territories and has an affiliated office in Aurora which is licensed in Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

Capri Insurance was ranked #23 on the Best Workplaces in Canada, medium companies at the awards dinner April 18th in Toronto. It placed in the top 100 for the last three years and has been rising steadily in the rankings every year.



This is a substantial accomplishment for an insurance broker that started in Kelowna in March 1975 with six employees and a handful of clients (over 100,000 now).

More than forty per cent of the employees have been with the company for forty years or more.

******

Rumours and Things . . .

There is a major change taking place in the development industry in Kelowna as Mark Stober leaves his family business, Stober Construction, to become a partner in The Mission Group development company.

Stober Construction is currently building the sixth high-rise tower at the Landmark Square complex in Kelowna...

If you have been driving by on Harvey at Gordon these last few months and looked over at the Accent Inns property you have seen a lot of action as the hotel chain refaced their Kelowna location.

It is one of the last two hotels to be remodeled in the five chain Accent Inns. The chain is headquartered in Victoria. Started in 1986 by Terry Farmer where he opened his first hotel and followed with the opening of the Kelowna property June of that year.

The makeover is exceptional and the new colours are outstanding.  According to Hotel Manager Mike Greenbalgh, there is a few more weeks of work before everything is finished.

The site has always been known for its hanging flower baskets and with the new remodel that won’t change, it will just get larger and more attractive.

Can’t wait to see that display.

*****

According to whoever does this kind of research the increase in online dating sites has doubled in the last year.

I guess that means we’re getting older?

One of the most important deals that Target Stores Canada has made since their buyout of the Zellers stores in Canada was the arrangement they made with Sobeys, Canada’s second largest grocer with 1300 stores across the country.

For Target it saves a great deal of time and money having such a well-connected grocery chain to do the buying, warehousing and shipping to their new 138 stores in Canada beginning in 2013.

Sobeys, a Stellarton, N.S.-based wholly owned subsidiary of Empire Company Ltd., owns or franchises more than 1,300 stores across Canada under retail banners including Sobeys, IGA, Fordland, FreshCo, Price Chopper and Thrifty Foods, as well as Lawtons Drug Stores.

Sobeys will supply Target Canada with frozen, dairy and dry grocery products, stocking its shelves with both national brands and Target’s private label products. The companys say there are shared benefits in reducing transportation costs by mutually leveraging their distribution networks.

Sobeys bought into the B.C. market with purchase of the very successful Thrifty Foods of B.C. with headquarters on the Island. The grocer came to the mainland and now has eight stores in the lower mainland. Three Sobeys stores are in Fort St. John, Golden and Invermere.

The Nova Scotia grocer did have some difficulty in getting their brand into B.C. because the H.Y.Louie family - who also control London Drugs - owns the IGA Stores in this province and they weren’t interested in selling out their grocery interests.

Meanwhile,Target has made a decision on Starbucks being their coffee store in Canada, and it will be featured in most of their Canadian stores. The idea by the merchant is to have Starbucks feature its breakfast menu and sandwiches.

There was a lot of speculation that Target might use Tim Horton’s in Canada.

Target has already made lease deals with the mall owners in Vernon, Kelowna and Penticton.  Construction on those sites will begin in the fall. The Zellers store in Salmon Arm will close in July and we still haven’t officially heard what will be the plans for the Zeller store in West Kelowna. I believe that Winnipeg interests own the building.

******

The shovels are in ground for the new Brandt’s Creek Shopping Centre in Glenmore.

The forty-five-thousand square foot centre has two anchors signed in: Coopers Foods, which will take 20,000 sq. ft., and Shoppers Drug Mart with 10,000 sq. ft.

The other 15,000 sq ft is currently under discussion with Robert Gauley, the associate vice president of Colliers International Centre Group Realty.

PC Urban of Vancouver is the contractor.

Side Bar… Shoppers Drug Mart has zeroed in on the Okanagan for some very serious expansion: the store at the Brandt’s Creek shopping centre, one on Lakeshore Blvd in Kelowna just down from the Mission Park Shopping Centre and a third one in the soon to be completed shopping centre on the Westside where the new theatres are being built.

These all major stores and the competition in the drug store business continues to grow.

******

Steve Nash is in the franchise business and the NBA star has a chain called Liquid Nutrition Group and the beverage and snack franchise has sold all twenty of their B.C. franchises and have announced one for Kelowna. The company has plans for thirty-five more outlets across the country.

His first success in business in Vancouver was the Steve Nash Sports Clubs. No word on whether they are looking at Kelowna for a sports club franchise in the future.

******

It was about a year or so ago the rumour was that Bread Garden - a success in the Vancouver market - was here looking at property for a restaurant. The story was that Bread Garden, now owned by the Spicy Pickle franchise in Denver, was interested in both Kelowna and Vernon.

Now the Spicy Pickle franchising is changing all their Vancouver restaurants over to the BG Urban brand. They have also announced that their first Spicy Pickle restaurant franchise will be  in Calgary.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

******

Rumours and Things . . .

It was a bit of a surprise when it was announced that the Overwaitea Food Group had been the number one bidder for the Zellers Pharmacy business and its prescription files in Alberta and B.C. 

No amount was disclosed of the agreement with Zellers.

When Loblaws agreed to pay $35 million for the Zellers prescription files for all of Canada expect for the west it was rumored that London Drugs was interested in the B.C. Alberta files.

Overwaitea Food Group will no doubt move quickly to create a relationship with as many of the prospective customers as possible . . . .


I don’t know exactly what this means but one of my readers sent me an email about the work that is going on at a building just beside her office - the old Bargain Bin on Bernard Ave. 

According to her email there are crews working there she believes for over a month and just the other day a large truck backed up to the loading dock with large bales packaged with bright orange ribbon. When she got closer she could read they had stickers “Hazard-Asbestos.” There are no signs.

A family owns the building from Montreal so I will check to see what is actually happening there . . ..


The dairy industry in Canada is missing out on some large business from China. Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.A are selling cheese and milk packaged to China. The product from Canada is just too expensive. Our dairy industry has done some business there, including dairy products, eggs and honey but not in the numbers they should be.  . . .


Wenatchee was just chosen as one of ten most affordable spots to retire in the U.S.A.  The AARP makes this choice every year and they simply said housing is reasonable and your power bill is low living in the apple capital . . ..


Business in Vancouver’s new list of the biggest resorts in B.C. - Whistler of course was first, followed by Kelowna’s Big White, Sun Peaks in Kamloops was third and Silver Star Mt. in Vernon was fourth. Penticton Lakeside Resort was 13th and Predator Ridge was number 15 . . . .


******

You see the infomercial on TV a lot as the spokesperson shows you how you can shine up hazy headlights.  They look like new again. Before you send your money away, here is some advice from Consumer Reports magazine.

They recommend the Sylvania Headlight restoration kit. It works well and is not difficult to rub on and off and it is less money.  Oxidation causes these problems in the plastic headlights we get today.  It is worth a try. I would see if Canadian Tire has these kits.

******

Have you driven on Gordon Rd recently? It has become The Gordon Speedway and doing the speed limit of 60 means you’re standing still. It is ridiculous.  There are cars and trucks doing up to 80 on this stretch of road.

Coming in from the South Mission cars mostly have hit 60 entering the community before they get to Gordon Dr. The area has a lot of high school kids walking to school.

The speed limit is posted and the drivers are dumb enough to think it’s just a suggestion.

******

The man in charge of Kelly O’Bryan’s restaurant chain is Reg Henry, a longtime Kelowna entrepreneur. He has five Kelly O’Bryan’s locations in Kelowna, West Kelowna, Vernon, Prince George and Kamloops. They also have a location in Kamloops under the banner Carlos O’Bryan’s a neighborhood pub.

He and his then partner started the first restaurant in Kelowna on Lawrence where the Blue Gator jazz and blues club is now. That was in 1987 and the restaurant stayed in that location for ten years. He was always one the hardest workers I know and in the 80s we sat on the Chamber Board together.

The feature of the very successful eateries is an appetizer called  “Pachos.” Made from special fries he orders on a weekly basis from the U.S.A.

Are they popular? Well, after twenty-five years featuring them he now needs 300,000 lbs. a year to fill the orders from his happy customers.

The chain now employs 300 people.