McCarthy Tétrault
Dynamic, Disciplined and Focused
Building value into each of Trilogy's business ventures, the partnership of John deC. Evans and Tom Johnston is propelled by a mutual desire to achieve outstanding results. Together, they have created a tight, vertically integrated development company that complements their individual skills, aspirations and integrity.
NEWS ARTICLE EXCERPT
THE VANCOUVER SUN, AUGUST 30, 2005 - BRITISH COLUMBIA SECTION.
Tiny Cumberland looks to the future as developer moves in
OPPORTUNITY: Yaletown hotel owners plan stores, motels and maybe a golf course
The Vancouver Island village of Cumberland, overshadowed by larger neighbours such as Parksville and Courtenay, is coming into its own with the purchase by developer Trilogy Properties Corp. of a substantial parcel of land that promises to bring recreational dollars and much-needed tax revenue to the economically starved area.
Vancouver-based Trilogy, which own the Opus Hotel in Yaletown, has bought 309 hectares of land on both sides of Vancouver Island’s main highway just east of Cumberland and along the Comox Valley Parkway. The land, which has about eight kilometers of frontage along the two major roadways, is ideal for commercial development, said Trilogy’s president and CEO John Evans. His company envisions multi-use developments that include some big stores and small retailers as well as motels and perhaps even a golf course.
That’s welcome news for Cumberland, a village of 2,700 people. Since the local coal mines closed in the 1960s, the village has had no major source of business revenue, Cumberland mayor Fred Bates said in an interview. But the tenacity of the residents has enabled the village to survive.
Right now Cumberland gets more than 90 per cent of its revenue from residential taxpayers, which means there isn’t enough of a tax base to maintain infrastructure, such as roads, Bates said. That would mean bankruptcy for most communities, but not for Cumberland. Four years ago, it expanded its boundaries to include industrial land to the north and commercial land along the highway. Then the village did an official community plan to determine what could happen with those lands.
“We want development, but we want it environmentally friendly and we want it to respect the heritage of the village,” Bates said. “A lot of people thought we made that too green and therefore we’d see no development.”
But Trilogy has proved those people wrong. The company took part in the development of the official plan as an observer and Bates is confident that Trilogy’s vision is compatible with Cumberland’s.
The company has assured Cumberland that it respects the official community plan, Bates said.
“As long as their proposal reflects that, we’ll be fine,” he said.
Trilogy is happy with what it sees in the community plan. Much of the land has already been designated for highway commercial use and that’s what Trilogy plans to use it for.
“There is an exceptional opportunity to develop what will become a commercial-retail node serving central and northern Vancouver Island,” Evans said. “This becomes really a major hub in our minds.”
The large amount of land enables Trilogy to accommodate large users, but the company isn’t looking to “simply put a big box [store] in a sea of parking,” Evans said.
“I think we’ll see [big box stores] but we’ll see that as part of an integrated and comprehensive retail development,” he said.
But it is early days yet and Evans doesn’t expect shovel to hit dirt for at least 10 months. Before that, Trilogy needs to get a team of engineers and planers together to figure out exactly what the grand scheme will include. Then that scheme has to be taken to Cumberland’s council for approval.
But in the meantime, some things, such as accommodation, may be fast-tracked.
“There is a very, very clearly defined need for hotel, motel and tourist accommodation, so we see that as a major part of this [development],” Evans said.
Three motor inns could be included in the scheme, he said, because of the proximity of the Mt. Washington ski area and the fact that nearby Comox has had one of the fastest growing room-occupancy rates in the province.
“We are in the hotel business, so it will be a major area of focus for us in some of our very early planning work,” Evans said.
The village of Cumberland is not expecting to see any tax revenues from the development for at least a year or two. But knowing it is coming in the future is a big boost to the community.
“The fact that we have a lifeline to the future makes it pretty exciting,” Bates said. “We know there is a future coming.”