The village of Cumberland, B.C., is about to lose one of its iconic landmarks to redevelopment. But the company behind the project is vowing the spirit of the building will live on.
VICTORIA Sooke’s population has been expanding over the last few years with single-family homes popping up everywhere. “Sooke has become very popular now,” says Clive Greenaway of Greenaway Realty. “It’s most certainly a very different town from even two years ago.” With the cost of real estate being lower in Sooke, young families and retirees have been moving in. The problem is, commercial and retail spaces are not keeping up with the population growth. “We don’t have any real commercial space here in Sooke,” says Karen Mason, president of the Sooke Region Chamber of Commerce. “We’ve got a couple of strip malls and the rents in those strip malls is arguably very high.”