Author: Kirsten Mason

This article appeared in the Vancouver Sun on October 5, 2011 and was written by Jenny Lee.

Kamloops is adding small businesses at the fastest clip of any community in B.C., according to Small Business BC. The southern Interior city is followed by Victoria, Penticton, Vancouver, Abbotsford, then Kelowna, each of them with significantly lower growth.

“Real estate seems to be the big driver,” said Mark Eversfield, a research analyst at Small Business BC. “Construction was also busy there.”

Kamloops added 412 new businesses, a six-per-cent increase, between June 2010 and June 2011. By comparison, Vancouver added 5,733 new businesses, up three per cent.

Not surprisingly, real estate agents led the charge in Kamloops, with 93 new businesses in the 12 months, but 83 were owner-operated. The city added 49 retail stores for the year ending June 2011, including 21 retail stores with fewer than five employees. Other growing sectors in Kamloops include health care, agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, business services, accommodation, food services, finance and insurance.

“I’m not sure why Kamloops would rank No. 1,” said Helmut Pastrick, chief economist at Central 1 Credit Union. “It does stand out in contrast to some other economic numbers suggesting that the Kamloopsarea economy is struggling somewhat.”

Business incorporations and labour market data for the Thompson-Nicola Regional District – which includes Kamloops – are weak, Pastrick said. The number of employment insurance beneficiaries continues to decline this year, but it’s not clear whether this is due to successful job searches or expired claims. Business incorporations in this regional district are running below last year, he said.

“Lower Mainland employment growth is up 1.7 per cent this year,” Pastrick said. “Metro Vancouver is up 2.1 per cent, compared to 0.3 for Thompson-Okanagan, -3.4 per cent for Vancouver Island, 0.5 per cent in the Kootenays and 1.3 per cent in the Cariboo.”

In the Thompson-Okanagan, which includes Kamloops, Kelowna and other cities, unemployment averaged 8.3 per cent from January to August of 2011.

Meanwhile, the Statistics Canada/Small Business BC data shows Victoria was the second-fastest-growing community for small business locations between June 2010 and June 2011, registering 3.3 per cent growth. There were 544 new real estate businesses, of which 527 had no employees. Other growth sectors were health, insurance and finance, professional, scientific, technical service and retail.

Real estate also led in Penticton, which grew 3.1 per cent over the period. Other growth came from professional, scientific and technical service business, agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting and construction.

Cranbrook was the small business growth leader last year, increasing 5.2 per cent between June 2009 and June 2010, Eversfield said.

This article appeared in the Kamloops Daily News on September 29th, 2011.

Cutting lot prices at Tobiano in half may still be insufficient to sell property at the resort, according to information contained in a B.C. Supreme Court ruling.

An appraiser’s opinion on market prices for lots at Tobiano is contained in a ruling released Wednesday as part of the receivership process of Tobiano. The resort was forced into receivership in June this year by major creditor Bank of Montreal.

Pagebrook and Grenier together owe more than $48 million dollars on the project and could no longer make payment demands when the bank took action.

The receiver is attempting to package the resort to another developer and is also continuing individual lot sales. But the court document shows little sales activity has occurred at the resort on Kamloops Lake.

Only 66 lots were sold in the past five years. In 2010 and 2011, only two lots were sold.

Despite the near shutdown in sales, court documents show Grenier opposed what he characterized as “near fire-sale” prices, agreed to by the receiver, on three lots. Those deals needed approval by the court, which is overseeing the receivership.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice David Harris rejected Grenier’s arguments and approved the sale, noting a recent opinion by an appraiser:

“Considering current absorption rates, the existing inventory of developed lots is excessive if prices remain unchanged. Moreover, the majority of more recent sales have been the result of aggressive marketing and pricing program at a 50 per cent reduction.  In order to build momentum, a sustained and even more aggressive marketing and pricing program will be required.”

Grenier argued the lots have not been adequately marketed. But Harris also rejected that, noting extensive advertising and contact with 36,000 realtors.

In the wake of the 2008 recession, Pagebrook itself offered 50 per cent discounts on lot prices. But the court document said those list prices are higher than today’s list prices, making the discount three years ago less than that of recent sales.

“In my view, these lots have been exposed to the market for several years, but have attracted little or no interest at the prices they were offered,” Harris wrote.

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