BCBusiness

BCBUSINESS.CA Powell River is a community used to welcoming newcomers. Over the years it's been a haven for hippies, draft dodgers and folks who yearn to live o-grid and under the radar. Its remote, picture-postcard locale on the edge of Desolation Sound has also long been a destination retirement spot. Now, however, it's proving an attractive option for folks priced out by the aordability crisis on the mainland and looking to do business somewhere the margins seem more pro•t- able. "Come for a visit, stay for a lifetime," proclaim its marketing materials. And that's exactly what people do. Back in December 2017, McClean— whose resumé includes stints at the legend- ary and since closed Vancouver restaurants Lumière and Feenie's, as well as the Irish Heather (where she was executive chef )— was teaching me and a friend how to make traditional stollen bread. She had given up restaurant life in 2010 to become a chef instructor, but what had sounded like a fairly bold move at the time paled against the news she announced as we waited for our fruit-•lled dough to prove. She was leaving town to open her own business, two ferry rides away on the far point of the Sunshine Coast. Fed up with sleeping at her sister's place in Richmond while socking away money to fund a home purchase that wasn't any closer to real- ity even after seven years of solid saving, she had decided to secure her pensionless future a dierent way. Likewise Paul Kamon, executive direc- tor of Sunshine Coast Tourism: back in 2011, he and his wife packed up their kids and hightailed it out of Vancouver, which had become too much of a struggle and increas- ingly unaffordable. Kamon—who was, and still is, one of the key people behind Vancouver Craft Beer Week—had visited a friend in Powell River and heard there was a brewery opening up. He saw Powell River as a place ready to be regenerated, and so when he was oered an entry-level job at Sunshine Coast Tourism, he •gured he had nothing to lose—not least when he found himself still able to aord a •ve-bedroom property on the water. Kamon is one of the city's new breed of evangelists: "My underlying mandate is to reel in as many of my friends as I can." He laughs, but his enthusiasm is sincere. "All investment starts with a visit. Get people here, let them see how amazing it is, and they'll •nd a way to make it work. In the past, people would •nd work and build a life. Nowadays, people •nd a life and then they •gure the work out." Location, location, location When Kamon •rst visited Powell River, he saw that a small Mexican restaurant with a house behind it was up for sale for a song: "I stood there and thought maybe I should just change gears and start selling tacos." A œeet- ing notion for him, the taco shack became a catalyst for successful Powell River restau- rant brand Point Group Hospitality. Sarah and Mike Salome had built their careers at Cactus Club Cafe, assistant managing front-of-house in downtown Van- couver and working as a chef in Abbotsford, respectively. In 2012, a regular customer told Sarah he was looking for a husband- and-wife team to take over a business in Harrison Hot Springs. They decided it was time to go it alone, quit their jobs, put together a business plan and were all set to move when, three weeks before they were due to take over, the deal fell through. "We had no jobs, and suddenly no future," Sarah recalls. "Mike's parents had retired to Powell River about seven years earlier. It was Easter, and they invited us out for a visit to take some time to relax and consider our next move." It didn't take long: perusing a local real estate magazine on the ferry, the couple spotted a tiny box ad for a Mexican restau- rant (the house was no longer attached), listed by the desperate-to-retire owner "for the price of an inexpensive used car." They decided they might as well view it. "We looked at each other, and the butterœies started," Sarah says. They quickly began asking questions of everyone they knew, and found out that the Mexican restaurant, La Casita, was some- thing of a local icon. "We went straight back home, packed up our apartment in Maple Ridge and moved two weeks later," Sarah recalls. Two weeks after that, they opened as Costa del Sol Latin Cuisine. "We thought, How busy can we be?" Mike says with a laugh. "We got our butts kicked. The second day a customer sitting eating lunch asked if we needed any help, and we hired her on the spot. She worked for us for •ve years." Since then, they've had two children and opened the larger, modern casual Coastal Cookery in 2015 and, in 2017, an Italian res- taurant, Culaccíno. Three restaurants on the main strip of Powell River is enough, Sarah says, but the plan is to keep growing, and for that they're looking across the water at Campbell River. "We are really proud of the training we have brought to the business, and we have amazing sta who we want JULY/AUGUST 2019 BCBUSINESS 45 Colleen McClean stares at the ceiling where her vent fan should already be installed and sighs. It's just another in a long list of hiccups and delays that keep pushing back the opening date of her bakery, Hearth & Grain, in the recently launched Townsite Market; today's problem was a permit that hadn't arrived in time. But we're in Powell River, population 13,000. Surely the permit process is easier here than in a city the size of Vancouver? McClean laughs. Powell River is booming right now, and there's only one building inspector on sta. "Maybe I should drop by with some cookies," she jokes. "MY UNDERLYING MANDATE IS TO REEL IN AS MANY OF MY FRIENDS AS I CAN....ALL INVESTMENT STARTS WITH A VISIT. GET PEOPLE HERE, LET THEM SEE HOW AMAZING IT IS, AND THEY'LL FIND A WAY TO MAKE IT WORK" –Paul Kamon, executive director, Sunshine Coast Tourism

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