Ladysmith’s main drag could soon be home to the town’s first cannabis dispensary and vape lounge after the Traveller’s Hotel was recently purchased by a Nanaimo investor.
The 104-year-old Edwardian era building hasn’t hosted anyone for a pint, let alone a puff of anything, for well over a decade, but Richard Scott was motivated to have it reopened.
“The cannabis is not the end, it’s a means to an end,” Scott told the Chronicle.
“The Traveller’s is the goal and to perform some CPR on the building and hopefully create some employment.”
Over the years, developers from Victoria to as far away as Calgary have expressed interested in possibly restoring the 32 room building, with its 13,400 square feet spread out across three floors.
Scott’s vision is to renovate the main floor and start up the Ladysmith Cannabis Club.
The process started late last year when he first approached the owners of the Traveller’s, which has been on the market for several years.
He’s rolled out the same model for restoring historic buildings in Nanaimo where he opened the Nanaimo Cannabis Club at the Globe Hotel, which also happens to be next door to the courthouse.
The Traveller’s would be a place where marijuana users could purchase pot, consume it and grab a bite to eat once the kitchen is open at some point down the road.
“You could have your own apparatus with you, or borrow an apparatus and sit down and consume,” Scott said.
The Globe Motel location employs over 30 people and hasn’t had any run-ins with local bylaw officers since opening 19 months ago.
“I figure I could probably do a similar thing here: create employment for people and revitalize a beautiful old heritage building,” said Scott, who is a father to seven children.
However, as plans for a local cannabis club proceed so too is a amendment to Ladysmith’s zoning bylaw that would explicitly ban dispensaries from opening in town.
A public hearing is scheduled as part of the next city council meeting on Feb. 6.
Mayor Aaron Stone said the bylaw is to provide clarity to potential proponents.
“There is no permitted use for dispensaries in our community currently,” he said, adding that “if you’re going to do it in the absence of the law, and do this wildcatting , do it in a way that’s respectful to the people you’re trying to protect and serve in terms of customers and keeping it away from children.”
Just south of Ladysmith the Municipality of North Cowichan continues its own fight against two dispensaries in Chemainus. The municipality issued a second round of $200 tickets recently to Green Aura and Leaf Compassion for failing to have a business licence.
Green Aura co-owner Trevor Pewarchuk said he’s “frustrated.”
“The municipality has made it clear where it stands on this issue, but so have we, and we made it clear to the bylaw officer who delivered the ticket that we have no intention of closing down operations here,” he said.
Extensive wiring and a new sprinkler system are among the to-do list for the team behind the Ladysmith Cannabis Club over the coming months.
Scott was able to purchase the building for $525,000 and estimates that total renovations to restore the main floor could come in below $70,000.
Plans for the rooms upstairs are still to be determined.
All of the work will have to be approved by the building and fire inspector before the Traveller’s is officially reopened.
Stone said building code and seismic are issues with the hotel and that bringing it up to regulations “will be a challenge.”
“I think it would have sold quite a long time ago if there was a reasonable path to being able to open any kind of business in there,” he said.
Scott said revenue could play a role but expects renovations to start soon.
“As far as getting the lower part operational we’re talking weeks instead of months,” he said.
