Houston residents and travellers will soon be getting a new coffee spot next to A&W on Highway 16 in the form of the popular coffee chain Tim Hortons.
The work on the foundation of the building has already started at 3322 Highway 16. The work is being done by the construction company Pro-King Construction Ltd.
“They put Tim Hortons in places where they think they are going to be successful and with the recent developments in Kitimat, and the pipeline work and everything, Highway 16 is busier than ever,” said Richard Procee, project manager with the construction company.
Currently, there are six people working on the foundation for the structure however that number would fluctuate depending on the stage at which the construction is in. Although currently the crew working on the site is not local to Houston, the company plans to hire locally as much as possible.
“There will be local people, local contractors for sure. Throughout the process, we need a lot of different contractors, for concrete work, for drywall, for paint, etc. and yes, sometimes we use non-local crew depending on costing, insurance, etc. but we mostly try to use local contractors,” said Procee. “It is better that way for the community.”
The Tim Hortons franchise will be owned by Dan Close, who along with his family runs the Smithers franchise as well. The family wanted to expand and bring a store to Houston for years and the dream is finally coming true. They first opened the Smithers store in 1998.
“The hope is to have the restaurant open before Christmas but it is not a definitive timeline,” said Procee.
The District of Houston is however yet to receive a business licence application from the franchisee.
“At this time no business licence application has been submitted by the franchisee, however, the District anticipates receiving one as construction nears completion,” said Gerald Pinchbeck, the CAO for the District of Houston adding that when the district issued a development permit in 2020, the developer noted a completion date of early 2021 for construction.
“It will be exciting and it will be good for Houston,” agreed Procee.
Priyanka Ketkar
Multimedia journalist
@PriyankaKetkar
priyanka.ketkar@ldnews.net
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