Taking Stock: North Coast Business Scene -- August 2016

The Dog Days of August certainly delivered a slower pace of news when it comes to the city's commercial scene, with little in the way of new developments to share as the Labour Day long weekend brought summer to an end.

There were a few notes to pass along from the last thirty days however, from moves by the City of Prince Rupert to protect jobs at the city's private liquor stores, to the closure of a downtown restaurant.

Along the way we also discovered some community initiatives from northwest businesses that also made for a bit of the commercial news flow for the month

Some of our observations on the Commercial and economic scene in the region for August can be found below:

August

Cow Bay Gift Galley celebrated their 25th birthday in the community through August and they brought the gifts, as the popular Cow Bay business introduced a number of public benches around the city, the first of which featured views of Prince Rupert harbour from the Mariner's park area.

Northern Savings launched a round of community engagement with the introduction of a string of focus groups seeking feedback and assist the Prince Rupert based financial service to plan for the future. The organization also announced the names of the recipients of their INSPIRE bursaries for 2016, the popular program provides financial assistance for Northwest students as they look to continue on with their education pursuits.

Prince Rupert found itself with one less dining option as August came to an end, as Stiles Place Saeafood and Grill closed its doors to daily operations, with the owners shifting their focus to offering the location for large gatherings and special events, as opposed to daily dining opportunities.

The building had been recently listed as for sale with local realtors, one of a number of local business opportunities that have been put up for consideration this year in the city.

Down the road in Terrace, the city's Chamber of Commerce is looking to see the city's downtown core cleaned up, having submitted a clean up request to the city of Terrace, asking for a bit more attention to the condition of the city's downtown region.

The City of Prince Rupert delivered their final verdict on the topic of any expansion plans for the sale of liquor in the city, with City Council putting in place a one kilometre rule between local liquor sales outlets, effectively shutting out the prospect of the larger grocery store chains introducing the sale of liquor or any other new establishments from locating in the downtown area.

You will be able to find the archive for Taking Stock as a part of our larger page dedicated to the commercial sector of the North Coast found here.

We imagine we probably have missed a few here or there, so if you know of a business having opened, or seen the Going out of business sign appear somewhere in the area, drop us a line at our email account of northcoastreviewpr@yahoo.ca

Or send us a short message through our twitter feed of @CharlesHays