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Nanaimo chamber of commerce puts building up for sale as it looks to move downtown

Current office building on Bowen Road was constructed in 2003
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The current Greater Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce offices on Bowen Road. (News Bulletin file photo)

More meetings are virtual these days, and the Greater Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce has found it has more office space than it knows what to do with.

The chamber has put its facility on Bowen Road up for sale or lease and is looking to downsize somewhere downtown.

“I’ve always been kind of puzzled as to how we could make better use of our space,” said Kim Smythe, chamber CEO. “It turns out in the end that the decision is the best of way of making use of that space is to let the building have new occupants.”

The Bowen Road building has 3,000 square feet, which would be more space than needed even if all six staff members were there at once. So the chamber’s board and management will look at returning downtown. No location has been finalized, but Smythe said the chamber has looked into half a dozen spaces and is confident it will find suitable downtown premises.

“There’s some great spaces available downtown and we have an opportunity to potentially co-locate with some other business organizations,” he said.

Smythe added it will be convenient for the chamber to be closer to Nanaimo City Hall, the Commercial Street Night Market, downtown merchants and other business improvement association partners in the area.

He added that the chamber is continually re-inventing its service delivery and intends to host 25 virtual events this year.

READ ALSO: Nanaimo Chamber working to create new downtown business association



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