Entertainment company seeks lease
John French
Chief Staff Writer
A Vancouver company wants to make the Al McIntosh Squamish Days Loggers Sports Grounds a busier place.
The Squamish Entertainment Group (SEG) wants to lease the grounds for 25 years and negotiations aimed at making that happen are under way.
Squamish Council voted on Oct. 26 give to support in principle to the idea of allowing SEG to negotiate with District of Squamish (DOS) staff.
Council also directed SEG to discuss its plans with the Squamish Days Log-gers Sports Association (SDLSA). Any deal reached between the DOS and SEG will be subject to the approval of SDLSA.
The sides have until April 30, 2005 to finalize the deal.
The details of the lease proposal are not public but SEG is reportedly prepared to pay an up-front fee and a monthly lease fee.Stuart McNish, president of the SEG, said his company wants the SDLSA and groups like the Test of Metal to have their traditional access to the site and his company will make use of the facility outside of the established traditional uses.
"We have a vision of what we want to do but we don't pretend to know everything," McNish said.
The SEG wants to work with the community to create a win-win situation at the loggers sports grounds, said McNish.
SEG hired an architect that specializes in working with community groups and McNish plans to bring all the stakeholders together with the architect so that a concept plan can be created to satisfy all the stakeholders needs.
McNish envisions a restaurant on the site along with an artist's village with a strong native component and a forestry museum that includes the log books being constructed by Glenn Greensides. And McNish wants the grounds to feature loggers sports shows as close to year-round as possible.
Down the road, he thinks music festivals are a possibility for the site.
Ray Keyes, Chair of the SDLSA, said McNish met with members of the SDLSA on Oct. 26.
According to Keyes, Mayor Ian Sutherland made it clear to Keyes that the future of the grounds is up to the SDLSA and nothing will be forced on the association that has had the lease at the loggers sports grounds from its creation. That lease expired earlier this year.
"Nothing is being forced upon us," said Keyes. He is happy with the way the proposal by the SEG is being handled and he wants to learn more about the SEG plans for the grounds.
"Our hopes are that by the spring we'll have all the agreements in place and then we can start to do some of the work in the spring and the summer but not in a way that interferes with the show this summer," said McNish. "Once the show is completed we start full scale construction so we are up and running for the spring of '06."
From then on, the SDLSA would have access to the site for the annual Squamish Days events.
