Province, Snuneymuxw FN purchase former Nanaimo Howard Johnson site

The future of a downtown Nanaimo property became much clearer Monday when the B.C. government announced it had purchased the former site of a Howard Johnson hotel.

The piece of high-profile land tucked along the Millstone River and Terminal Avenue used to be a village site of the Snuneymuxw First Nation.

In the 1960s, it became the home of a Howard Johnson Hotel, a bar and other businesses, until the hotel closed in 2018.

Now, the land is being returned to Snuneymuxw.

“It is with great gratitude that we announce the return of 2.57 hectares of the Sxwayxum site to Snuneymuxw,” Chief Mike Wyse said at a press conference Monday.

The province has paid nearly $26 million for the property, buying it from a developer who planned to build a large commercial and residential development on it.

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But the Snuneymuxw had been largely left out of the process as the developer came within final reading twice with the City of Nanaimo to get it approved.

“As you know, we’ve filed a specific claim for this village site some years ago,” said Wyse.

“So it’s very sacred, and it’s got a lot of history for our people, so without us being at the table, we had to come forward and make our case, and we did that, and here we are today.”

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Chief Wyse says the property will be developed but would not elaborate on what could be built there.

The first priority is to tear down the old hotel, and the province is kicking in $1 million for that as well.

“From our perspective, it’s 170 years since the Douglas Treaty where promises were made that that would be protected as a village site,” said Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Murray Rankin. “It obviously hasn’t been, and so this is part of our journey of reconciliation.”

The site will be handed over to the First Nation.

Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog says he’s happy to know the site will finally be developed.

“It’s been derelict for a long time. It is an eyesore, so I am very excited to see certainty brought,” he said.

“We will see what proposals come forward. I must tell you I want to see it developed as much as reasonably possible.”

The Snuneymuxw chief says whatever is built here will benefit First Nation and non-First Nation people alike for generations to come.

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