The Town of Nipawin officially has possession of the former Nipawin and District Chamber of Commerce building (Facebook/Nipawin & District Chamber of Commerce).

By Aaron Schulze

Chamber Building

Nipawin Chamber officially hands over building to the town

Aug 9, 2019 | 2:11 PM

Nearly four months of discussions regarding the Nipawin and District Chamber of Commerce’s building have concluded.

The Nipawin Chamber announced on Wednesday, Aug. 7 that its building located near Central Park has been sold and handed over to the Town of Nipawin.

Both parties agreed on a sale price of $85,000 plus a $5,000 signing bonus after the Town of Nipawin announced it would assume visitor information services from the chamber back in April 2019, which resulted in the chamber needing to relocate its office.

Chamber President Marlon Zacharias said after their annual general meeting in May that selling the building to the Town of Nipawin was the best option, as the town declared the chamber’s building and activities were not in line with the Central Park land zoning requirements.

The chamber purchased another building on Railway Ave W. in Nipawin’s downtown area and Zacharias said the new property gives them more flexibility.

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“We’ve moved in all of our stuff and now we’re doing some touch ups in the office,” Zacharias told northeastNOW. “Our office space is going to be more open and we’ll also have a few private offices available for our members if they need to come in and host meetings. We didn’t have a lot of extra space in the old building.”

The Nipawin and District Chamber of Commerce is settling into its new location (Submitted photo/Lisa Suchlandt).

Zacharias added the chamber being closer to their main business members in downtown Nipawin and continuing a working relationship with Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) out of their new location has other main benefits.

For the Town of Nipawin, they’re happy the transfer of land is complete, as they can begin preparing and refurnishing the building to their liking.

Nipawin’s chief administrative officer Barry Elliott said visitor information services will move back to the former chamber building from the town’s civic office, although there could be more services available.

“We are re-engaging in active conversation within the organization on a review of our strategic planning initiatives,” Elliott said. “Council will be giving thought to that in due course and there will be information about that coming. I fully expect as part of our strategic planning review, we’ll be talking about the new facility we have and how best to use it.

“Some of the other services that we’ve spoken are about the expansion of recreation related service opportunities within the Central Park area. We want to make sure that the facility is complimentary to the uses of Central Park.”

Elliott estimated the Town of Nipawin will be set up in the building in approximately two weeks. The plan is to hold a soft opening once the building is operational again, although he wants residents to know about visitor information services’ relocation.

The chamber will open business at its new location on Wednesday, Aug. 14. Zacharias said a larger open house for the community and the chamber’s members will take place at a later date.

Both the Town of Nipawin and the chamber said their relationship is still good following the building’s sale.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow