Squirrel Cove QXMC Project: The next Phase

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - As anyone passing through Squirrel Cove in recent months knows, there has been a great clearing in the upper part of the new Klahoose property. QXMC, the business arm of the Klahoose First Nation, hopes to open a store and gas bar there by March 2025. Ron Buchhorn, Chair of the Board of QXMC, explained, ”We retained a project manager back in November of last year and we have signed a letter of intent with Chevron for the gas station component of the store and gas bar. We have a commitment from Co-op that they will assist us with stocking the store and helping us basically manage to their standards.  Co-op will supply us with all the products in the store through their wholesale distributor TGF. We're very happy about that. It won't be branded Co-op because obviously with the Chevron branding on the facility, you can't have two brands.”  “The footprint of the store will be about 4,000 square feet. Full service with everything from groceries to produce, to meat, to deli to some prepared warm foods. It looks as though we'll have four suites upstairs. A 2 bedroom and three 1 bedroom suites, to ensure that we have accommodation for staff at the store.” “If we proceed with phase two, which is the campground next door, our plan is to have the General Manager and potentially a couple of the other department managers living at the facility. We want to have someone there full time.” “In terms of the store layout and the external architecture of the store, we're trying to keep the architecture consistent with the cabins that we've had an architect design. He's done a lot of research on Coast Salish buildings, during the last couple hundred years and tried to factor in that type of architecture.  It'll be very similar to the Klahoose Administration Building as well, so it'll be a shed roof with some nice exterior wood paneling. Our hope is that the sawmill will be able to provide all of the beams and most of the wood that will be required for the structure.”