[BCMA] CMA Clip Serv: Victoria waxworks likely heading out...

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

That's right Victoria!

Put that long-time freeloader on the first stage out of town - about 100K due west . . . .

Dan Gallacher

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv. 
  To: bcma at lists.vvv.com 
  Sent: Monday, December 05, 2011 10:35 AM
  Subject: [BCMA] CMA Clip Serv: Victoria waxworks likely heading out...


  Victoria waxworks likely heading out of town, 
  owner says 
  Former terminal tenant cites high rents, lack of space 
  Darron Kloster, Victoria Times-Colonist, Friday, December 2, 2011 


  More than 350 wax heads and matching sets of hands are still chilling in a undisclosed climate-controlled warehouse, waiting to see daylight - and tourists - again. 


  But don't expect Ken Lane to re-emerge with his Royal London Wax Museum any time soon - or in Greater Victoria, for that matter. 


  More than a year after Lane was forced out of the CPR Steamship Terminal for a $5-million earthquake retrofit - and a day after the keys to the historic building on the Inner Harbour were handed over to the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority - the wax figures that stood in the space for more than 40 years may be heading out of the city. 


  Lane said in an interview Thursday he is "90 per cent certain" the attraction will emerge somewhere else in B.C. or in the east. 


  He cites high rents and the lack of museum-quality space in the capital for the potential move. 


  He's also wary of setting up again with the Island's tourism economy still battered and rising ferry fares that contribute to keeping tourists off the Island. 


  Lane has spent the last several months exploring possible sites to set up his exhibit again. 


  Locally, he's talked with Butterfly World owner Don Calveley, president of the Truffles Group of Companies, about the possibility of expanding the gardens to include a wax museum. 


  Lane would like to be close to Butchart Gardens, the region's biggest tourism draw, and to that end has considered spaces along Keating Cross Road, including a former hardware store and the Co-op grocery, which has plans to build on Tsartlip land. 


  The museum would ideally need 20,000 square feet to house the collection, which Lane said is valued at between $2 million and $3 million. 


  He has also looked at the former Vic Theatre in Nookta Court downtown, but that location does not have an ideal streetfront area to promote the museum, Lane said. 


  He also inquired at the empty space below 910 Government St., once used by UVic as a downtown campus. 


  There are also potential sites up Island, including in Nanaimo, as well as the former Canadian Tire store along the Trans-Canada Highway in Duncan. 


  Lane said he is also seriously exploring sites in Kamloops, the former Storyeum location in Vancouver's Gastown, and a potential partnership with the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in Merritt. 


  ---   30   --- 



------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  _______________________________________________
  BCMA mailing list
  BCMA at lists.vvv.com
  http://lists.vvv.com/mailman/listinfo/bcma
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.vvv.com/pipermail/bcma/attachments/20111212/f81b166a/attachment-0001.htm