The owners of a former cowboy-themed bar on Queensway are looking for a development variance permit to transform the property into an insurance office.
On the agenda for the Monday, March 24 Prince George city council meeting is a development variance permit for 2595 Queensway, the former location of Cowboy Ranch Cookhouse.
The owners want the variance so they can change the land use to “service, financial” and increase the maximum gross leasable floor area from 280 square metres to 493 square metres.
“The applicant is proposing to redevelop the existing vacant building to facilitate an insurance office at the former Cowboy Ranch Cookhouse,” staff’s report said. “The footprint of the existing building is not proposed to change.”
Included with the agenda is a letter from Brett Nicholson, managing director of Wilson M. Beck Insurance Services currently located at 3685 Massey Dr.
“As we were looking to expand our company, we came to realize that the existing office space we occupied would no longer meet our requirements,” Nicholson wrote.
“As we set out to look for a new space, we expanded our search from lease buildings to purchase buildings. During our search, we were fortunate enough to locate the property at 2595 Queensway which was vacant, for sale and the renovation demolition of the existing pub interior had already begun.”
Nicholson goes on to explains that when they purchased the building, the company was unaware that the zoning limited the leasable space to one tenant with a floor space of 280 square metres.
He argues that the business would have lessened impact to the neighbourhood than the previous tenant, as most of their work is done over the phone or through the internet.
At one point, the letter says, the building was being renovated to house a denturist’s office.
Accompanying the application are four letters of support, though three of the letters have the same content but are from different representatives of the same business.
