Exciting plans for Kootenay Co-op

Kootenay Co-op will soon have a new home and a new presence in the community of Nelson

1 of 2Deirdrie Lang is the longtime general manager of Kootenay Co-op in Nelson, B.C. — Photo courtesy Deirdrie Lang

2 of 2Kootenay Co-op in Nelson, B.C., will soon re-open at a beautiful new location near the city's waterfront. — Photo courtesy Deirdrie Lang

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Deirdrie Lang has worked for the Kootenay Country Store Co-op in Nelson, B.C., for 26 of the 38 years it’s existed, and she’s been the general manager for 18 years.

The basics of the business

“We are an independent, retail, consumer-owned, natural-food co-op,” Lang said. “We are open to the general public and have about 11,600 members, who are rewarded with annual patronage refunds—profit sharing based on the amount they have spent and the store’s success through the previous year. The brands we sell wouldn’t be found on most food store shelves. The co-op has a fairly stringent set of product guidelines and we have a strong focus on local and organic products.”

All of the co-op’s produce is either organic or Kootenay Mountain-grown, which is not necessarily certified organic, but does meet a set of guidelines that are on par with certified organic. Much of the meat sold here is locally produced and 95 per cent of it is sourced in B.C.

Lang said that she often gets requests for Kootenay Co-op to open a branch in other communities. However, as a community-driven venture, a co-op is ideally built by the members of the home community.

Planning a big move

Kootenay Co-op is currently involved in an exciting new project that will result in a brand new facility for the co-op and a beautiful addition to the Nelson downtown.

“We purchased the old Extra Foods site on June 1, 2012, with the intention of renovating and moving into it,” Lang said. “But the more we looked at it the more we realized there was an opportunity to do something really spectacular with the site.”

After examining the possibilities, it was decided that the best plan would be to demolish the building and put up a whole new structure that would include the co-op and some other commercial space on the main floor, and three storeys of condominiums above that. The first level of condos will have quite large terraces, suitable for container gardens. All units will have spectacular views of mountains and some will have views of Kootenay Lake.

Kootenay Co-op conducted an online survey to see if people wanted to live in downtown Nelson, and the positive response was overwhelming.

“I’m seriously considering buying one of the condos myself,” Lang said. “I’m an empty-nester and this seems like a good move.”

Collaborating with the City

Lang considers the City of Nelson to be distinctly progressive in its thinking.

“The Downtown Waterfront Master Plan that they conducted in the last few years seems to have turned them on to thinking about things in a different way,” she said. “The City is really eager to see this development go ahead—taking a quite unattractive aspect of our downtown and turning it into something vibrant and beautiful and practical. It is quite exciting to be collaborating with them on this community development project.”