While work on Phase One of the Hive in downtown Kamloops has already started at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Lansdowne Street, today marked the official groundbreaking ceremony.

“Despite current global challenges, Mr. [Tristan] Armstrong, Mr. [Bryan] Pillbeam and the entire Hive team are not sitting back, but rather they are looking forward and investing in our downtown business community, said Carl DeSantis, the Executive Director of the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association, who was among the speakers at the ceremony this afternoon.

“You know the Hive its not going to be open for business tomorrow. It’s going to take a couple of years before we can fill the office spaces. This project team, they are looking past that, and they are looking for the different phases of the Hive as we continue downtown’s growth.”

Speaking to NL News, he says the $27-million, three-phase project is something the city can be proud of.

“This means so much for our downtown. It means job. It means construction people down here.,” DeSantis added. “It means construction people eating and drinking and shopping, and it means new business that we are going to see in the next few years coming when the project is complete, and filling these remarkable office spaces.”

Phase One will see a six storey office building constructed. The developers – Invictus Properties and A&T Project Developments – previously noted that McMillan Dubo Law Group will be joining Urban Systems in the building once construction is complete, currently scheduled for the fourth quarter of next year.