The Osoyoos Home Building Centre broke ground at its new location west of Osoyoos last week. The new site is planned to open January, 2020. From left are: president and CEO of Johnston Builders James Hackney; Osoyoos Home Building Centre general manager Cory Hilditch; and partners of Pro Builders Supply Limited Joe Chwachka and Travis Loudon. (Vanessa Broadbent photo)

By Vanessa Broadbent

Osoyoos Times

Plans for the Osoyoos and District Museum and Archives to relocate to Main Street are moving forward and Osoyoos Home Building Centre broke ground at its new location off Highway 3 last week.

At 22,000 square feet, the new facility will be over five times larger than the current 4,000 square foot store.

“We’ve outgrown the location, probably 10 years ago,” said Joe Chwachka, VP and partner of Pro Builders Supply Limited.

The timing was never right to make the move, Chwachka said, but after a few years of strong business, the company is ready to start construction.

The plan is to start moving merchandise in November, and be completely operating out of the new store by January, 2020.

The building centre’s current location is owned by the regional district and the Osoyoos Museum Society gains possession of it on January 1, 2020.

The society plans to have the building open to the public, at least partially, that summer, but first needs to complete renovations.

Kara Burton, the museum and archives’ executive director, gave a presentation at the Osoyoos Library last Wednesday, detailing the $2.5 million upgrades.

The museum has operated out of its current facility, an old curling rink near Gyro Beach, since 1975.

Along with bats, bugs, rats and leaks, Burton said the building’s inconsistent temperatures aren’t ideal for preserving artifacts.

“Although decades have passed, we do need to get out of that building in order to care for artifacts and share the stories of Osoyoos,” she said.

The Osoyoos and District Museum and Archives is preparing for its relocation to Main Street in 2020 and executive director Kara Burton gave a presentation detailing the move at the Osoyoos Library last week. (Vanessa Broadbent photo)

The society is anticipating that with a more prominent location on Main Street, the museum’s walk-in traffic will more than quadruple, Burton said.

Currently, the museum gets about 2,000 visitors every year.

“Most people don’t even know that we exist where we are,” Burton said. “We’re not on a main thoroughfare; we’re quite tucked away down behind the bandshell there and a lot of people say they can’t even find us.”

The renovations to the main floor of the new building will include exhibit space, a gift shop, washrooms, a kitchen and a staff room.

A mezzanine will house office space, and the lower level will be storage and archives, as well as a multi-purpose room and workspace.

While the renovation itself – gutting the building and bringing it up to code, as well as making it climate-controlled to protect artifacts – will take time, simply moving everything over will take months, Burton said.

“Moving a museum is a monumental task,” she said. “We have hundreds of boxes of artifacts and thousands of artifacts on display. Packing everything and moving everything, we’ve been working on that since 2014, getting our database up to code, getting everything organized so that we can have a seamless move.”

• Read more: Town council supports Museum Society’s quest for funds

Most of the projected cost – $2 million, mostly covered by grants and fundraising – will cover the move and renovations. The additional $500,000 will go towards exhibits.

Instead of setting up a tableau to showcase the artifacts, like many community museums do, Burton said the exhibits will revolve around three core themes: land, people and industry.

“Each of those themes locally are very interconnected: without the land and the geography, the people wouldn’t have come, the industry wouldn’t have flourished. Without the people, there wouldn’t be the industry.”

Traveling exhibits from larger museums across Canada will also be displayed, which is currently not possible because the museum’s present location is not climate controlled.

The plan is to change exhibits every three or four months, Burton said.

Originally, the move was set to happen in fall of 2016 but after the Town of Osoyoos decided to extend the lease with Home Hardware Builidng Centre, plans were delayed for five years.

“We were delayed and it put a significant dent in our supporters and our plans,” Burton said. “A lot of people still aren’t confident that it’s going to come together.”

However, Chwachka confirmed that the company has to be out of the facility by the end of the year.

“The town has been great to work with,” he said. “I appreciate their support; economic development is important for communities like Osoyoos.”

A conceptual drawing released in June 2013 shows what the Osoyoos Home Building Centre will look like after it becomes the home of the Osoyoos and District Museum and Archives in 2020.