While many of the businesses that called Maple Park Mall home have been forced to find new floor space, two companies are still open and thriving.
Investors Group Wealth Management and Carlos Place Fish and Chips have so far been unaffected by the mall’s new ownership.
Liane Kimmie, who is the senior financial consultant for IG Wealth Management, has been in the same storefront for more than three decades.
“This is probably the fifth or sixth owner in the years that I’ve been here,” she says. “When it was bought last December, I was told there would be some positive changes, and I think there will be.”
Since her business and Carlos Place only have separate, outside entrances, they will not have to close up shop while the interior of the mall is being updated.
“It’s logical if you think of it,” says Kimmie. “If they’re going to retrofit and update — the flooring in there desperately needs to be replaced — they can’t go in and do one unit and jump to another and go back and forth.
“They have to go right through and do the updating for the whole space.”
Kimmie does financial planning through the company.
“I cover RRSPS, TFSAs, RDSPs, RIFs,” she says, “anything to do with financial planning, I do.
“I’m also an elder planner, a retirement planner, and I hold all the personal licences for insurances.
For me, it’s not a fill-the gap job, it’s a love career. I love what I’m doing, and I have no plans to leave any time soon.”
Kimmie adds in the 30 years she’s been at the location, the ebbs and flows of the mall have never had an impact.
“When you’re coming to a mall, you’re coming to shop or spend money,” she says. “If you’re going to go see your insurance person about car insurance, you’re not checking the other stores around them, you’re just coming to them.
“That’s the same with me. I’m a destination in itself, not an attraction in the mall.”
Carlos Kelly, who operates the fish and chip shop next to IG Wealth Management, has not being in touch with the new ownership but is going about his day-to-day as he always has.
He has been at the mall for five years, he likes the location and business is good.
“I believe I’ve been through the worst already while setting up in the first couple years,” he says.
Kelly says he is still waiting to see what the ownership wants.
“I hope from the bottom of my heart that they allow me to stay,” he says. “Moving would be a big transition.”
In the meantime, he will continue to sell halibut, cod and delicious fries for anyone who stops in.
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ronan.odoherty@quesnelobserver.com
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