Lee’s Music secures new North Shore location to open in spring

A Kamloops institution in the world of music now has a new home.

Lee’s Music, which has been selling musical equipment and providing music lessons for half-a-century in Kamloops, is shifting away from downtown, and is going to be taking up a new location on the North Shore.

Owner Mike Miltimore says after a long and drawn out search, they expect to be able to reopen Lee’s Music in the now-shuttered Findlay’s Vacuum and Sewing Machines building at 249 Tranquille Road sometime in the early spring.

“Our building that we’re currently in, which we’ve been in for 22 years, is getting redeveloped.  So when [the owner] Patti said that she was ready to retire and was looking to sell her building, we jumped all over it,” said Miltimore.   “We’re really excited to be moving our retail operations, our lesson school.  A couple of our products with Riversong are still going to be manufactured in that building as well.”

Miltimore notes the area at the southern end of the Tranquille corridor is undergoing a wide-scale redevelopment, which he suggests was another factor in choosing that location.

“We’re going to have a big grand opening party there [in April].  We’re going to be working with the North [Shore] Business Improvement Association,” said Miltimore.  “We’re just really excited about being part of what’s becoming the kind of the Kitsilano of Kamloops… a new kind of arts and culture hub.”

Miltimore sold the current site of Lee’s Music at 1305 Battle Street as part of a process the company initiated five years ago to help expand their operations, including the creation of their Riversong Guitar production facility in Sicamous.

However, even though an agreement had been made with the new owner of the building for them to remain downtown as they began searching for a new location, challenges — including the pandemic and higher interest rates — kept Lee’s Music where it was.

While the Sicamous operations took shape through 2023 and this year, the owner of downtown operation secured a development permit for the site in February.

That started a countdown clock for Miltimore to secure a new location for Lee’s, as substantial construction is required to begin within 2 years of a development permit being issued, or the City can pull the approvals.

That could cost the owner tens-of-thousands of dollars in development and application fees, on top of being forced to go through the permitting process again.

With Lee’s Music set to vacate, a 20 unit, five story strata apartment is set to be built at the site, which will include a ground-level commercial component.

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