After years of feeding Sooke and providing a dine-in view of the Sooke harbour, the Stickleback West Coast Eatery restaurant is for sale.
The iconic eatery is listed for sale online for $3.3 million.
Not that anyone’s in a hurry to sell it, said owner Scot Taylor, who says the sale has nothing to do with the restaurant’s finances and success, but with the idea of keeping his options open as a business person.
“Some people always think that people are selling something for the wrong reasons, but it not always the case. It’s that I feel that there’s a very hot market right now,” he said, adding that he’s just as happy to continue running the restaurant, even if it doesn’t sell.
“What I do in Sooke and how I’ve done it has worked for me, and my wife and I can walk away with some equity and continue to do what we’re doing in some capacity,” he said.
The restaurant is one of three businesses that Taylor operates on the property. The others include Rush Adventures, an outdoors program that offers kayak rentals, paddleboard yoga and bike rentals, and West Coast Adventure College, a college that specializes in adventure tourism training.
If he sells the property, Taylor said he’ll leave it to the new owner’s discretion whether he will continue to run his college or move someplace else.
“If they choose for me not to stay, then I look for other areas in Sooke that would satisfy the needs of running an adventure tourism program,” he said, adding that whether the property sells or not, his staff will be looked after.
“If we sell, I’ll make sure that all of my staff are taken care of in some way.”
Regardless of what happens, Taylor said he feels positive about the sale, and that the Sooke community has been supportive since the beginning.
“I’ve had had three business in Sooke, and I feel the locals support me. If that was an issue, I wouldn’t be in business today,” he said.
“When you’re a business person and you’re at the top of where you’d like to be, and have something that looks like a sellable product, then you can put a price on it.”