douglas

Miniature World Makes a Move

By Norman Gidney, Douglas Staff

After 40 years of offering tourists and locals a bird’s-eye view of small, detail-packed dioramas, Miniature World is going to grow a bit bigger.

One of the favourite attractions of every little kid is preparing to move out of the Empress Hotel and into the Victoria Conference Centre.

George Devlin has operated the Miniature World attraction in the Fairmont Empress hotel for 40 years, and plans to relocate into nine now-vacant retail units in the city-run VCC along Douglas Street.

His company, Lin Rite Enterprises Ltd., is negotiating a lease with the city of Victoria, which recently advertised its intent to lease the space to Lin Rite for 15 years, starting at a minimum $105,000 a year.

The little people, trains, model circus and all of the tiny displays at Miniature World will be moving to the centre’s streetfront store spaces along Douglas. It was space that the conference centre itself had considered for expansion, but the VCC’s lease on the Crystal Garden for extra exhibit and function space eased the shortage, said manager Jocelyn Jenkyns.

“They’ve been wanting to expand to a higher-traffic location,” she said, of Miniature World. “Sometimes people can’t find them.”
The expansion into the store units is the next phase for Miniature World., and “it’s a great match” for the conference centre, Jenkyns said.

The VCC wanted to “maintain that streetscape” along Douglas.

The attraction, located in the Humboldt wing of the hotel, has outlasted many other tourist attractions in the Victoria area, from Sealand of the Pacific to Fable Cottage, Land of the Little People and Judge Hunter’s haunted mansion.

Three different attractions have come and gone in the Crystal Garden building itself during Miniature World’s time in business.
The lease could earn the city more than the minimum amount, depending on business at Miniature World. The ad run by the city said it could get up to 10 percent of gross revenues at the business.

The move will take owner George Devlin some time. His lease with the Fairmont Empress has 18 months to run, approximately the time he expects the renovations and move will take.

Miniature World plans to reopen by the summer of 2011, he said. The entrance will be on the corner, in the two-storey space once occupied by the Stephen Lowe Gallery.

Jenkyns said Miniature World will have almost all of the retail space. Just the Silver Linings jewelry store will remain in the VCC’s row of stores.