Description of Historic Place

The Zorkin Building is a two storey, vernacular commercial building located on the main commercial thoroughfare of one of Nanaimo's oldest neighbourhoods, adjacent to the downtown core. The historic place is confined to the building footprint.

Heritage Value

The Zorkin Building is significant for its association with realtor Mladen Zorkin, who developed numerous recreational, commercial and residential properties on mid-Vancouver Island. In addition to opening the first strip mall in British Columbia at Terminal Park in Nanaimo in the 1950s, Zorkin later developed other areas of Nanaimo and properties at French Creek and Columbia Beach in the Parksville/Qualicum area.
Zorkin is also significant for his role in the publication of the Vancouver Island-based Croatian Voice newspaper. Zorkin used the pro-Croatian newspaper as a platform to advocate for Croatian independence. During the course of his lobbying effort, he met with Prime Ministers Lester Pearson, John Diefenbaker, Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney and Jean Chretien.
The Zorkin Building is part of a grouping of similarly scaled historic commercial buildings on the north side of this city block.

Source: City of Nanaimo, Development Services Department

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Zorkin Building include:
-the building's location, within a group of similarly scaled historic buildings, on the main commercial thoroughfare of one of the city's oldest neighbourhoods.