Membertou First Nation buys Medical Arts and HealthPark buildings

The prosperous Membertou First Nation in Sydney has bought two commercial properties housing doctors' offices and pharmacies, one of them on land once inhabited by the Mi'kmaq.

Chief Terry Paul says the chance arose to buy the HealthPark building next to the Cape Breton Regional Hospital and the Medical Arts building on Kings Road when the current owners decided to invest in other businesses.

"It's a really good opportunity for us," he said. "The revenues that were made from these two properties were going elsewhere. The revenues that we make will be reinvested back in Cape Breton."

Paul said there will be no perceptible change in how the two buildings operate now.

"It's run really well by the present management and we're going to keep them there and we want to make sure that we service the tenants very professionally," he said.

The older of the two buildings, the Medical Arts building, is more than a good business opportunity, said Paul. It's on traditional Mi'kmaq land.

"(It's) land we lived on over a hundred years ago," he said. "As people may know, we were removed from there in 1916 and we've always had a closeness, felt a closeness to that property because it was near the water and access to our food source."

The HealthPark property serves to expand the boundaries of Membertou, as it's immediately adjacent to the reserve.