The Mid-Island is where Wenner started — the original electrical contracting business, founded in Nanaimo in 1945, three generations on. Boxwood Road is still where the team rolls out from for projects across Nanaimo, Lantzville, Nanoose Bay, Parksville, Qualicum Beach, the Comox Valley, and the Mid-Island Gulf Islands.
The Mid-Island catchment
From the Boxwood Road Experience Centre, we run the full design and installation team to:
- Nanaimo — Departure Bay, Hammond Bay, Stephenson Point, North Nanaimo, Lantzville, Nanoose Bay. The bulk of our Mid-Island volume. Reference projects include Sandstone on Stephenson Point, Seaside on Polaris Drive, and Qualia — the CEDIA Best Ultra-Luxury Home, Americas winner — in Nanoose Bay.
- Parksville and the Oceanside region — French Creek, Errington, Coombs, Craig Bay, Dorcas Point. Oceanfront estates and rural forested acreages. Reference: Ciel — A Coastal Masterpiece at Dorcas Point.
- Qualicum Beach — Bowser, Deep Bay, Ships Point, Eaglecrest. Long-standing market for considered waterfront builds.
- Comox Valley — Courtenay, Comox, Cumberland, Royston, Union Bay. Sustained custom-build activity, a 90-minute run from Boxwood Road.
- Gabriola Island — a 20-minute ferry from Nanaimo. As accessible as some on-Island markets. Reference: Gabriola.
- Denman and Hornby — accessed via Buckley Bay; a two-ferry hop for Hornby. Higher travel scheduling, same in-house team.
- Tofino and Ucluelet — across the Island, served as part of the West Coast catchment.
What changes from project to project
The Mid-Island runs from urban Nanaimo waterfront to rural Errington acreages to off-grid Hornby waterfront. The integration brief is meaningfully different across them:
Nanaimo and Lantzville waterfront — typical luxury custom build. Full Crestron or Lutron HomeWorks, layered architectural lighting, distributed audio, dedicated theatre or media room, motorised shading and drapery, integrated security, full networking. Standby Kohler generator with automatic transfer switch is essentially standard given the Mid-Island’s winter storm exposure.
Parksville oceanfront — same scope, with extra attention to saltwater exposure on every exterior fixture, run, and conduit, and longer driveway power runs. Exterior lighting and audio scope is usually heavier than an urban build.
Comox Valley new builds — increasingly sophisticated architectural language. The technology brief has grown alongside the market over the last five years.
Gulf Island and West Coast properties — off-grid considerations: serious solar PV, battery storage, generator backup, well water management, satellite connectivity. The Crestron platform brings all of it onto one screen.
What to specify
The disciplines that benefit most from early integration — at schematic, before framing:
- Electrical, power and lighting — RCPs, panel schedules, conduit layouts on the same scale as the architectural set. Wenner’s electrical practice is the foundation everything else attaches to.
- Architectural lighting — Lutron HomeWorks or Crestron, layered, scene-programmed. Engraved keypads in your designer’s metal palette.
- Motorised shading and drapery — Lutron Palladiom or Crestron CSM. Fabric coordinated with the interior designer.
- Audio and video — distributed audio, dedicated theatres, family rooms that work for the kids. Speakers behind plaster.
- Networking — Ubiquiti or Araknis backbone, sized for distributed AV, smart-home controllers, security cameras, IoT, and home-office workloads.
- Solar and standby power — Kohler generators are essentially standard on Mid-Island custom builds. Solar PV with battery storage where the site supports it.
- Security, surveillance and access — integrated into the Crestron platform alongside everything else. Monitoring through a local Canadian ULC-listed station.
When to bring us in
Schematic design is the right time. The earlier we’re at the table, the quieter the technology becomes — and the lower the risk of late-build coordination conflicts that compromise the architecture.
For Mid-Island projects we recommend a one-hour visit to the Boxwood Road Experience Centre with the architect, interior designer, builder, and homeowner. It’s the fastest way to align the team.
What it costs
A whole-home Crestron or Lutron HomeWorks system in a luxury Mid-Island custom build typically lands between $80,000 and $400,000+ for the technology scope, depending on home size, system depth, and how much of the lighting, audio-video, shading, climate and security scope sits on the platform. The technology budget is usually 4–8% of the home’s overall construction cost.
Three Design Packages — Foundation, Premier, Estate — sized to project complexity drive the budget conversation.
Next step
Book a Centre Visit at the Boxwood Road Experience Centre. Open Monday through Friday by appointment. The team that will design and install your project is the team that runs the visit.