It’s hard to believe it’s been only four years since a young entrepreneur decided to paint the town red by opening his lime green storefront at the base of Kelowna’s supposed seediest neighbourhood.

Nestled at the base of Leon Avenue, directly across from the Gospel Mission, The Habitat’s own mission initially appeared as daunting as many presumed their location would prove.

Now a wildly popular live music venue, they’re concept wasn’t so clear to the city’s council of the day, as councillors wrestled over whether or how to license the establishment for liquor consumption when it appeared to host a mixed bag of business interests under one roof.

The venture was the brainchild of then 24-year-old owner Quinn Best, who had recently returned to Kelowna from the Vancouver area where he ran a production company, Lush Plush, in a similar central-city environment off West Pender Street.

Building The Habitat would have a major impact on the community and would include the community, he promised, as he gave interviews pointing out how he was already hiring homeless people from the Gospel Mission for a week or two at a time.

“It helped reinforce somewhat of a strategic relationship with the people on the street,” he said this week, noting the business has since hired janitorial and event staff through their relationship with the charity and its patrons.

Those who live in the streets of the area have, in effect, been the eyes and ears of the business, protecting it from theft and vandalism, he said.

The Habitat is now intricately tied to he non-profit, hosting morning Metro services on Sundays for the Mission, conducted by Willow Park Church. And, as promised four years ago, they’re business is also used quite heavily by other non-profits, like the Kelowna Women’s Resource Centre, which recently held their popular Five Feminist Minutes open mic session on its stage.

As it turns out, using the venue for everything from metal bands to corporate dinner dances, and even the odd wedding, has left the young entrepreneur and his crew in a unique position to both connect with the community and help build the local music scene from the inside out.

It helped establish them as one of the top 20 music venues in Canada on CBC Radio 3’s Searchlight: Best live Music Venue in Canada contest .The Habitat beat out major Vancouver venues like Richards on Richards and The Commodore for that spot.

But it’s Best’s latest venture, as the driving force behind a local bid to bring the Western Canadian Music Awards to Kelowna in 2010, that he’s hoping will solidify The Habitat’s market and legacy.

Though still at the proposal stage, the three-tier event would see a music festival, industry professional’s conference and award show descend, bringing $1 million in revenue to the area and introducing Kelowna as one of the top musical cities in the country.

“That call list would be in place so that if we want to call Nickelback’s manager, we’ll have established that connection. If the people from Festivals Kelowna want to talk to the organizers of Bumbershoot (Seattle’s Music and Arts Festival), Coachella (Valley Music and Arts Festival)…it’s there,” Best said.

“That’s a really big challenge and we’ve seen the reality of not having that planning in place with things like Wakefest.”

Planning The Habitat’s own space, Best has worked his way onto the board of Music B.C. and Festivals Kelowna in effort to be apart of building the local music scene—and he’s brought it in-house as well.

Habitat offered Saxx Design Clothing, the men’s underwear company that made it big on The Dragon’s Den, office space. When the company succeeded and moved to Vancouver, Best challenged Music B.C. to live up to their name and bring staff into the Interior.

Music B.C. executive assistant Amanda Schweers now operates out of the space two days per month, offering a critical link for local musicians hoping to learn the business.

As part of their own commitment to the same, Habitat takes in students from the Centre for Arts and Technology sound program, on a show by show basis, and accepts interns from the school’s music management stream in the summer.

It’s all part of building a sustainable industry, said Best, admitting it also serves his own interests.

The young entrepreneur figures the venue will see its 500th band come through their doors this year, still hosts the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada workshops on a regular basis and holds dinner dances for local companies.

All of those activities bring sideline benefits for other businesses as he chauffeurs acts off to wineries or Big White, finds them local studio space, and generally does whatever is needed to make their experience in Kelowna a good one.

So he figures he needs to see the city’s commitment to helping him grow to sustain his own efforts. With this week’s unanimous decision by city council to back the Western Canadian Music Awards bid to the tune of $40,000, Best says believes the spirit of reciprocity is there.

As for what the future holds, on the top of his list is a bid for a new liquor licence. This year they hired a consultant to help navigate B.C.’s licensing laws so they can stay open later, hold more guests but still not give up the right to open the doors for families with kids, like those who attend the Metro services on Sundays.