Kelowna Construction

[SOSS]

This is a nice piece of property - I hope to see it remain as some type of industrial land; perhaps mixed use with residential above. The main building is a major reason Clement hasn't been 4 laned from St. Paul to Graham.

The former BC Fruit Packers plant on Clement Avenue has been sold.

The property has been purchased by a developer in Vancouver.

The deal was announced late Thursday night. The sale is expected to officially close early in the new year.

Jeff Hudson, a principal/co-founder of HM Commercial Group, said he doesn't expect any snags with the sale.

A purchase price has not been disclosed, but the property was assessed at about $6.9 million.

The asking price was $7.3 million.

The property was put on the market in January.

"The interest level was unprecedented. I think we had nine offers total on the property over about nine months," said Hudson.

"People were envisioning really high-end industrial. We had people talking about doing mixed use and residential. Everybody had a different vision of what they wanted to do."

HM Commercial Group is licensed with Macdonald Realty Kelowna.

source

[DKaz]

The old building has already been knocked down although no roadwork yet. The city will probably get the developers to 4 lane the roadway, much like the RCMP is doing in front of their building.

[Sheener]

Here's an update on the SOPA square construction:

[giallo]

Fantastic update, Sheener. I've been wondering about the progress on this one.

Oh, and welcome to the forum.

[vitc]

HM Commercial Group: Kelowna shows increased investment from Asian buyers

As a homeowner this is music to my ears but I can understand the concern overall.

Interesting tidbit from this article: "The report lists four recent, major transactions involving foreign buyers, including the former Monaco multi-family site, sold for 6.5 million..."

Good to see the Monaco site sold as the previous owners just could not get the towers off the ground.

[Emtee]

The development application for Aqua Resort has been submitted officially. It includes towers up to 19 storeys.

http://apps.kelowna.ca/CityPage/DevA...pozzi%20Rd.pdf

[giallo]

Not too bad.

[csbvan]

Looks good, surprised to see this!

[DKaz]

More renders from Global.

http://globalnews.ca/news/3027005/ne...hore-property/





Site:
https://goo.gl/maps/hWGZWwkCTsy

[vicdevelopments]

That is a really cool project. Some amazing projects for Kelowna.

[Emtee]

Big changes to Kelowna’s new visitor centre

By Kelly Hayes

The new visitor centre in downtown Kelowna is going ahead but it has been downsized.

Officials say it will be much smaller than originally planned.

They say the building will be 3,000 square feet which is 40 per cent smaller than the original proposal.

Officials say another big change is that the building will no longer include office space.

They say they’ve also realigned the building so that it doesn’t impede on property set aside by the Simpson Covenant.

All the changes also mean a change in the overall cost of the building — from $3.5 million to $2.8 million.

Tourism Kelowna is responsible for raising the necessary funds to construct the building which will be located at the base of Queensway Avenue between Stuart Park and Kerry Park.

The new visitor centre will replace the current centre located on Harvey Avenue.

The next step is applying for a rezoning change — slated to happen in early November.

[Emtee]

Construction of planned new downtown Kelowna hotel put on hold

The company planning to build a new 24-storey hotel on Kelowna's downtown waterfront says it is delaying the start of construction by nearly a year to make revisions to its plan.

Westcorp announced Wednesday afternoon that it has has decided to delay construction in order to accommodate what it is calling the the exploration of some "desired design revisions."

Details of what those revisions are was not immediately revealed.

Construction is now not expected to get underway until the latter part of 2017. It was originally scheduled to start earlier this year, in the spring.

Stressing the move is a delay, not a suspension, of the project, Westcorp said building permit fees already collected by the City of Kelowna will remain in place.

Phil Milroy, president and CEO of Westcorp said the reason for the revisions at such a late date in the project's development, is because company has been "grappling" with changes it wants to make for several months and feel this is the right time make them. He promised the delay will be worth it in the long-run.

According to Milroy, the changes are expected to improve the functionality, performance and success of the project.

"We want to deliver a special project," he said. "We believe the wait will be worth it.”

Gail Temple, vice-president of operations for Westcorp also said while the Edmonton-based company is aware the public in Kelowna has been waiting with great expectation for construction to start, she also feels the wait will be worth it.

"While this delay is potentially disappointing, we will work through our revisions in as timely a way as possible and present (them) in 2017," she said.

"We are committed to excellence with this hotel and site, and are very excited about the possibilities of the end result."

The planned elliptical-shaped tower is slated for land the company owns at the corner of Queensway and Water Street. The site is currently a parking lot. The buildings that were on the site were demolished earlier this year.

The hotel will front onto Kerry Park and the downtown lakeshore and has been described by proponents as a future landmark for the city and a "statement" building for the downtown core.

As part of the hotel project, Mill Street will eventually close, with part of the street becoming a portion of the hotel site and the other part used to expand and revitalize Kerry Park.

http://www.kelownacapnews.com/news/399741341.html

[giallo]

Ouch. It's really tough to get projects of this magnitude started in Kelowna. Almost every proposal is delayed indefinitely (despite what they say in their official statement) or canceled outright. Kelowna is where Surrey used to be.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by giallo

Ouch. It's really tough to get projects of this magnitude started in Kelowna. Almost every proposal is delayed indefinitely (despite what they say in their official statement) or canceled outright. Kelowna is where Surrey used to be.

Not surprising, Kelowna is a fairly small city still. It's great to see a very sprawly city with one of the most inefficient road systems looking to urbanize though!

[csbvan]

It's incredible that waterfront buildings were demolished just so that the site can sit empty. If the delay is longer term or permanent, then all that this project will have done for Kelowna is worsened its already underwhelming downtown core and waterfront.

[DKaz]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

Not surprising, Kelowna is a fairly small city still. It's great to see a very sprawly city with one of the most inefficient road systems looking to urbanize though!

Kelowna's road system is like taking Abbotsford, removing Hwy 1, and forcing everyone to go through the city via South Fraser Way.

Here's hoping a Kelowna bypass/2nd crossing becomes a pre-election project.

[Emtee]

So Kelowna's biggest undeveloped eyesore finally has a development application submitted to the City! The site at the corner or Clement/Sunset which last was proposed to be a Westin back in the early 2000's has a mixed use development proposed for it. And what is proposed is a mixed use development including two 16 storey towers, townhouses, and some commercial units.
This is the site:




You can find the submission to the City here:

http://apps.kelowna.ca/iDevelopment_...m?da_num=19793
http://apps.kelowna.ca/CityPage/DevA...0Dr%201187.pdf

[Metro-One]

Thanks for the update. Would be great to see such a project get off the ground.

Well, at least according to the info on here SOPA (and the reincarnation of Lucya?) are going ahead, so there will be at least a couple towers added to the skyline.

Really worried about that hotel project... a delay has never ended well in Kelowna before, they better be the first to go against that trend and actually pull through. Love that proposal.

[Emtee]

Another article about this proposed development:

Developing an eyesore



It's been sitting vacant for more than a decade, after two proposed hotel projects fell apart.

Now, if all goes well at city hall, a piece of property across from Prospera Place, could become a 16-storey mixed use development.

Council approved the property at 1187 Sunset Drive for a 358-room hotel in 2002. When that fell through, a second development was approved in 2005 for a $150 million, 20-storey Westin Hotel.

The developers got as far as pre-loading the site with dirt before financing ran dry.

The dirt-covered property has become a haven for the homeless ever since.

That may be about to change.

North American Development Group has an offer pending on the property and a rezoning application in the hands of the city's planning department.

Jeff Hudson, with HM Commercial Group which is selling the property, said it's not unusual for a developer to test the waters at city hall before finalizing a purchase.

Plans presented to the city show two 16-storey towers on the north and south ends of the property as well as 36 townhouses along Ellis Street and on the northern edge.

Plans call for 151 rental units in the south tower and 132 for-sale units in the north tower. Units are a mix of micro, one and two-bedroom suites.

City planner Ryan Roycroft says plans are for the south rental tower to be constructed first.

Several commercial spaces are also shown at ground level including one for a possible restaurant.

The proposal has yet to come before council.

There's no word on the sale price, but the property was listed at $9.5 million.

http://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna...ing-an-eyesore

[aastra]

Why does everything have to be so ambitious only to fall through? It reminds me of Langford/Colwood (Victoria's suburbs) or Nanaimo. (To a degree... I realize that Kelowna has actually completed some major buildings recently, but you get my point.)

Would smaller projects just not be viable? I ask this same question about Langford and Nanaimo.