Joelle Cannell has lived in and around Kelowna’s downtown for the better part of a decade.
“There have been a lot of changes — especially in the last couple of years,” she said, Thursday.
“With the completion of the Interior Health building, the police station and the Innovation Centre a true city vibe has evolved and it extends beyond Bernard Avenue.”
Throughout the city core there are eateries, coffee shops and places to stop once the sun goes down, which is a welcome change to Cannell who spent much of her adult life living in the city centres of Vancouver, Calgary and Victoria.
“I would say downtown Kelowna is finally coming into its own,” she said. “It’s growing up.”
Doyle and Ellis
City planners have never actually said; “If you build it, they will come,” but it’s clear they were banking the oft’ repeated quote and it’s starting to pay off.
The most noticeable results of their handiwork is on the corner of Doyle Avenue and Ellis Street, which has become significantly more vibrant in the last few months.
Interior Health’s $46 million downtown headquarters was completed in December, bringing with it as many as 800 health sector employees and 500 people a day in need of service.
“This is a game-changer not only for health care delivery but for downtown revitalization,” said Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran, about the health authorities headquarters being built on what was initially a municipal parking lot.
Construction on the six-storey, 106,000 square foot Centre for Innovation began Oct. 31, 2014 and was largely completed last month. The first tenant—the Business Development Bank of Canada—was scheduled to move in a week ago.
The Kelowna Police Services building will move off Doyle this summer, though the Clement Avenue facility tentatively opens March 24.
There’s also been an addition to the nearby library parkade and construction of a new parkade across the street, beside Memorial Arena.
All in all, Basran has said it will be the busiest intersection between Vancouver and Calgary.
Residential
There are more initiatives aimed at building up the urban core of the city, and they may be just as impactful when it comes to creating some vibrancy in the city core.
“We are seeing lots of development interest with our RU7 infill housing zone around the downtown area,” said Ryan Smith, the City of Kelowna’s community planning manager. “The first proposals for that are rolling through the door.”
That plan would essentially allow for four homes to be built on 750 standard-size municipal lots throughout central Kelowna.
The aim is to diversify and increase the city’s housing stock, create more populated and vibrant neighbourhoods, while also allowing existing landowners to pull more value from their properties through additional development, city officials have said.
“We’re working on pre-development application proposals on a number of other sites downtown, as well,” said Smith, noting that a lot of projects that once sat stagnant are starting to take form.
“The building at the corner of Richter and Stockwell is being built now, and for a long time that was just a sign on a plot of dirt,” said Smith, of the condo development.
On the corner of Leon and Ethel a micro-suite project is being developed and Central Green, the master-planned community downtown at Highway 97 and Richter Street, is also coming together quickly. Consumer appetite for the project was apparently impressive enough that on the opening day of sales, developer Mission Group sold $10 million worth of condominiums in the first of four low-rise buildings it will construct on the site.
And what was once Kelowna’s cautionary development tale is really taking shape. The highrise at 1151 Sunset Drive, has sold over 70 per cent of its 109 condominiums in less than four months.
The project formally was known as Lucaya and it started and died with only one floor completed during the economic downturn of 2008. It will be complete by next summer.
Also, the big pile of dirt kitty-corner from Prospera Place may finally shape up into something after failing to materialize into the Westin in 2008.
“It’s a different market than 2007 and 2008, there’s a lot less supply of single family lots and market condos for sale,” said Smith.
“In 2008 we saw condos sold on speculation … we see less of that now.”
People want to move into the downtown, he said, and that’s having a ripple effect.
“Back in 2005, 2006 we would see 750 to 1,000 single family lots a year created by local developers,” said Smith.
“In the last two years we have averaged 350 to 450. We are seeing a larger share of development happening in the city core areas, in the form of town housing or rental housing.”
Rental housing
Complementing all these new developments is a new cache of rental properties, which are expected to significantly improve Kelowna’s rental vacancy rate of 0.6 per cent.
“Over the past couple of years, the combination of a tight rental market and rental housing incentives from the city, we’ve seen a lot of change,” said Smith.
“There’s somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1,500 rental suites in development,” he said, adding that they range from one to three bedrooms.
“Early projects were one bedrooms and micro-suites, but now there’s a larger mix of two and three bedrooms. A Glenmore development had a number of three bedroom units and so too did a development for KLO road.”
These units aren’t expected to come online right away, nor is it clear whether they will improve the affordability of the area.
That said, they are sorely needed.
Hotels
Tourism-oriented developments are also moving ahead, said Smith.
The most notable project is the Westcorp hotel. The 24-storey hotel in downtown Kelowna was given approvals in 2014, and expectations were that it would be well underway by now. In November, however, the second delay on the estimated $65 million project on the corner of Queensway Avenue and Mill Street was announced.
Revisions on the design was the reason for the delay.
Smith said that it was a “somewhat minor” change and the city expected to see the project back for permits in the spring.
In the meantime, the Argus hotel planned for the corner of Manhattan Road and Sunset Drive has been put on hold.
It’s unclear why plans for hotel rooms have been shelved, but Smith said interest remains.
“There are three different hotel proposals, two at the corner Highway 97 and 33 and a third at the corner of Spall and Enterprise at the southside, and a fourth one was permitted in the fall for a space by the airport,” he said.
“We have a number of them on the books. I know the hotel market is competitive in Kelowna — I don’t know if they will all proceed.”
The rest
While Kelowna’s development community is seemingly basking in what Smith described as a “hot market,” there are still some projects not faring as well as planned.
The Aquilini family of Vancouver received permission in 2009 to build a 26-storey tower on Bernard Avenue. The approvals for the project lapsed at the end of 2013 and the company recently put the building for sale.
The Aquilini’s focus seems to be SOPA Square, a Pandosy Street development long beleaguered by debt and bad press. It was purchased from its original owners two years ago and is still under construction.
Plans for a “Granville Island style” market have also not materialized in Kelowna, despite two projects getting significant press several years ago.
Of note, the old BC Tree Fruit packing facility was torn down last year and the land is owned by a Vancouver-based company, said Smith.
The brewery slated for the land has also not gone through.
“A new development permit for the site is expected,” said Smith. “It’s going to be consistent with the industrial zoning.”
To learn more about the developments being planned go to:
https://www.kelowna.ca/homes-building/property-development/current-developments.