bcbusiness.ca august 2015 BCBusiness 39
continue to call Kelowna home many
decades from now.
The modernist new buildings of
Kelowna General Hospital—a massive
360,000-square-foot, $632-million rede-
velopment started in 2008—are part of
that legacy. Now in its -nal phases, the
facility will see a new Heart and Surgical
Centre with 15 operating rooms launched
in September, with a new Cardiac Cath-
eterization Lab set to open in 2017. Two
kilometres to the north, Interior Health
is constructing a 145,000-square-foot
downtown o‹ce building that will col-
lect 800 employees currently scattered
across 10 ofŒices around the valley.
And nearby, the 100,000-square-foot,
$48-million
RCMP Police Services build-
ing is in pre-development.
One of the anchor projects in down-
town Kelowna is Westcorp Development's
200-room, $65-million highrise (as yet
unnamed) hotel to be developed on the
waterfront. With restaurants and large-
scale meeting rooms, it will become a
centrepiece when it opens in 2018. The
-rst phase, a $5-million pier and marina,
has already been completed; boaters can
now pull their boats up to metered park-
ing for a night on the town. Westcorp
executive Gail Temple says, "Whether
you arrive by car or boat, we want to
present this property as an entry point
to everything great about the Okanagan."
For many, what's great about the
Okanagan is its a¢ordable, plentiful real
estate. Many are the stories of Vancou-
verites selling their False Creek or Yale-
town condos to move to Kelowna and
upgrade their housing; $700,000 buys
a large home in the city's Mission neigh-
bourhood with panoramic lake views,
and for a few dollars more, you can add
a pool. At the attractive and amenity-
rich Waterscapes development down-
town, $300,000 buys a two-bedroom,
850-square-foot condominium; the rent
is $1,400 per month. Restored homes in
the Abbott Street heritage neighbour-
hood Œive minutes from downtown
begin at $550,000. And Vancouver's
Aquilini family will soon begin complet-
ing the Sopa Square development in the
city's trendy Pandosy Village neighbour-
hood, adding o‹ces, street-level shops
and condominiums in the tower that
will be marketed by Vancouver's uber
condo marketer, Bob Rennie.
A Smart Investment
Perhaps nothing has been as critical to
Kelowna's decade of growth, however,
top of the class
Deborah Buszard is
leading UBC Okanagan
through its fast-growing
formative years
