Dull development moving forward

[kibbs]

move in to fill the void?

Because this place offers so little for them, they want to leave and create a void not fill it . When the boomers are gone "ghost town"

[joer2012]

We could become a real estate investment ghost town.

Could become?

The amazing thing about Mr Councillors comments ("dull" development) is the arrogant, entitled attitude. Spoiled and picky Kelowna babies wanting more and more.

Mr Councillor himself should be grateful that ANY investor is willing to put money down on a commercial real estate development in this town. It's a smash-and-grab economy in Kelowna - only happening when the market turned positive, and only for short and medium term returns. Forget the long term, nobody much cares about that angle and nobody wants to be saddled with a Kelowna based liability.

As for the comment about Albertan investors, forget it. There are much better returns to be had in Alberta - a better and more active market, more reach to a higher spending, employed population, and less hassle with local red tape, old boys network, and related small backwards town BS. Albertan investor dollars will be going where capital is better served for better returns in the long term, and not in some backwater where it is highly susceptible to peaks and troughs of the BC "economy" and people of bad repute make the decisions on who wins tenders, gets contracts, and decides on all the major real estate moves, while backhanders and bundles of cash get exchanged as they have for decades in the land of the old boys network.

No infrastructure, no industry, no jobs, no access to high populations and reliant on small time service and tourism expenditures, and retirees. If you had $10m to invest, would you put your own money down in a Kelowna project? No, I thought not.

Be grateful people of Kelowna for the scraps that you get, even if they are "dull". The days of being fussy are long gone.

Wake up, Kelowna.

[kibbs]

Kelowna project?

i wish i personally had 20 million to invest in this incredible town .As soon as Albertas' oil fortune changes as it did before .it will become as barren as mars or Vulcan. This town has no choice but to grow .She just needs to meet nice guy instead of these scoundrels looking for a quickie.

[theyeti]

city better smarten up and let the ppl build the project they want. i think they probably have an anchor tenant in mind .
why would council (who probably knows about said anchor tenant ) try and make the developers spend millions in extras to spruce up a brand new building in rutland . do any of these council members even go to rutland ??

[Grandan]

If you had $10m to invest, would you put your own money down in a Kelowna project? No, I thought not.

Take a look at Wilden community. There is a German industrialist who has plunked down a lot more than that to aquire and build that community. A new road built by that developer ($8mil) at his expense now connects Clifton with Glenmore. People from all over are investing $500,000 a pop to build homes there. Ask yourself, do you want to build your retirement home in Calgary or sell out and move to Kelowna? New commercial developments like the one at Hwy 33 and 97 will be supported by the folks who are retiring here. The retirement baby boomers, assuming they retired at 65, officially started in 2011 and those boomers will be around for anywhere from 20 to 40 years or more so get used to the greying of the Kelowna demographic. In other word strap yourself in, we are in for a wild ride. Will these same folks stay here year round? Some will end up in Palm Springs but only for 4 months of the year or else they will be taxed as US citizens as well as Canadians. For some it is all they can do to get that Kelowna residence which is significantly more expensive that a similar houes in Palm Springs.
I invested in Kelowna Real Estate in 1981 buying a property that many thought was a joke. When I sold it in 1996 I was told by an assessor from BC assessment that it was the highest price for 1/3 of an acre they had ever seen to that date in Kelowna, it went up in price 6x from what I paid over a 15 year period. You don't see those kinds of returns in Alberta where there is millions of acres which could have housing on them. Kelowna and surrounds are very unique because there is a very limited amount of land available for development which is why building up is being promoted. Don't let the ALR thing fool you, The Super Store is built on land which was in the ALR 15 years ago. The Agricultural Land Commision mandate is to not stand in the way of orderly community development.

[Grandan]

If you want to see what a dead community looks like have a look at Bombay Beach California
Also read the Wiki on the Salton Sea and follow some of the links.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_Sea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCRlWY0qL-0
If you think that this is where Kelowna is heading as a result of a dull development at 33 and 97 sorry, I'm not buying it and neither are thousands of other "investors" pouring money into Kelowna every year.
you may have to copy and paste the links to see what is happening there. Facinating.

[kibbs]

dead community looks like

we have already overbuilt as a retirement community .i already see 65 + places dropping there age .whole streets of gated communities up for sale.Boomers arn't retiring they cant afford to.They probably wont feel like settling in a place like this till there 80.Is this all we can imagine another american fast food franchise.PC Gaming is huge amongst youth and we dont even have one any more due to mismanagement .An opportunity for an entrepreneur but no .nothing in the way of youth investment now they are wanting to leave for the coast or up north for money.We have such an opportunity with so any young coming here to be educated but we are unable to impress them enough to stay,

[theyeti]

ya way too much stuff for ancients here already .. lets build some new mini golf and a sweet go cart track. lets bring the kids back to kelowna . when i moved here in 91 there was lots for a young kid to do. it is all gone now

there is not even any waterslides in town any more ??? *bleep* ?? come on council do something about that ! u know kelowna is still a tourist draw . put some stuff here for ppl to do . how about open a city beach with beer gardens and life guards rope swings etc

[Sn0man]

there is not even any waterslides in town any more ??? what the heck ?? come on council do something about that ! u know kelowna is still a tourist draw . put some stuff here for ppl to do . how about open a city beach with beer gardens and life guards rope swings etc

Nah - what we really need are new pharmacies, doctors offices and denture clinics. Maybe some condos too.

Waterslides and beer gardens would be too noisy - this town goes to sleep at 7PM.

[grammafreddy]

ya way too much stuff for ancients here already .. lets build some new mini golf and a sweet go cart track. lets bring the kids back to kelowna . when i moved here in 91 there was lots for a young kid to do. it is all gone now

there is not even any waterslides in town any more ??? what the heck ?? come on council do something about that ! u know kelowna is still a tourist draw . put some stuff here for ppl to do . how about open a city beach with beer gardens and life guards rope swings etc

So you want council to spend taxpayers dollars on building, operating and maintaining these recreational commercial enterprises for the kids in this town? Am I reading you right?

If I have it wrong, would you please give more details about how exactly you think the city should go about providing what you said they should?

mini golf
go cart track
waterslides
city beach with beer gardens and life guards and rope swings

These all look like big ticket items to me. They also look like the kind of thing that private enterprise does rather than a municipality.

[Sn0man]

These all look like big ticket items to me. They also look like the kind of thing that private enterprise does rather than a municipality.

They are things private enterprise does, but the municipality has to create the right environment for them to bring their business here. That environment no longer exists, which is why the regatta, the speedboat races, waterslides, amusement parks etc have all left over the years.

[grammafreddy]

They are things private enterprise does, but the municipality has to create the right environment for them to bring their business here. That environment no longer exists, which is why the regatta, the speedboat races, waterslides, amusement parks etc have all left over the years.

So, what do you want the city to do? Offer free land? Not charge them property taxes? Force developers to only build rec stuff on land the developers paid big, BIG money for? Create zoning that's only for rec stuff for kids and not let anything else get built there that isn't?

The reason the regatta does not exist is because of the riots and the liability. The city did not create those riots. The idiot rioters are to blame for that.

The speedboat races - either people could not control themselves or else the promoter didn't follow the rules as far as security or insurance or whatever was required of them. I don't recall exactly why that shut down.

Waterslides and amusement parks - and valuable highway frontage land that somebody offered big bucks for and the waterslide and amusement places sold out. What did you want the city to do about that?

[Sn0man]

So, what do you want the city to do? Offer free land? Not charge them property taxes? Force developers to only build rec stuff on land the developers paid big, BIG money for? Create zoning that's only for rec stuff for kids and not let anything else get built there that isn't?

Of course not. Kelowna already has property taxes on the lower end of the scale and developers build what's needed by the people who are writing the cheques. The businesses that come here do so because there is a market for their goods or services. That market is aging.

What i'm saying is that this city no longer attracts the kinds of people who would go to things like the regatta, amusement parks or speedboat races - their inherent problems aside (problems that come mostly from tourists, I might add). It's not a "family friendly" environment anymore and doesn't attract youth. Families go where careers can be built - that's not Kelowna. Not anymore. It once had a manufacturing industry - that's gone. It once had a construction industry - that's gone too.

Now it's only real industry is retail. Not exactly the kind of environment that attracts the younger generation - and no real opportunities for them either.

"Dull developments" are all that Kelowna really has for now. So bring on the doctors offices, the denture clinics and the pharmacies.

It's taken years, perhaps decades, for Kelowna's problems to develop. It will take just as long to correct them, if they can be corrected at all.

[kibbs]

The so called riots(see Vancouver after NHL game in playoffs) happened in the 70s ,the diving towers were burnt in a drunk hillbilly fest.regatta died from lack of interest or promotion .see original turn of century regattas ,they rocked .it was a waste of history.and the kerfuffle over wakefest was exaggerated .We were on our way to be the coolest destinations to party in Canada. We could have milked the xy dollar cow till her and all her friends came home here to party to.So yes to fun development land that just sits there. Don't give it away public/private partner so everyone is invested.

[grammafreddy]

see original turn of century regattas ,they rocked .

They rocked because people knew how to behave themselves in public back then.

However, higher insurance for willfully damaged businesses plus the increased costs of clean-up and security from all this partying by irresponsible people have created most of the demise of these events.

In many cases, the party-ers have only themselves to blame. Very large, out of control crowds full of drunks and druggies isn't exactly the kind of thing a municipality wants to be known for. The crowds come, create havoc and huge expense, then crawl back under their rocks leaving their mess and damage behind them for locals and government to clean up - at our expense in a lot of cases.