Two of three remaining properties near Kelowna’s newest waterfront park are for sale
There are only three privately owned properties preventing the creation of a major waterfront park north of Mission Creek along Okanagan Lake in Kelowna, but the city has yet to enter into negotiations to buy them.
“We’re generally interested in foreshore acquisitions across the board,” Ben Walker, the city’s real estate services manager told iNFOnews.ca. “It’s a very valuable asset for the public. We haven’t had any correspondence with the sellers on those properties.”
The properties are not listed through the MLS system.
“Sometimes sellers will have exclusive listings that won’t be listed on MLS,” Walker said.
Just before Christmas, the city bought the 1.8-acre Truswell property bordering on Mission Creek and Okanagan Lake for $18 million.
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That connects to a 400-foot-long city-owned boardwalk in front of Mission Shores Vacation Rentals and what is called Secret Beach.
At the other end of the beach, at the Cook Road Boat Launch, is a sandy beach that is currently closed to the public for what the city says are safety reasons.
READ MORE: City of Kelowna won court battle for public access to the waterfront, then blocks it off
That’s in front of the three-tower Aqua project being built by the Mission Group. Eventually, it will become a public park and connect to a pier that will be built by Mission Group but mostly open to the public.
“There will be a large pier that will go out into the water a good long distance,” Mission Group CEO Jon Friesen told iNFOnews.ca. “It will be a great place for anybody from the neighbourhood – anywhere in Kelowna, tourists as well – to walk out to the end, go out with someone you love and hang out for the day and watch the boats go by,”
Mission Group has the Aqua Boat Club dryland moorage and boat sharing facility that will use part of the pier for launching and retrieving boats.
The rest of the pier, and the beach, will become a park open to the public.
But, between that future park and the future Truswell park are the three privately owned properties.
In 2017, a rezoning application was filed for two of those, at 3858 and 3854 Truswell Road, for a 12-storey apartment hotel.
That project never went ahead.
Currently, BC Assessment has assessed the properties at $4.6 and $4.8 million. Together they total almost 1.3 acres.
The third property, just south of the Aqua site at 3848 Capozzi Road, is assessed at $7.4 million and is .86 acres.
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It is owned by Charles Fipke.
In 2021 he unsuccessfully tried to sue the city and Mission Group, trying to have the Aqua project stopped.
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