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September 20, 2023 - 9:01 AM
Over the past few years BC Tree Fruits has been selling off its properties in Kelowna for millions of dollars. The price tag on its latest offering is a whopping $39 million.
It’s part of a three-lot land assembly of land it owns near Sexsmith Road between the Okanagan Rail Trail and Highway 97 totalling 18.41 acres.
The largest parcel at 13.64 acres contains a 148,888 square foot building that houses the head offices of both BC Tree Fruits and Growers Supply, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of BC Tree Fruits.
It’s right next to the rail trail where it crosses Sexsmith Road at 3335 Sexsmith Rd.
READ MORE: $24M sale of Kelowna waterfront property will trigger hundreds of millions in economic impact
This BC Tree Fruits property on Sexsmith Road is for sale for $39 million.
Image Credit: Google Maps
A small, 0.18 acre parcel at 3345 Sexsmith Rd. is just to the east. It's vacant land but also fronts on Sexsmith Road. Both are zoned industrial.
The third property borders the main site to the west, with an address of 3670 Highway 97 N. It’s zoned parks and open space but has a future land use designation of industrial and natural area. It is 4.59 acres.
“The large format building (circa 1982) is oriented on a zero setback along the northwest property line, which makes for an extremely high-efficient use of the remaining land,” the listing by HM Commercial said. “It also abuts the Okanagan Rail Trail, a popular recreational corridor. Using typical industrial site coverages, we would estimate there to be approximately three to four acres of surplus land.”
The listing by founding principals Marshall McAnerney and Jeff Hudson points out that most industrial development in the city is taking place 10 kilometres north of Kelowna Airport and the 140-acre Airport Industrial Park is 100% sold.
This setting isn't only close to the airport but much closer to downtown.
City council also recently turned down an application by Kelowna Springs Golf Course to designate that 107-acre property as future industrial land.
That, along with a less than 2% vacancy rate, adds up to an “extremely high” demand for industrial land that is selling for $3 million an acre, the listing says.
At $39 million, this site is $2.2 million per acre.
The assessed value of the three properties is $24.1 million.
BC Tree Fruits Cooperative sold its office on Water Street, across Queensway from City Hall, in 2020 for $7.5 million.
In 2021, it sold its Bay Avenue warehouse, next to the Tolko site, for $24 million.
READ MORE: B.C. Tree Fruits plant closing Lake Country location, moving to South Okanagan
On Sept. 1, it sold its packing house at 9751 Bottom Wood Lake Rd. for $15.8 million.
It’s storing and receiving facility across the road from that plant remains operational and BC Tree Fruits owns a number of other properties in the Central Okanagan, Laurel Van Dam, vice-president for grower relations and corporate affairs, told iNFOnews.ca.
In August of last year, former B.C. Tree Fruits CEO Warren Sarafinchan said the head office, cidery, storage facility and retail outlet will remain. Those are in downtown Kelowna on Vaughan Avenue, although some of the head office duties are performed at the Sexsmith Road site, Van Dam said.
She would not speculate on where those operations will go once the Sexsmith Road site is sold. For one thing, the new owner has to agree to keep the offices there for two years and, for another, “there are a lot of moving pieces in play.”
The money from all these land sales goes towards paying down debt as well as the expansion and technological upgrades at the BC Tree Fruits plant in Oliver, Van Dam said.
See the listing here.
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