A new luxury hotel and a parkade are going to be built at the Kelowna airport and city officials are confident they'll help stretch out the tourism season and boost economic development.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Northland Properties

A new luxury hotel and a parkade are going to be built at the Kelowna airport and city officials are confident they'll help stretch out the tourism season and boost economic development.

Kelowna Mayor Tom Dyas announced plans for a new Sutton Place Hotel and parkade at Kelowna International Airport today, Jan. 24.

“This new hotel development is virtually important to our region's economic expansion and to our position as a premier destination in Canada for tourism and for business travel,” Mayor Dyas said.

“The Sutton Place Hotel will be a convenient landing spot for those with a short layover, those arriving with plans to stay and explore the Okanagan valley, and for those departing with YLW and wanting to avoid the early morning rush to the airport.”

Kelowna residents should be excited by the economic impact this development will bring to the city and that, with the development, will come an expansion of Kelowna’s tourism into the shoulder season, the mayor said.

Sam Samaddar, Steve Sammut, Mayor Tom Dyas announced plans for a new Sutton Place Hotel and Parkade at Kelowna International Airport.

(GEORGINA WHITEHOUSE / iNFOnews.ca)

“We have three months or three and a half months of summer tourism,” Dyas said. “We recognize that, depending upon what weather conditions are and whether or not we're dealing with fires again in the future, there could be a loss to businesses.”

The 2023 wildfires directly impacted Kelowna’s busiest tourism weeks and showed just how reliant the city is on summer visitors.

“If we're able to bring other things to this community that will allow shoulder seasons to also have tourism effects, there's another benefit, a huge economic benefit to our community,” Dyas said.

Kelowna airport CEO Sam Samaddar agreed that by having an on-site airport hotel, Kelowna will establish itself as a premiere travel destination in Canada.

“You're getting a luxury hotel right on the airport property. That's just amazing,” he said. “We're building for the future.”

The hotel will come with a small business centre, on-site dining, personal concierge services, meeting spaces for corporate and social events and will be just a two-minute walk from the terminal.

The new parkade will offer additional long-term and short-term sheltered parking for travellers. The parkade will have seven levels and will offer close to 1,000 stalls with 800 of those under cover. 

“This new commercial development at YLW will be an economic driver for the entire community by creating jobs and promoting tourism throughout our region,” Dyas said.

Samaddar also believes the development is coming at the perfect time.

“We are hitting the right pace coming out of the pandemic... we're getting back to our 2019 numbers,” Samaddar said. “But we're projecting 3.5 million by 2045 and we're going to go after that.”

The Sutton Place Hotel is a 4.5 star luxury brand in Canada. The Kelowna airport hotel will be six stories tall and have 254 rooms along with a penthouse lounge.

Northland Properties will now start working with the City of Kelowna for development permits. Once construction begins, the project will take three years to complete.

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