The Ellis Parc construction site at Ellis Street and Water Street in Kelowna, July 23, 2018

(JOHN MCDONALD / iNFOnews.ca)

KELOWNA  - Work is finally set to resume on Ellis Parc, a high-rise being built beside and by the same owners as Prospera Place.

The 14-storey high-rise has been under a stop work order since early May after city building inspectors decided the project was getting ahead of the conditions set out in its building permits.

General contractor Maple Reinders had begun construction several weeks earlier, driving metal shear walls into the ground, however cracks appeared in the pavement along Ellis Street and Water Street and the city shut the project down.

The site is owned by RG Properties, which owns the adjacent Prospera Place Arena. The company has also proposed two high-rises for property it owns beside the arena, across from the Delta Grand hotel.

Kelowna building inspection services manager Doug Patan said earlier this month he wasn’t sure why the peer review of the building’s structural plan hadn’t been submitted. He had predicted in late May it would be submitted soon after the stop work order was issued.

The site is starting to sprout weeds but Patan says the foundation and footing review of the building's design has been complete and the stop work order now removed.

The empty site contrasts noticably with the One Water high-rise across the street where crews have been busy all summer. The site of the 36-storey residential condominium with a ground floor commercial component has been a hive of activity as the foundation was constructed.

A large construction crane went up on that site early last week, as did another on the 21-storey Ella site on Ellis and Lawrence earlier this month.

Besides the Prospera property, RG Properties also owns the Capri Centre site, which has initial approval for a comprehensive development that would include multiple high-rises.

Graham Lee, principal of RG Properties, has not yet responded to a request for an interview.

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