All Occasions booming
It looks like a motel, but it’s actually a 49-suite complex for tourism workers, designed to help ease the chronic labour shortage and lack of affordable rental housing in Osoyoos.
“It was previously used for workers in the oil patch in Northern Alberta,” said Ingrid Jarrett, manager or Watermark Beach Resort in Osoyoos.
“It arrived here in 13 pieces on trucks and has been reassembled on an orchard on leased Osoyoos Indian Band land close to town just off Highway 3.”
There are 49 bedrooms with shared bathrooms and kitchen, lounge, laundry, outdoor barbecue deck and bike lock up.
Watermark Beach along with nearby Spirit Ridge Resort have had trouble for years hiring enough staff for the busy summer because there’s virtually no affordable rental options for seasonal workers.
The two resorts have committed to one-third of the units each in the complex.
The remaining third are available to other retail and hospitality employers in Osoyoos.
The employers will pay $475 a month per unit and pass the cost along to employee.
Even though the worker ultimately pays the monthly rental, the affordable $475 and availability of housing is seen as a perk for
After leaving the publisher’s post at this newspaper last year, Terry Armstrong has become the Kelowna director of sales and operations for Prospera Place and GSL Holdings.
Prospera is the 6,000seat arena that’s home to the Kelowna Rockets of the Western Hockey League and the largest concert and events venue in the Okanagan.
GSL Holdings is named after Graham Lee, the Vancouver businessman who also has the Save-On Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria, which is home to the Victoria Royals of the WHL, CNC double-rink facility in Kelowna, the Coast Capri Hotel and Capri Centre Mall in Kelowna and the Planet Ice complexes in Coquitlam, Delta and Maple Ridge.
“Terry has established himself as a business leader within Kelowna and the Okanagan Valley,” said Lee.
“We feel he will be a integral part of the development and growth of Prospera Place and throughout GSL Holdings over the coming years.”
GSL is hoping to redevelop the Capri Centre Mall with more shops and restaurants and housing, including several highrises.
Armstrong is part of the 2020 Kelowna Rockets Memorial Cup bid committee.
He is also on the board of the Kelowna General Hospital Foundation, Telus Community Board, Central Okanagan Food Bank and Printing Industry Health & Welfare Board.
It needs more room and more parking for its booming business.
So, All Occasions Party and Event Rentals is relocating from 360 Spedding Ct. to 3316 Appaloosa Rd. in Kelowna, effective
Edmonton-based Fire and Flower Cannabis would like to set up a store in Kelowna once marijuana is legalized in Canada.
The company’s vice-president of government and stakeholder relations, Nathan Mison, will be in Kelowna Wednesday to meet with politicians and media.
Besides plans for Kelowna, Fire and Flower is slated to open 75 stores across Western Canada before it sets its sights on locations across the country.
Mison’s visit follows this week’s Cannabis & Our Community event in Kelowna on Thursday at the Rotary Arts Centre. The all-day forum covered what local government, tourism, work safety, health care, insurance and other sectors should expect when recreational cannabis is legalized later this year.
Steve MacNaull is The Okanagan Weekend’s business and wine reporter and columnist. Reach him at steve. macnaull@ ok.bc.ca.