Valley Views: Kelowna condo development tied to reality TV star
Adowntown condo development is benefitting from the Jillian Harris touch. The TV reality show star, interior designer and lifestyle blogger helped with the look of The Stockwell, a five-storey, 32-unit building at the corner of Stockwell Avenue and Richter Street.
Harris, who rose to fame on the Bachelor and Bachelorette reality TV series, has another connection to The Stockwell.
Her fiance and daddy to new son, Leo, is Justin Pasutto, who happens to be the site supervisor at The Stockwell.
Their connections to The Stockwell are also featured in their new four-part documentary series on the W Network called Jillian and Justin: Sharing Our New Reality With You about getting engaged, having a baby, juggling careers and building a new house in Kelowna. The first episode aired last Wednesday. Pasutto is also a former pro snowboarder and the owner of Scrub Captain, a mobile boat detailing service.
Harris is also host of the TV shows Love It or List It Vancouver and Love it or List It Too in the U.S.
The Stockwell seemed to go up overnight because it was framed in sections offsite and transported downtown to be put together quickly.
All 32 of the one-and-two-bedroom condos are already sold at prices starting from $279,000.
The complex is nearing completion and the first residents will move in later this summer.
Sold out
As a testament to how sizzling the Kelowna housing market is, all 69 townhouses in Drysdale Row in North Glenmore sold out in just three weeks. In one day alone, there were 32 offers to buy. “This was certainly our most successful day, and I am sure, probably, one of Kelowna’s most successful days,” said Don Warkentin of Fortune Marketing, the agency selling the townhouses for builder VanMar Developments.
“Kelowna real estate is in high demand while available inventory remains at an all-time low. The skyrocketing prices in Vancouver and elsewhere in major Canadian cities have underscored the urgency for first-time home buyers and investors to enter the market.”
In addition, Drysdale’s prime location across from Dr. Knox Middle School, close to shopping and parks on Celano Crescent., three-bedroom and two-and-a-half-bathroom floor plans and starting price of $399,900 created excitement.
All the sales were done pre-construction with no show home.
Building starts this summer with the first units finished for move in spring of 2018.
VanMar has built over 15,000 condominiums, apartments and townhouses across Canada.
It has built two other projects in Kelowna, the Pleasantvale complex for the Society of Hope with 50 apartments for seniors and 20 townhouses for families and the Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society’s 86-unit rental apartment building at Central Green.
It also developing residences for Simon Fraser University in downtown Vancouver and a 10-storey condo building called Metalworks in Guelph, Ont.
Young and hip
Kelowna is getting younger, hipper and richer, according to a story by The Canadian Press that’s running in newspapers across the country, like the National Post and Winnipeg Free Press.
The city has the high-tech boom to thank because it is attracting young, well-paid workers who want the elusive mix of urban amenities and outdoor recreation at a price much cheaper than overpriced Vancouver.
The article also points out what’s already well-known in Kelowna, that high-tech is a $1.3-billion-a-year industry with almost 700 companies employing 7,600 people, and over half of them under the age of 35.
The influx has prompted more downtown condominium development, the need for the just-opened Okanagan Centre for Innovation office building downtown and wineries and restaurants that appreciate the new demographic.
Cherrille Appraisals
After working with North Country Appraisals for the past 11 years, Matt Cherrille has ventured out on his own to start Cherrille Appraisals to cover Kelowna and area.
He specializes in market value appraisals for buyers and sellers for mortgage and re-financing pruposes.
He can also appraise new construction from blueprints and do valuations for estate, tax, market rent and divorce settlements. Cherrille is designated by the Appraisal Institute of Canada.