Developer buys city property for $4.9 million

AKelowna developer has bought a cityowned lot at the north side of BoyceGyro Park for the asking price of $4.9 million. The terms of the sale require Al Stober Construction to build a high-quality commercial and residential project on the halfhectare site.

“It was sold with a covenant in place that requires the residential building be constructed to a LEED standard, and new commercial premises that help to animate Lakeshore Road,” Graham Hood, the city’s strategic land development manager, said Wednesday.

Multiple offers were received by the city for the site, but none exceeded the asking price, Hood said.

The property sold to Stober represents half the size of a onehectare lot bought by the city in 2006 for $2.95 million. The city will retain ownership of the other half hectare, the side closest to Boyce-Gyro Park, and convert it to a 132-stall parking lot.

Stober already owned about one hectare of land to the immediate north of the development site.

As part of his deal with the city, he has agreed to donate approximately 2,700 square metres of this property that’s necessary for a future extension of Lanfranco Road across Lakeshore Road to connect with Watt Road.

That extension will be built within three years.

The city will also buy back from Stober a 2,300-square-metre lot along the south side of Fascieux Creek, immediately north of the future Lanfranco Road extension, for $500,000 for use as a protected riparian area and nature walkway.

Overall, the city says, the deal represents a return on investment for taxpayers, and improves parking and traffic flow in the area at a cost less than it would otherwise have been.

The size of the development planned by Stober for the company’s newly enlarged building site has not yet been determined, but will have to conform to an existing six-storey limit for mixed-use projects in the South Pandosy area.

The city has recently approved a six-storey mixed-use development, called The Shore, for a property immediately east of Boyce-Gyro Park.

GARY NYLANDER/The Daily Courier Boyce-Gyro Park on Lakeshore Road will get a permanent 132-stall parking lot at its north side as a result of a deal struck Wednesday between the city and a developer.