Kelowna builder has market covered
Mission Group going ahead with university, Central Green projects
Kelowna’s Mission Group is on a tear. It has plans for a fifth U-themed condominium project adjacent to UBC Okanagan.
On Monday, it received permission from the City of Kelowna to put up its third and final phase of condos in the downtown Central Green neighbourhood.
It’s deep into pre-sales for its first condo tower — the 20-storey Ella at the downtown corner of Ellis Street and Lawrence Avenue.
And it also has plans to build what will be two more skyline-defining complexes in the city.
The waterfront Aqua project, just south of the Hotel Eldorado, will have three condo highrises of 16, 14 and 12 storeys.
The as-yet-unnamed redevelopment of the entire downtown block where the former Bargain Shop now stands is being billed as a legacy piece that will likely see several towers rise with retail along the street front and offices and residences above.
In the past 15 years, Mission Group has also been one of Kelowna’s most prolific home builders, starting with the Mission Shores lakefront townhouses south of the Hotel Eldorado, a series of four-storey Verve condo buildings in North Glenmore, Amber Hill townhouses in the Upper Mission Kettle Valley neighbourhood, Dwell townhomes off Highway 97 across from London Drugs, Mode lowrise condos near the Landmark office buildings, Brighton townhouses at the corner of Gordon Drive and Old Meadows Road, and Siena condos in the Lower Mission.
While the Mission Group story is 15 years old in Kelowna, much of the momentum has come in the past few years.
“Kelowna started emitting this special, new energy driven by the high-tech industry and high-tech workers wanting urban, high-amenity lifestyles,” said Mission Group vice-president of development Luke Turri.
“Mission Group has really embraced that energy.”
Before most tech workers start buying their own homes, they went to university.
Mission Group is in that sector, too.
Its U-series of four-storey condo buildings aren’t on UBC Okanagan land, but they are adjacent to it on Academy Way.
Mission Group just announced plans to build the 57-unit U-Six, its fifth building in the series.
The numerical discrepancy is because there’s no U-Four as the number four is considered bad luck in Asian culture.
Some of the buyers and renters of U units are Asian, and the builder didn’t want to alienate them.
The main market for U units is investors who will in turn rent them to students.
Parents of students are also buying units, putting their kids in one bedroom and renting out the rest as a mortgage helper.
Demand for housing at the university is high because while there are 9,000 students, there are only 1,650 beds on campus.
The design of the U-units is either two bedroom or three bedroom, with each bedroom having an ensuite bathroom.
Each condo has a full kitchen, living room and in-suite laundry.
Sales will start in a couple of weeks, construction start is slated for the spring and moveins are expected for the start of the 2019-20 school year.
Two-bedroom units will start from $329,900 and three-bedrooms from $409,900.
Urbana is the third and final phase of lowrise loft-style condos Mission Group is building at Central Green, the neighbourhood on the former Kelowna Secondary School plot at the corner of Highway 97 and Richter Street.
The 55 units in Urbana range from studios to three bedrooms, and specific prices haven’t been released. However, a range of the high $100,000s to mid $500,000s is mentioned.
A specific time for construction start and finish wasn’t released.
The Urbana sales centre and display home at 1800 Richter St. will open for appointments starting Jan. 27.
While Mission Group is an industry leader, it hasn’t been all smooth sailing. It trimmed back its proposal to build 19-, 16and 13-storey towers at Aqua to 16, 14 and 12 in order to give the project a more comfortable urban scale, it said.
Mission Group and Al Stober Construction were criticized by some members of city council for building only four-storey lowrise condos at Central Green instead of incorporating some highrises to create height differences and increased density downtown.