Asking $8.5 million for waterfront lots
Plans for a waterfront eco-resort between West Kelowna and Peachland are uncertain now that the owners have listed the property for sale.
The proposed development site at 3060 Seclusion Bay Rd, along with an adjacent property, covers 29 acres and is listed for sale at $8.5 million.
“Right now, we’re just seeing if there’s any interest out there,” Ria Kitsch, a co-owner of the property, said Tuesday. “We’re not closing any doors.”
The real estate listing at HM Commercial describes the two lots as providing “an exciting opportunity for multiple rezoning and development options such as a potential hotel or resort site, multi-family apartments, subdivision of luxury residential lots, or an exclusive private family estate”.
In 2020, Trent and Ria Kitsch won approval from the City of West Kelowna to rezone the Seclusion Bay Road property from rural residential to CD-8, which permits the construction of up to 16 single detached dwellings and tourist accommodations, including vacation rentals, plus an amenity building.
The project was described at the time as being an evironmentally-friendly reclamation of a steep hillside that had been significantly impacted by wildfires. The proposal included some solar- and wind-powered features, and was proposed to “remain off-grid from municipal services,” in a letter the Kitsch’s agent sent to the City of West Kelowna.
“You’d get the economic benefits of taxation without the burden on (municipal) infrastructure,” Kitsch’s agent told West Kelowna city council during a public hearing on the project in November 2019.
Despite assurances of the project’s environmental sensitivities and self-contained nature, some Seclusion Bay residents were against it. “The reason we live here is because we enjoy the quiet, rural atmosphere of the area,” George Calder, a Seclusion Bay resident since 1987, said at the public hearing.
Although council rezoned the Seclusion Bay property in 2020, construction on the project never got underway. The real estate listing says a development permit application has been submitted to the City of West Kelowna and is in “initial stages.”
The adjacent property included in the land offer, at 3100 Highway 97, is zoned rural. The real estate listing says a “conceptual plan” for two multi-family buildings with a total of 44 units on this property.
Together, the two properties have more than 1,500 feet of shoreline. There is said to be “the potential” for marinas on both properties that would generate “substantial revenue”, according to the listing.
Trent Kitsch’s other business interests have included a federally licensed marijuana production plant in West Kelowna and a winery in Kelowna. He also developed a popular line of men’s underwear, Saxx, before selling the company.
An author who loves wine had to reevaluate her relationship with her favourite beverage after dealing with a divorce and character assassination while coming to terms with how sexist the industry is.
Natalie MacLean invites readers to revisit that period of her life through her latest book “Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drinking Too Much.”
“This book is by no means an attack on the wine industry – it is my personal story of overcoming drinking too much, and noticing how certain wines are marketed towards women in a diminishing way,” she said.
She rolls her eyes upon seeing labels with perky names about clothing, and ads that encourage boozing when it’s a spa day or girl’s night out.
“Some labels almost make a joke out of how thankless motherhood can be.”
Winemakers don’t seem to advertise towards men the same way.
“Nobody asks a man why he needs a drink – he has a drink because he wants one. So I see that separation in these marketing messages.”
MacLean has been writing about wine for a while. It was in 2012 when a smear campaign was launched against her after attaching other people’s wine reviews to her website. She noticed other websites using her reviews without asking for permission, and she wasn’t taking credit for anybody else’s writing – so she didn’t think she would be stepping on any toes.
“I figured more reviews would offer more perspective,” she said. “So after I started doing that, it became a lightning rod for a website who started blogging that that was copyright violation.”
But nobody challenged MacLean in a court of law – instead she was the target of online ridicule.
“Even after I removed all the reviews they kept going. Then it started to just be about me as a woman, body part by body part. A social media account was created for my hair. Then it got more and more graphic.”
MacLean loved her wine, but the barrage of haters in the middle of an unexpected divorce made it difficult to keep consuming responsibly. Booze was helping her to cope with the stress, and she realized it was growing into a problem.
But she didn’t want to resort to abstinence in order to avoid addiction – she’s a connoisseur.
And she was able to strike a healthy balance again thanks to therapy.
Her therapist helped her to understand how to face depression, anxiety, and uncomfortable thoughts, while recognizing how the mind likes to avoid heavy topics by generating a temptation to drink.
“After that the need for a drink subsided – it didn’t go away completely but it really helped a lot.”
The tricks that work for MacLean are part of her book. Examples include alleviating stress without alcohol (if stress is the driving factor behind the desire for a drink), and pouring half of a new bottle into another sealable container.
“The other half of the bottle can be put away for another day, and it stays fresh since it’s less exposed to oxygen.”
Now that MacLean is more conscientious of her relationship with wine, she finds herself feeling more annoyed by the sexist labels. It’s an insult to the intelligence of the target market, and she wants to see labels genuinely reflect the wine inside the bottle.
She feels like the quality of Canadian wine is too high for gimmicky labels to be getting slapped onto it. And most of it is produced by entrepreneurs with fascinating backstories.
“We vote with our dollars when we buy wine so why not support those stories, those labels, rather than, ya know – red lips, high heels and a short dress.”
One idea she hopes will gain momentum is a colour-changing gauge on the label which lets you know when it’s the perfect temperature for consumption. Another new idea involves QR codes that recommend great pairing ideas for each wine.
“I’d like to see real human language, not wine-geek speak,” she said. “It could be a lot more helpful to consumers, especially in the lower price categories.”
MacLean, who’s from Ottawa, was invited to the Okanagan last week by the Canadian Wine Industry which presented her with an award for “Wine Witch on Fire”. To order a copy visit: WineWitchonFire.com