OKANAGAN: GREAT FIT AT PREDATOR RIDGE
Retired pilot, wife settle into ‘lovely home’ at Okanagan golf club, resort community
Whitetail at Predator Ridge
Project location: Vernon Project size: A total of five B-East lots, six Gateway homes, 11 prebuilt homes; 12 duplexes and five additional lots slated to be added in 2016 Amenities: set in a community with two championship golf courses, fitness centres and several kilometres of hiking trails. Prices: Lots from $200,000 and pre-built homes from $665,000 Lot size: 6,100 — 68,000 sq. ft; home sizes from 1,938 sq. ft. Homeowner association: $200 per month Developer: Wesbild Architect: Homes designed by Wesbild Interior designer: Sticks and Stones (Calgary and Kelowna) Sales Centre: Predator Ridge sales centre Hours: 9 a.m. — 5 p.m. Telephone: 1-866-578-2233 (toll-free) Websites: predatorridge.ca and predatorridge.com
Brian Watkins spent his professional life as a commercial pilot flying to every corner of the earth from his home base at YVR. When he retired, he and his wife travelled from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland and south to the United States in search of the best retirement spot.
Ultimately, they settled for a lot that was literally in their backyard — in the Okanagan Valley’s Predator Ridge community between Vernon and Kelowna.
“I got to see a large part away from my home, which was basically the world,” Watkins said. “During all of that time, you kind of key in on a few places that you’d like to be, or you think, ‘This is really nice.’
“Of all of those places, including Australia and South America, all of Asia, a lot of Europe, I think this is where I’d like to live, right here, Predator Ridge.”
Watkins is one of a number of new residents at the Ridge, considered one of B.C.’s premier championship golf courses and resort communities. The couple moved there in 2013 and rented while building a home, which they moved into in 2014.
“The house that we built is 3,700 square feet. It started off at 3,300,” he said. “It has an east aspect. We get morning sun, afternoon shade, and it’s a very open plan. You walk in and it’s vaulted ceilings, great rooms and whatnot. One master bedroom up, en suite, and downstairs two bedrooms with bathrooms, and a theatre room and storage room.
“It’s a lovely home. We really like it, and it’s more than we really need.”
Resort property specialist Claire Radford said Predator Ridge’s new Whitetail development “is designed to fulfil the wish lists of a wide range of buyers.”
“There will be a few estate lots for people who want that added space and privacy. We’ll also have something that’s been in short supply here — rancher lots in a range of sizes for buyers who prefer a single-level home.”
Part of Whitetail’s newest phase are sites suited to singlelevel bungalows, “resort-ready” homes that have been constructed, and a section of “Gateway Homes”. These Gateway homes are Frank Lloyd Wrightinspired Prairie homes that measure 1,928 square feet with three bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms and a 100-square foot terrace. Prices start at $665,000. All have hardwood floors, quartz or granite countertops and heated bathroom floor tiles.
Whitetail also represents a new architectural direction, called Okanagan Modern, said Radford, in which a more modern genre with large overhang roofs and locally sourced rock and stone will replace the traditional Craftsman style.
So far, the development, owned by Wesbild, has sold more than 600 lots since the community was born 24 years ago, and their newest phase of the Whitetail subdivision is part of another 1,000 lots that will go up for sale before the 1,200-acre development is completed.
Predator Ridge boasts two 18-hole golf courses: one kindly to golfers and the other challenging, says Dick Zokol, a former PGA player, turned real estate and golf specialist at Predator.
With the increase in the U.S. dollar, Zokol expects to see more American buyers, especially from the hot weather states.
Buyers come from several places — Metro Vancouver, Alberta, and Ontario.
While Okanagan realtors say Alberta’s problems with the oilpatch have not had a market impact this year, Radford said it was a bit early to know if business from Alberta is down. “Really, our months are July, August and September.”
“We have a model, which we have been tracking where purchasers have touched us seven times before they acquire [property],” Zokol said. “They come play golf, stay overnight, maybe experience Sparkling Hill (a nearby mountaintop resort and spa) come back and bring their family.”
A survey of existing residents has actually found that golf is only one of the Predator Ridge draws, Radford said. “The most common activity people cited was hiking,” she said, adding that 65 per cent of owners don’t even play the game.
There are more than 12 kilometres of hiking and walking trails, a fitness centre with a 25-metre lap pool and an outdoor yoga platform with a lake view. In the golf clubhouse, there is a restaurant and café, while the lodge houses a community store.
Wesbild plans to roll out 12 duplexes and five new lots in the new year.
All the homes in Whitetail come with a golf membership at the two Predator Ridge golf courses. “If you are interested in golf — and I am — this is as good as it gets,” Watkins said. “The courses are unsurpassed.”
Watkins and his wife are golf course members, and he uses the lap pool while his wife plays tennis on the resort courts.
“It’s actually sort of the peacefulness that you get with the stage of life that you’re at,” said Watkins, 68.
“I’m not interested in getting dressed up Saturday night and going downtown and raising Cain. I’ve got too much grey hair. I like where I’m at in my life. I’m enjoying it. I have great friends, new friends, but I just really enjoy the calm, peaceful cleanliness that we’ve got here.”