Category: Kamloops Real Estate News

This article appeared in the Kamloops Daily News on November 15th, 2011.

Over the past two decades, Westsyde residents watched with melancholy resignation as stores closed at their mall and buildings fell into disrepair.

On Tuesday evening they greeted Overwaitea Food Group’s plans for redevelopment of Westsyde Mall with cheers and clapping. The company unveiled plans to a meeting of about 150 enthusiastic residents gathered at the Hamlets at Westsyde, who are clamouring for new life in the tired mall.

Tom Munro, vice-president of real estate and store development with Overwaitea Food Group, told the meeting the firm expects to start with demolition and construction in April next year. The existing store will be temporarily cut in half to allow shopping to continue while rebuilding on the same footprint is underway.

Refurbishment of Cooper’s Foods is at the heart of the project. Overwaitea Food Group purchased the grocery chain developed in Kamloops more than a decade ago. The Westsyde location is the final Cooper’s Foods to be updated with a look now familiar at other stores.

The proposed redeveloped store is about 25,000 square feet, the same size as current location.

The company is also actively seeking other tenants for what today is a half-empty mall that hasn’t been updated for decades. “We’d love to have a Tim Hortons and we’re working on that,” Munro said to applause. Other targets are a pharmacy, McDonalds Restaurant or Dairy Queen. A bank or credit union will also be sought, but Munro added “it isn’t likely.”

Residents said they were glad to see the investment. “I’m happy,” declared Herb Tarzwell, who has lived in the community for 17 years. “The previous owners never really looked after it. They hadn’t done any maintenance. It will be nice.”

Steve Delaney, a director of the local residents’ association, said the redevelopment is long overdue. “I’ve been here since 1975 and it’s deteriorated ever since,” he said. “We had a bank, a drug store… but everything moved up top to Aberdeen.”

Another resident, Patty Messmer, called the current mall “pretty sad.” “This is a big community out here. If this (current mall) is what represents Westsyde, it’s pathetic.”

Current tenants include Cooper’s Foods, a government liquor store, Home Hardware outlet, a hair salon and Chinese food restaurant. A number of storefronts are empty.

While Messmer said she’s pleased to see the plans, she worries about some current businesses. Munro acknowledged some tenants don’t have leases and are operating month-to-month. “I hope they don’t get priced out,” she said.

Munro declined to place a cost on the redevelopment. The current mall is about 60,000 square feet and will eventually, through a number of phases, be redeveloped to about the same size.

Delaney said he hopes the upgraded mall and new tenants will keep more residents shopping at home. “If it’s only $4 more here, it’s still cheaper to pay it than to drive into the city to get it.”

Purchase of the mall by the company comes after it failed to get an agreement on a nearby piece of land owned by Ron Cooper, whose family started Cooper’s Foods. Cooper and the company remain business partners at other locations.

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This article appeared in the Kamloops This Week on November 17th, 2011 and was written by Jeremy Deutsch.

A little piece of Scotland will soon be coming to the Tournament Capital.

City council has unanimously approved a set of rezoning applications for a large residential development at the end of Bentall Drive in upper Aberdeen.

The developer, DA Taylor Holdings, is planning to turn a 34-hectare parcel of land into a 500- to 800-single and multi-family-unit development centred around a mixed-use commercial Scottish-themed neighbourhood village called Edinburgh Heights.

Though some residents at the public hearing on Tuesday night (Nov. 15) expressed concerns over traffic, parking and the types of commercial businesses being considered, council appeared enthusiastic about the project.

Mayor Peter Milobar said the development is much more comprehensive then what was first proposed a few years ago, adding concerns around traffic will be alleviated.

He said the development will be unique and offer a different product to the housing market in Kamloops.

“A bit of variety is always a good thing in the marketplace,” Milobar said.

Coun. Pat Wallace said she liked the densification of the project and the opportunity to have a “European mini-city” within Kamloops.

She is also confident the developer will resolve the traffic and parking issues to most residents’ satisfaction.

Jeremy Cooke, project director with DA Taylor Holdings, said the next step is to finish road work at the east end of Bentall Drive, which could begin in spring 2012, and complete the master plan for the property.

He noted the entire project could take 10 to 15 years to complete.

Cooke said the intention is to build a people-oriented community that not only has good looking buildings, but is also functional.

“It’s turning it into a village where people can actually live day-to-day,” he said.

“Kamloops needs something like this right now — a walking, living community.”

The developer had worked with the city for more than a year to have the project comply with Aberdeen Neighbourhood Plan.

In 2007, DA Taylor Holdings announced plans to develop a 400-acre parcel of land into Edinburgh Heights, which would resemble a village in the Scottish countryside.

The vision included pockets of houses dotting the hillside, separated by open plains, English-style lampposts, narrow, windy streets and low brick walls lining the sidewalks.

Council of the day was cool to the plan, in part due to concerns the project didn’t have enough high-density units.

The new plan adds more density to the development on the eastern benches of Bentall Drive, while scrapping what would have been two-acre parcels of land.

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This article appeared in the Kamloops Daily News on October 22, 2011 and was written by Cam Fortems.

Developer Mike Rink has failed to meet a payment deadline on the half-completed Mission Hill project in Kamloops and continues to face a court challenge in the Shuswap.

That Shuswap project, the controversial West Beach Village, is the only one of Rink’s imperiled real estate holdings that promised to pay back financial institutions and trades people owed millions of dollars.

The latest information on Rink’s progress is in a report filed as part of the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA).

Begun in 2010 when he could no longer make payments on seven real estate developments in the Interior and Squamish, the bankruptcy protection process is nearing an end but it remains unclear whether the Kamloops developer can successfully complete key projects — Mission Hill in Kamloops and West Beach Village in the Shuswap.

Mission Hill is now outside the CCAA process after a deal was brokered among creditors to continue construction and offer promissory notes to trades people based on success of the project.

But a key deadline was missed at the end of September, when Rink was supposed to come up with $4 million from selling outside family property and pay that sum to first creditor Harbour Canadian Capital Corp.

The monitor’s report presented to the B.C. Supreme Court said Rink has not met that deadline. Mission Hill was also supposed to be marketed and offered for sale once again.

Now that the deadline has lapsed, Harbour is free to trigger a foreclosure and take over the project.

However, Rink filed an affidavit in court, stating Mission Hill has been proceeding and “crews are working daily to finish exterior and interior of the building to position Phase 1 for occupancy at the end of November.”

He did not return phone calls Friday.

It also states a marketing proposal will be presented to Harbour for approval.

The only projected moneymaker from Rink’s $100 million worth of projects on the books two years ago is at West Beach. But Columbia-Shuswap Regional District has taken a hard line against the proposal, saying it doesn’t meet zoning.

An earlier condominium development proposal in the same location was turned down in a public hearing process that received national attention due to its proximity to Adams River and its sockeye run. Undaunted, Rink moved ahead with a 165-unit RV park he said fits with existing zoning for the campground.

The project also calls for several motels to be developed at the site.

The two sides are headed for court unless they can come to an agreement.

A proposal was submitted Wednesday to the CSRD board, which met in camera to consider a compromise.

Director Denis Delisle acknowledged the matter was discussed but the meeting was held in camera. It remains in the hands of lawyers on both sides.

The CCAA process has been stretched out several times, with the latest deadline Nov. 30. If Rink and the CSRD cannot come to an agreement on acceptable uses for the proposed RV park, the B.C. Supreme Court will decide on the legality.

If it rules in the regional district’s favour, the court monitor concluded that ‘the project will not be viable.”

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This article appeared in the Kamloops This Week on October 19th, 2011 and was written by Jeremy Deutsch.

Construction in Kamloops this year could go down as the tale of two sectors. While residential-permit activity at city hall has taken a bit of a dive in 2011, commercial construction has been there to pick up the slack.

Through September in 2011, the city has handed out $50 million in commercial building permits, compared to $40 million at the same time last year. However, the $79 million in residential permits issued is a drop from the $107 million in 2010.

The city has recorded $137 million in construction activity in 2011, compared to $153 million through the same span last year. In September, the city handed out $11.4 million in building permits, compared to $14.8 million during the same month in 2010.

David Trawin, director of development and engineering services, said the solid numbers from September were better than expected. “It’s one of the strongest commercial years, which has helped keep us strong,” he said. Trawin is now predicting the city will hit $150 million in overall permits, exceeding the target for the year.

In 2010, the city issued $191-million worth of building permits, but expected that number to drop in 2011 to about $140 million.

The city issued $2.3-million in commercial-building permits for the month, a slight dip from the $2.9-million value in September 2010.

The number of single-family permits issued in September hit 14, two-thirds of the 21 permits issued at the same time last year. The city handed out $7.6-million worth of residential permits last month, compared to $10.8 million in September 2010.

Kamloops has only topped the $200-million mark in permits once, in 2008, when it doled out $207-million worth of permits, which remains a record.

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