It was late 2020 when the north side of the 700 block of Westminster Avenue West hit the market.
The parcel incorporated three individual properties that together featured one of Penticton’s better known restaurants – the Villa Rosa – and two older, dilapidated homes.
What made that particular hunk of land especially attractive is its location. It’s kitty corner to the Trade and Convention Centre and a couple blocks up from the beach, and it’s on the perimeter of the North Gateway, an area earmarked by the City for massive improvements and a big shift to high-density residential development over the course of the next couple decades.
Approximately a year and a half later, Penticton city council approved a plan from developer Cantiro Homes of Edmonton that would amalgamate the three lots into one and see a total of 22 townhomes, spanning two three-story buildings, constructed on the same spot.
By late summer of 2022, the Villa Rosa and the two homes had been leveled. And that’s the way it would sit for the next year.
Until last week that is, when the project, now officially dubbed “Westmin 795,” officially broke ground. When PentictonNow dropped by mid-week, a Caterpillar 328D hydraulic excavator was busy working the land. There's even more activity this week.
“It had a lot to do with canvassing the area, working with the City and city council and finding what product was wanted and needed," said Westmin 795 sales manager Sean Skuter in explaining the delay. "We wanted to fit in with the community and accentuate it, not override it.”
Skuter said there are two completion dates. The eleven townhouses facing north, toward the laneway, are scheduled for September of 2024. Construction on the project’s commercial area and the eleven units facing south to Westminster (each with rooftop patios), will begin next summer and end in 2025.
In the meantime, a quick check of www.realtor.ca reveals there are currently five Westmin 795 townhouses already listed at the site, starting at $794,900 for a 1523 sq. ft., three-bedroom, three-bathroom unit, and topping out at two $999,900 1866 sq. ft. three-bedroom, three bathroom units with rooftop decks.
Will a reborn iteration of the Villa Rosa be part of the final plan, as the restaurant’s ownership team of Tyler and Nicole Gable have hoped since news of the redevelopment first hit? “We’re currently in talks,” said Tyler Friday.
Meanwhile almost directly across the street, a development called “The Bestwick” is taking shape where several old-timey houses once stood.
The Bestwick doesn’t have a web presence as of yet, but Grant Klatik of project realtor Chamberlain Property Group says there’ll be 12 units in all, each approximately 1500 sq. ft. and incorporating three bedrooms, two baths and a rooftop patio.
They’re being built by Mundi Construction, the same company behind the Four Points by Sheraton hotel just a block away and the Fairfield by Marriot on Eckhardt Ave. West, and they’ll hit the market at $799,000 apiece.
But that won’t happen ‘til spring, says Klatik, due to the current “state of the market.”
Moving just a few meters down the street to the 800 block, where an enormous 300-plus unit complex on the north side will one day replace a herd of elderly single-storey buildings that include the sprawling El Rancho Motel, not much has changed.
Except one thing. The signange for the commercial building out front has been removed. And indeed, the building itself now seems empty.
But in the grand scheme of things, perhaps the biggest news of all is that a sale is now pending for 1035 Wesminster Ave. West, probably better known as the home of the Roll N Stones Fun Centre and a humungous parking lot.
The property, all 1.45 commercially zoned acres of it, is on the market at $5.5 million.
“A sale is pending,” said realtor Klatik, who’s handling this one too, “but they’re just doing their due diligence right now. It’s conditional ‘til November. l know they’re meeting with the City. It’s all about densification at this point.”
And finally, the development known as Sokana, on the same parcel of land where the Ogopogo Motel and RV Park stood for decades prior to its 2021 disassembly, finally broke ground yesterday, Oct 11.
Though it isn’t technically part of the Westminster corridor, it is right next door. And it's a pretty big deal.
Why? For starters, because the first of the development's two phases -- a six-storey, 96-unit condo complex that allows short-term vacation-style rentals and features amenities like a gym, putting green and co-work space -- sold out this past July in a startling three days.
And there's the location. On Riverside Drive alongside the Penticton channel and sandwiched between the pretty Riverside Village outdoor mall and the million-dollar-a-unit Riverside Townhomes -- and across the street from the Roll N Stones parcel we talk about above -- it's part of what will clearly be a showcase high-density zone for the city going forward.
The first phase is due to complete in the fall of 2026. Phase two, which hasn’t yet sold out, won't be ready 'til sometime in 2028.
More to come in future updates.
