116 condos in a 20storey highrise
Kelowna's Mission Group has unveiled its design for a 20-storey tower on Ellis Street and Lawrence Avenue in the downtown.
Vice-president of Development, Luke Turri, says the ELLA building will feature commercial-retail space at street level, parking on levels 2 to 5 – and 116 condo units beginning on the 6th level.
He says building is a good fit with the city's overall plan to increase density in the core.
"Council and staff have a real keen interest in seeing some higher density residential downtown, particularily in the urban core areas," says Turri. "In fact this site was purchased from the City of Kelowna and ond of the mandates in that purchase agreement was to make sure there was a substantial residential building there, and so we're not anticipating push-back as to the height or density of the proposal."
Turri says they'll need council approval on a variance to add the top floor, but doesn't expect that to be rejected. He says the building will not contain rental units, and at this point, no tenants have been signed up yet to occupy the commercial space facing Lawrence Avenue and Ellis Street.
Turri says Mission Group expects the development permit to be approved by city council in July, with sales to begin in the fall, and ground-breaking early in 2018.
