Westcorp says it's eyeing next year as a time to resume plans for its major hotel project in downtown Kelowna.
Back in February, council approved plans for the 33-storey building at the foot of Mill Street, across from Kerry Park.
But almost immediately afterward, the province announced its plans for a speculation tax that would impact Kelowna.
Westcorp Vice President Gail Temple says the brakes had to be pumped.
"We just started to hear too many hesitations from our prospective buyers and thought you know what, we do not want to go out of the gate, and not be super successful with the sale of these residences. So we are doing the prudent thing - and it was a difficult choice, that's for sure - and we're going to head now for a sales target timeframe of the spring of 2019," she said.
Those sales are for 49 luxury condo units would be built on the top floors of the building.
Temple says the uncertainty from the tax in the local real estate market makes it unrealistic to market them.
"Just because it is such a nightmare, and there's so much uncertainty about whether it will stay, or what form it will ultimately take. Maybe it'll get legally challenged, maybe it will bring down the government, none of us know. So we all think that the smart thing to do is just to sit back right now, and let this craziness play itself out. And then we carry on."
However, she says the silver lining is that this relaxes what was a very tight timeline.
"We had originally been scheduled to be in front of council in December, and because of the work that we were doing with city staff - which ultimately ended up in a wonderful creation of the street plaza on Queensway - that delayed us by three months," she said.
"That three months was pretty critical, so we were really under the gun, that everything had to go perfectly in order to hit our summer launch. This, in some respects, has given breathing room"
The company had originally planned on a 26-storey hotel, but opted to redesign it two years ago.