Photo: Contributed
The building boom in Kelowna has hit historic levels, and shows no sign of slowing down.
The value of building permits issued to date has surpassed the $1 billion threshold for the first time.
To date, the value of building permits issued sits at $1,057 billion. It could reach as high as $1.2 billion or $1.3 billion before year’s end.
Development services director Mo Bayat says the current construction and development activity represents a 150 per cent increase over 2020, while the number of individual permits issued is 31 per cent higher.
We are nearly double the 10-year average of $555 million in construction value.
The previous record of $900 million was established three or four years ago.
Bayat says this year’s activity is significant.
“Obviously I don’t have a crystal ball, however, based on building permit applications and planning approval…I can tell that next year is going to be a good year as well,” said Bayat.
“But, it is premature to be able to predict further into 2023.”
It is, however, easy to see which big ticket projects will be coming up for building permits over the next several months.
Projects like Water Street by the Park, the new UBCO downtown campus site and former RCMP site developments on Doyle, several other downtown towers on the books what is expected to be a massive redevelopment of the Tolko site, which will take place over the coming decade .
Bayat says the boom Kelowna is experiencing is the third this century.
Following the rediscovery of the city through the Okanagan Mountain Park fire, Bayat says the city construction and development activity really began to take off.
It slowed, as much of the world did through the economic crisis in 2009 and 2010, but picked up again soon after, only to slow slightly when COVID hit.
With predictions of an additional 40,000 or more people moving into the region over the next two decades, the number of big development projects is expected to continue through 2040.
But, Bayat says, it’s also smaller renovation projects that are helping to drive the boom.
Many of those, he says, are the result of people who are able to work remotely, or those retiring early, relocating to Kelowna and renovating their property.
Much of that can be seen in the large number of swimming pools and other additions permitted over the past 12 months.
