Sales for the second tower at the One Water Street development in downtown Kelowna officially launched Friday morning and by the afternoon, half of the building was sold.
Unit sales in the second or west tower, as it’s commonly referred to, were originally supposed to start in the fall but were fast-tracked due to the high demand in the first or east tower.
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The twin tower project is slated for the corner of Water and Ellis Streets. The west tower features 36 storeys and the east features 29. There will be plenty of commercial space on the ground floor with numerous resort-style amenities including two swimming pools, a health club and a dog playground.
The east tower includes 201 units. In the first four hours of sales Friday, nearly 100 of them were sold.
While the development company was expecting brisk sales after what happened with the first tower, the number of sales on day one exceeded even those expectations.
“Phenomenal interest has been generated,” Leonard Kerkhoff of Kerkhoff Construction said.
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Kerkhoff said there were more than 6,000 interested buyers on the pre-registration list, that’s more than double what it was on tower number one.
“It’s been fantastic,” Kerkhoff said.
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After buying one unit in the first tower, Mark Batchelor decided to purchase a second unit in tower number two.
“I bought a two-bedroom unit earlier in the east tower and that will be the one I live in and this one is actually for my son for a primary residence down the road,” he told Global News.
Batchelor lives in the north Okanagan but bought in Kelowna as he prepares to downsize.
“I own a home in Coldstream. We have lived there for 15 years, my kids are going out and going to school and moving out so I don’t need a big home anymore,” he said. “And i just love the atmosphere of downtown Kelowna, the night life, restaurant choices and all the development going on.”
The majority of people buying the units at One Water Street are from the Okanagan and across B.C., including many from the Lower Mainland.
“We have been advertising quite heavily in the Vancouver market,” Kerkhoff said. “We are seeing people getting squeezed out of Vancouver because of the high prices there. They’re selling their homes and relocating.”
On the other side of downtown, the Misison Group is starting marketing its latest project. The development company plans to build a 178-unit highrise at the old Bargain shop on Bernard Avenue and St. Paul Street.
The company plans to start sales in August and if the brisk sales at One Water Street are any indication, the demand for units at the “Brooklyn at Bernard” development will likely be strong as well.
“We have a couple thousand people that are registered in our database and still three months away from actually starting the formal sales campaign,” vice-president for development at Mission Group Luke Turri said. “That just reinforces the brand of Kelowna, the brand of the downtown and of course the Bernard district,”
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As for the One Water Street project, after selling units to pre-registered buyers by appointment only on Friday, the remainder of the units will go on sale to the public starting at noon on Saturday.
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