The City of Kelowna has made some changes to its 10-year-capital plan.
The city, along with Kelowna International Airport, has pushed forward plans of bringing a new hotel and parkade to the airport.
“I think if you look at the top eight airports in the country, you have a high-end hotel that’s attached and part of the facility,” said Sam Samaddar, YLW’s airport director.
“Part of plans look at expanding the terminal building itself, but also attaching a hotel.“
While COVID-19 has negatively impacted Kelowna International Airport in many different ways, the airport is saying the pandemic presents them with a unique opportunity to get the development done.
“We are sitting around 50 per cent traffic,” said Samaddar.
“While we are building that facility, we will lose a lot of parking. We thought it was prudent to get proposals now and get it built sooner rather than later because we know that airport traffic will (inevitably) increase.“
The hotel and parkade are being considered to replace the parking lots neighbouring the airport.
Samaddar says the hotel will have around 200 beds with the parkade having around 1,000 parking stalls.
Looking ahead, the airport says it’s still very early in the process but expects proposals to begin to roll in shortly.
The hotel and parkade are now envisioned to be finished by 2023 — much earlier than the 2027 date previously made.
Kelowna City Council will be discussing the changes made to its 10-year-capital plan at its next council meeting.
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