BRUCE CONSTANTINEAU
Sun
After years of delays, developers will launch a major marketing initiative next week for a $500 million residential resort development near Kamloops that will feature housing units, a golf course, a hotel, retail stores, an equestrian centre and a marina.
The Tobiano project, located west of Kamloops along Kamloops Lake, is to be built on 1,000 acres of land that was removed from the Agricultural Land Reserve after much debate in 1998.
Developer Mike Grenier of Kamloops-based Pagebrook Inc. could not be reached for comment Thursday but earlier reports say the project’s master plan calls for more than 1,000 homes and an 18-hole golf course that should open by 2007. Pagebrook bought the property in 1995 and Sotheby’s International Realty Western Canada is the exclusive agent for the development.
The Robert Redford/Jennifer Lopez film An Unfinished Life was filmed in the immediate vicinity of the Tobiano development.
The resort project is one of many that have sprouted throughout the province in recent years as the B.C. economy improves and the province tries to streamline the approval process for new resort developments.
Some of the major new resort projects and expansions underway now include:
The Rise, a $1-billion development near Vernon that features housing, commercial space, a winery and a Fred Couplesdesigned golf course.
Crystal Mountain, an all-season resort near Kelowna with a capital investment of $110 million.
Canoe Mountain near Valemount, a $100-million investment.
Saddle Mountain near Blue River, a ski operation that requires a $115-million capital investment.
Mount Mackenzie near Revelstoke, a $269-million capital investment aimed at turning a small ski facility into a major four-season resort.
The province estimates $1.9 billion was spent directly by tourists at B.C. resorts in 2002, about a fifth of all tourism spending throughout the province, and the resort sector employs about 26,000 people in B.C.
The province also says existing B.C. ski resorts plan total capital investments of $650 million over the next three to five years while resort projects currently under review represent more than $2 billion in new potential capital investment over the next 10 to 20 years.
But some B.C. resort developers say little has changed to make it easier for them to proceed with new plans, despite the stated intention of the provincial government to promote more resort development.
Pat McCormick, chief operating officer for Fairmont Hot Springs Resort Ltd., said the company’s plan to build a $300-million golf course resort on a 315-acre Columbia Lake property took a major hit this month when the East Kootenay regional district proposed to downzone the land from resort development use to agricultural use. The property has been zoned for resort development for more than 20 years but the district fears a new golf course could damage the environment.
McCormick said that after going through all the provincial hoops, a lack of support at the local level threatens to drive away the international financial partners Fairmont Hot Springs had lined up for the project.
“Frankly, we haven’t really seen any streamlining [of the approval process] and we would really like to see a better process at the local government level,” she said. “It just seems that there’s no certainty any more.”
