Work on visitor centre begins
$2.8M information centre on downtown waterfront expected to open by middle of 2018
Construction has begun on Tourism Kelowna’s controversial new visitor information centre on the downtown waterfront.
Excavation of the Queensway jetty is underway in preparation for the pouring of the 3,000-square-foot building’s foundation.
“We are excited to begin the construction phase of this important project,” Tourism Kelowna chief executive officer Lisanne Ballantyne wrote Wednesday in an email.
“The new Kelowna visitor centre will enhance visitor experiences and provide positive economic impact for local businesses and our community,” Ballantyne wrote.
Plans for the $2.8-million building show a sweeping metal roof, extensive use of glass, wood details, and design cues that reflect nearby buildings such as the Kelowna Yacht Club and marina kiosks. It’s scheduled to open in the middle of next year.
The City of Kelowna issued the building permit for the tourist centre within the past week, said Ryan Smith, community planning manager.
That marked the last stage of approval paperwork in a process that dates back at least four years.
In 2013, Tourism Kelowna said a new visitor information centre, to replace the aging building at the corner of Harvey Avenue and Ellis Street, was the agency’s top priority.
But the first plan for a 5,000-square-foot, two-storey building in City Park proved unpopular with the public, and city council told Tourism Kelowna to look elsewhere for a new building.
A small parking lot at the end of Queensway, once a ferry terminal before the first Okanagan Lake bridge opened in 1958, was the next identified location for a new tourist centre.
“The new visitor centre will be located at Kelowna’s original point of welcome, an historic ferry dock, and will once again be used to welcome visitors to our community,” Tourism Kelowna says on its website.
But the Queensway jetty site also drew criticism earlier this year, with more than 200 people writing letters to the city against the proposal.
Opponents said the tourist centre was a poor use of scarce public land along the waterfront, and they doubted the relevance of such a centre in an increasingly digital age.
But Tourism Kelowna and its supporters in the business community say visitor centres in other cities are now commonly located in areas of high pedestrian traffic rather than on highway approaches.
The city-owned land is being provided to Tourism Kelowna, which gets most of its operating revenue from a hotel room tax, through a 29-year lease.
“We remain confident that the new visitor centre will play a role in continuing to serve our tourists and residents well for many years, while also adding an attractive and useful facility to our waterfront,” Doug Gilchrist, a city director, wrote in a letter published in this newspaper in June.
According to the City of Kelowna, tourism generates almost 12,000 local jobs, $337 million in visitor spending and $1.2 billion in total economic output.