Asking $8.5 million for waterfront lots
Plans for a waterfront eco-resort between West Kelowna and Peachland are uncertain now that the owners have listed the property for sale.
The proposed development site at 3060 Seclusion Bay Rd, along with an adjacent property, covers 29 acres and is listed for sale at $8.5 million.
“Right now, we’re just seeing if there’s any interest out there,” Ria Kitsch, a co-owner of the property, said Tuesday. “We’re not closing any doors.”
The real estate listing at HM Commercial describes the two lots as providing “an exciting opportunity for multiple rezoning and development options such as a potential hotel or resort site, multi-family apartments, subdivision of luxury residential lots, or an exclusive private family estate”.
In 2020, Trent and Ria Kitsch won approval from the City of West Kelowna to rezone the Seclusion Bay Road property from rural residential to CD-8, which permits the construction of up to 16 single detached dwellings and tourist accommodations, including vacation rentals, plus an amenity building.
The project was described at the time as being an evironmentally-friendly reclamation of a steep hillside that had been significantly impacted by wildfires. The proposal included some solar- and wind-powered features, and was proposed to “remain off-grid from municipal services,” in a letter the Kitsch’s agent sent to the City of West Kelowna.
“You’d get the economic benefits of taxation without the burden on (municipal) infrastructure,” Kitsch’s agent told West Kelowna city council during a public hearing on the project in November 2019.
Despite assurances of the project’s environmental sensitivities and self-contained nature, some Seclusion Bay residents were against it. “The reason we live here is because we enjoy the quiet, rural atmosphere of the area,” George Calder, a Seclusion Bay resident since 1987, said at the public hearing.
Although council rezoned the Seclusion Bay property in 2020, construction on the project never got underway. The real estate listing says a development permit application has been submitted to the City of West Kelowna and is in “initial stages.”
The adjacent property included in the land offer, at 3100 Highway 97, is zoned rural. The real estate listing says a “conceptual plan” for two multi-family buildings with a total of 44 units on this property.
Together, the two properties have more than 1,500 feet of shoreline. There is said to be “the potential” for marinas on both properties that would generate “substantial revenue”, according to the listing.
Trent Kitsch’s other business interests have included a federally licensed marijuana production plant in West Kelowna and a winery in Kelowna. He also developed a popular line of men’s underwear, Saxx, before selling the company.