New plan for old Super Valu site
Penticton’s construction sector is so hot right now that city planners have finally received an application to build on a long-neglected downtown lot that’s brimming with potential.
A developer has proposed a six-storey, 75-unit mixed-used building at 372 Martin St., one of the two empty lots on the site of the former Super Valu grocery store, which was demolished in 2006.
“This is on the corner of Martin Street and Wade (Avenue), right in the heart of downtown, so we’re really excited about this project,” said Blake Laven, the city’s director of development services, in a report to city council Tuesday.
“We’re still doing a technical review, but this will be coming to council sometime in the next few months for consideration of development permit approval.”
The last plan for the site called for three towers, some as high as 23 storeys, but was abandoned by the developer in 2017 after learning the proposed buildings were too tall to go under what is the flight path to Penticton Regional Airport.
Laven was in front of council to provide an overall update on the economic development work he oversees on behalf of the city, but mainly focused on new construction “because I think this is a really good story with a surprisingly promising trend.”
Construction activity is picking up again after falling in 2022 and 2023 on account of rising interest rates and costs, according to Laven, and with some of those inflationary pressures now receding, “projects that were in that evaluation stage are now moving into the construction stage.”
Other major projects he touched on include the first phase of the 235-unit Sokana condominium project at 270 Riverside Dr.
“We were worried with the changes to the short-term rental (laws) this project might not proceed, and it’s very encouraging to see the big crane go up and all the activity there,” said Laven.
Finally, he noted the transformation of 352 Winnipeg St.
“It’s quite a facelift of the former Victory Church into office space, storage space and a gymnastics studio, and much more beefed-up security around a site that was traditionally a bit of a hotspot in the downtown,” said Laven.
Other projects that are nearing the permit stage include a five-storey residential building at 603 Main St. to be operated by the M’akola Housing Society and a five-storey mixed-use building at 123 Front St., former home of the Slack Alice’s strip bar, which burned down in 2012.
New data released separately this week by the municipality shows staff at city hall issued 69 building permits for work valued at $9.2 million in April, lifting the first-quarter total to $82.5 million – nearly double the $43.8 million seen in the same period of 2023.
If the first quarter’s pace holds up through the rest of the year, Penticton would see total construction value of around $250 million, which would top identical records of $197.9 million set in both 2016 and 2017.