A Kelowna-based developer hopes to build 125 housing units at the Nelson waterfront with purchase prices ranging from $350,000 to over $1 million.
The property, on the former Kutenai Landing site beside the Chahko Mika mall, will be known as Shorelines.
Mike Culos of Culos Developments says his company expects to submit a development permit application to the city by the end of the month. He said the approval process could then take about six weeks before it goes before council sometime later in the summer. He hopes to break ground in September if the project gets the go-ahead from the city.
Culos said there would be 24 townhomes expected to range in price from $680,000 to $780,000, eight garden homes at approximately $800,000, and 40 to 45 condos that he estimates will range from $300,000 to $1.2 million.
There would also be commercial space on the ground floor of the condos.
Culos, who was the developer for Nelson CARES’ Hall Street Place development, says there will be no subsidized units. He said a $300,000 condo is “pretty affordable” these days.
“Is there going to be below-market rental housing in there? No, not at all. These are straight-up condominiums,” he said, adding that Nelson has done well in providing affordable housing in the past year with three projects – Hall Street Plaza, Lakeside Place, and Herridge Place.
The development, if approved, will include a 60-slip marina, with half of the slips reserved for non-motorized boats because of a city zoning rule for that location.
The proposed project lies within the city’s Development Area 2 (Downtown and Waterfront) as described in the city’s Official Community Plan.
That development area has specific rules and guidelines for such things as street interface, entrances, safety, building height and massing, facades, materials, colours, rooflines, sustainable design, lighting, signage, and landscaping.
His company’s approach to the city, Culos says, will be, “Here’s what we’d like to do, and if everyone’s on board, we’re going to go ahead and do this.”
He said he’s received a lot of interest from the public.
“Ninety per cent of them are Nelson people … who have driven by us and seen the the sign on the fence, because that’s all we have, is a sign on the fence.”
Culos said a website for the project will be launched in July.
In the early 2000s, the site was purchased by a consortium of local people after a controversial attempt to build a stand-alone Walmart there. The consortium proposed a commercial-residential development, but instead sold the land to developer Mike Rink, who sold it in 2015 for $1.9 million to Sun 3 holdings, who in turn sold it to Culos Developments.
READ MORE:
• BUSINESS BUZZ: Kutenai Landing parcel in play, B.C. business is optimistic
• Marina at former Kutenai Landing site will be half non-motorized
bill.metcalfe@nelsonstar.com
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