‘So close to nature and so close to downtown.’
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Real estate developer Colleen Wilson has a knack for finding fantastic locations. When her company, Meridian Development, had the opportunity to purchase mountainside property for a multi-family development in Kelowna, she confidently pulled the trigger on the deal — sight unseen.
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It was 2020, just as the pandemic was locking everything down. Wilson was trapped at home in Saskatoon, where Meridian is based, but the opportunity just looked too good to pass by.
“We liked the idea that it was right against Knox Mountain, not far from a regional park. It was minutes to downtown Kelowna. We knew it was going to be a popular piece of land,” she says.
“We looked over the Okanagan Valley, and it just felt so refreshing. So close to nature and so close to downtown. And the lights from the city at night were amazing.”
From that first mountainside visit came the vision for Eminence, a collection of three, four-storey condominium buildings in north Kelowna. The first phase of 74 units is under construction and will have one-bedroom, one-bathroom homes and two-bedroom, two-bathroom homes. Some one- and two-bedroom floor plans have dens. One-bedrooms start in the low $400,000s, and two-bedrooms are priced from the low $600,000s.
The floor plans range from 415 to 1,166 square feet, with anywhere from 75 to 382 square feet of additional space on the deck. Limited suites have options for a private rooftop patio. The slope of the location means that every south-facing home, whether it’s on the ground floor or the fourth floor, will have a view. North-facing units look over Knox Mountain Park.
When blueprints for Eminence were in the works, Wilson and Miller followed a design recipe that has always brought them success no matter what they were building, where they were building it or how much it would cost.
“One thing my partner and I always did was to put ourselves in the headspace of the person we were building for. No matter what the price point, we built something we would be proud to live in ourselves,” she says.
Each home has nine-foot ceilings and oversized glass windows that let in south- or north-facing views. Buyers can choose from three organic casual colour palettes that reflect the rich hues of the mountain environment.
With a benchmark price of a condo in the Central Okanagan hovering around the $500,000 mark (October 2024), the starting price in the low $400,000s could be classified as price-point friendly. Wilson believes buyers will get much more than they expect “When we think of Eminence, we don’t think of it as just a building. It’s a whole lifestyle,” she notes.
Lifestyle amenities include communal rooftop patios, an outdoor pool and hot tub, a dog park, a dog wash station, underground parking with EV charging stations and a clubhouse. This resident-exclusive building will have a fitness centre, lounge and indoor/outdoor kitchen facilities. It will boast a green roof, with various native fescue grasses to be planted in six inches of soil.
The trails through the 950-acre Knox Mountain Park, the city’s largest natural park that extends up and over to Okanagan Lake, are right on the doorstep.
“There’s a sense of peace and tranquillity in nature literally out your back door. Then when you want action in the city, with great dining, great wineries, shopping and of course, that beautiful marina downtown, you’re only about a six-minute drive away,” Wilson says.
Wilson says she and her company are happy to be part of the B.C. community, building in such a special neighbourhood. “I look forward to being in Kelowna for some time.”
Project Address: 630 Boyton Pl. Kelowna
Project Scope: Eminence at Knox Mountain will be comprised of three, four-storey buildings featuring 218 one-bedroom one-bathroom and two-bedroom two-bathroom units, with and without dens A resident clubhouse will be built in Phase 3 with a fitness centre, lounge and indoor/outdoor kitchen facilities plus an outdoor pool and hot tub. A show home and a sales gallery are now open.
Developers: Meridian Development
Architect: Richard Muller of MUES LLC
Prices: One-bedroom units start in the low $400,000s and are 415 to 571 square feet or 637 to 769 square feet with den. Two bedrooms start in the low $600,000s and are 885 to 956 square feet or 930 to 1,166 square feet with den. First occupancies are estimated for spring 2025.
Sales centre: #106 – 630 Boynton Place, Kelowna
Sales centre hours: Wednesday 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday, Saturday and Sunday noon to 4 p.m.; or by appointment.
Sales phone: 778.739.0431