The Kelowna property, located at 837 Ellis St., is assessed at $1.25 million. The property was built in 1996 and listed as a one-bedroom, two-bathroom detached house, measuring approximately 2,000 square feet.
A former Hells Angels clubhouse seized by the province has been sold to the city of Kelowna.
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The sale was finalized on Thursday, according to a statement issued by Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General Gary Begg.
“In February 2023, three Hells Angels clubhouses in Vancouver, Kelowna and Nanaimo were forfeited to the province — a major victory — following more than a decade of legal proceedings,” said Begg.
“Today, the government has finalized the sale of the former Hells Angels Kelowna clubhouse to the City of Kelowna, marking the next step in addressing organized crime in British Columbia.”
The Kelowna property, at 837 Ellis St., is assessed at $1.25 million. The property was built in 1996 and listed as a one-bedroom, two-bathroom detached house, measuring approximately 2,000 square feet.
It was one of three properties B.C.’s Court of Appeal had ordered handed over to the province’s Civil Forfeiture Office in 2023, after a 2020 B.C. Supreme Court ruling allowed the organized crime group to keep the clubhouses.
The other two properties are located at 805 Victoria Rd. in Nanaimo and 3598 East Georgia St. in Vancouver. The clubhouses were used for meetings and special events, some attended by hundreds of Hells Angels members.
The B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office is tasked with ensuring people cannot profit from criminal activity, and seizing the proceeds of such activity. Since the office was established in 2006, it has collected about $155-million worth of seizures, much of it given to crime prevention initiatives.
The agency first went after the group’s Nanaimo clubhouse in 2007. The government agency later turned their attention in 2012 to also include the Kelowna and east Vancouver clubhouses. It argued that the venues would likely be used for more crime in the future, as they had in the past.
In late 2023, the Nanaimo clubhouse was demolished. The east Vancouver clubhouse was listed for sale in late 2023 but has since been taken off the market, according to online listings.
In announcing the sale of the Kelowna clubhouse, Begg said the province retains what’s called “right of entry, a new tool that means the Civil Forfeiture Office will be able to take the property back if it is ever acquired and used by organized crime in the future.”
Begg said the sale of the property “puts organized crime on notice” and was an opportunity for the city of Kelowna to convert the “problematic property … into an asset for the community.”
With files from Kim Bolan and The Canadian Press