No name until fall for new waterfront hotel in Kelowna

DEVELOPER PLANS TEASER CAMPAIGN FOR NAME UNVEILING

KELOWNA – The 24-storey hotel soon to start construction on Kelowna’s downtown waterfront still doesn’t have a name — at least not one its owners are willing to share.

“We’re going to have a teaser campaign and let the name out then,” Westcorp vice-president Gail Temple says. “You’re still going to have to call it the Westcorp hotel until then.”

Plans are to begin inserting piles for the building’s foundation later this fall, Temple says, marking the beginning of a two-year construction phase. The pile insertion program was pushed back from earlier this year.

She says the company will do an unveiling once a fence goes up around the construction site.

When complete, the boutique hotel will have 216 rooms, including aproximately 25 suites on five floors designed for longer term use.

“All of those suites will be bigger than standard hotel rooms,” Temple adds.

She describes the project as a “pure hotel play” with no residential sales component.

The Westcorp hotel, for lack of a better name, has been on the drawing board for at least six years. Westcorp Development Inc. has owned the former Willow Inn site where it will be located since 2003.

The company is also developing the 18-acre Hiawatha mobile home park on Lakeshore Drive in Kelowna with plans for construction of 700 to 1,000 rental apartments.


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John McDonald


John began life as a journalist through the Other Press, the independent student newspaper for Douglas College in New Westminster. The fluid nature of student journalism meant he was soon running the place, learning on the fly how to publish a newspaper.

It wasn’t until he moved to Kelowna he broke into the mainstream media, working for Okanagan Sunday, then the Kelowna Daily Courier and Okanagan Saturday doing news graphics and page layout. He carried on with the Kelowna Capital News, covering health and education while also working on special projects, including the design and launch of a mass market daily newspaper. After 12 years there, John rejoined the Kelowna Daily Courier as editor of the Westside Weekly, directing news coverage as the Westside became West Kelowna.

But digital media beckoned and John joined Kelowna.com as assistant editor and reporter, riding the start-up as it at first soared then went down in flames. Now John is turning dirt as city hall reporter for iNFOnews.ca where he brings his long experience to bear on the civic issues of the day.

If you have a story you think people should know about, email John at jmcdonald@infonews.ca