Gellatly Place 4215 Gellatly Road West Kelowna 33 condos in phase 1 of three phases marketed by Fortune Marketing
Gellatly Place balances rural living with all the amenities
MICHAEL BERNARD
The Vancouver Sun
Project: Gellatly Place
Project size: A three-phased project with a total of 111 two- and three-bedroom condominiums in three buildings. In Building 1, the 33 homes range from 877 to 1,275 sq. ft.
Prices: From $316,900
Architecture/Interior Design: BlueGreen Architecture
Sales Centre: 4215 Gellatly Road
Sales hours: 11 a.m. — 4 p.m. daily
Telephone: 778-821-0919
Website: http://www.gellatlyplace.com
Occupancy: November 2016 (Building 1)
Don Lockhart, who left Metro Vancouver 13 years ago, has experienced the full gamut of housing in the Okanagan Valley — from the quiet of a rural home with a yard in the lakeside community of Peachland to a busy and noisy neighbourhood surrounding a downtown Kelowna apartment.
He thinks he finally has the formula right with Gellatly Place — a new condominium complex rising in West Kelowna,where he has purchased a home with two bedrooms and a den home that has views of Okanagan Lake and a private roof-top garden up a stairway inside the home.
“I looked around at lots of places,” said Lockhart, who works as a marketer for an ESL private school. “I lived in downtown Kelowna for the last three years. And I knew I didn’t want that just because of the noise. And I used to live in Peachland, but that was just too far and too rural and I didn’t want to do that anymore.”
What Lockhart has settled on is a development adjacent to the historic Gellatly Nut Farm Regional Park and a horse farm, both within the Agricultural Land Reserve, giving some assurance that the neighbourhood won’t be changing character anytime soon. Across from his new home is the luxury hotel called the Cove Lakeside Resort.
“I think it is one of the nicest beaches and walkways in all of the Okanagan,” said Lockhart, whose suite is on the top level of the three-storey first building at Gellatly Place. “This area is way less crowded than downtown Kelowna, so if you are looking for some peace and quiet, this is definitely the place.”
A view home like Lockhart’s in Vancouver may well cost at least $1 million dollars, but in West Kelowna, Gellatly buyers pay from the low to high $300,000s. Those prices have been a major draw for the 20 buyers who have purchased homes in Building 1 to date, says Don Warkentin, whose firm Fortune Marketing is selling the homes.
“So far, we are finding a lot of the buyers from the Lower Mainland, and they are purchasing second homes,” Warkentin said. “We are also seeing downsizers from West Kelowna, local first-time buyers and a few investors who are buying them to rent them out.”
“With the new investor tax on Metro Vancouver real estate purchases, I suspect that Kelowna is going to be on the foreign buyer’s radar,” he said. “For some of these foreigners, this is a very small amount of money to pay.”
Warkentin says West Kelowna offers the best of both worlds: the lifestyle of a home in a rural setting, but one with all the amenities such as grocery stores, movie theatres, wineries, an aquatic centre, an arena and golf courses within a few minutes’ drive. A longer trip over the William R. Bennett Bridge takes you to the urban amenities of Kelowna, now home to more than 123,000 people.
“You can buy a very nice condo here at a very reasonable price, not right on the lake but basically close to the lake,” he said. “You could also have your boat at West Kelowna Yacht Club, which is about half a kilometre away.”
Gellatly Place, developed by a local independent businessman, does not have in-house amenities like a swimming pool or fitness centre, Warkentin said, but that helps to keep strata fees down, averaging about $150 a month per suite. For a fee, Gellatly owners can join the gym at the Cove Resort or rent kayaks, paddle boards and other water toys at the lakeside, he said.
One of the big plusses for those who buy a home on the top third storey is that they can access their own private rooftop garden via an internal stairwell from their home. The garden, which is sectioned off from the neighbour’s, averages about 200 square feet, and offers views of the lake and mountains and is contained by glass railings. They also have two parking spaces for each third floor suite as opposed to one parking space for each suite on the other floors.
Inside, kitchen cabinets are offered in the classic shaker or modern flat profile with stainless steel handles. Countertops are quartz and have stainless steel undermount sinks, and stainless steel appliances by Whirlpool come with a hood fan.
Flooring in the living areas is vinyl planking while the bedrooms feature nylon carpets. A walk-in closet in the master bedroom is accessed through an attractive sliding “barn door,” a popular feature among new developments. The same entrance system is used to access the den in homes with that configuration. Soundproofing is bolstered by a two-wall system with second and third-floor suites equipped with silent flooring with concrete topping and acoustic insulation.
Ensuite bathrooms are equipped with quartz countertops and tiled showers with ceramic accents and a recessed lighting vanity mirror. Secondary bedrooms have a combined shower and bathtub.
Outside the buildings will be landscaped courtyards, with pathways leading to parks and the beach. Nearby Gellatly Bay offers a three-kilometre lakeside promenade, a secure off-leash dog park, a playground and grassy green space.
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