The Highlands 9676 Benchland Drive, Lake Country 109 serviced lots on 550 acres for single-family homes by Macdonald Development Corp
Recreational amenities, great views highlights The Highlands at Lakestone
Michael Bernard
The Vancouver Sun
Project: The Highlands at Lakestone
Project location: 9676 Benchland Drive, Lake Country
Project size: 109 fully serviced lots on 550 acres providing for single-family homes ranging from 2,500 to 6,000 square feet
Prices: Lot prices starting at $245,000; prices for 28 townhomes start at $669,000, and single-family homes start at from $899,000
Developer: Macdonald Development Corp.
Sales phone: 250-766-1213 or 877-766-1213 (toll-free)
Presentation centre: 9676 Benchland Dr., Lake Country
Centre’s hours: noon to 4 p.m., Saturday to Thursday
Website: www.lakestoneliving.com
After effectively selling out its first two phases, the developers of Lakestone, a resort-like residential development with panoramic views of Okanagan Lake, are now launching their next phase, The Highlands.
A total of 109 single-family lots ranging from 2,500 to about 6,000 square feet are planned for the Highlands phase. The first phase, Waterside, rapidly sold out a few years ago, while about 95 per cent of the second phase, The Benchlands, has been sold to date, said Don Erdely, spokesman for the developer, Macdonald Development Corp. or Vancouver.
Lakestone has a planned build-out of 1,365 homes perched on the hills on the east side of Okanagan Lake between Kelowna and Vernon. To the south are the city lights of Kelowna and the William R. Bennett Bridge, spanning the lake.
One major feature that sets Lakestone apart from other similar developments is the order in which the developer has built the two amenity buildings, Erdely said.
“Many developers have big promises, and they sell 300 homes before they start on an amenity building,” he said. “Our two are built or under construction, and we are only just now going on to the Highlands phase of the sale of lots,” he said.
The Lake Club, built during Lakestone’s first phase, is emblematic of the new direction that some developments are taking, which is steering away from traditional golf-based communities that have dominated in the Okanagan in the last few decades. For example, a developer of a major golf resort north of Lakestone found in a recent survey that the prime recreational pursuit among those buyers is not golf, but hiking.
The Lake Club is a multi-level stone and timber structure built into the rocky hillside overlooking the lake. It has a fully equipped fitness centre, a large swimming pool and two hot tubs on an expansive deck, stainless steel locker storage at the lakeside for kayaks and paddle boards, and an outdoor kitchen with barbecues.
Also reflecting the interests of Lakestone owners and buyers, whom Erdely prefers to call “empty nesters” rather than “retirees”, is what the developer has done with the beach below the Lake Club. It has been left largely in its natural state with stones and gravel rather than sand. The emphasis is more on paddle boarding and kayaking and less on power boats, which can use a community dock about 150 metres away. The beach is also near a kokanee-spawning site, which the developer has contributed to by building pilings.
A second amenity, the Centre Club located inThe Benchlands, is adding a second outdoor pool and hot tub, a yoga studio, a coffee shop and mail services, as well as tennis courts and courts for pickleball, a fast-growing sport that is a hybrid of tennis, badminton and table tennis and proving particularly popular among seniors.
Erdely says Macdonald is also paying a lot of attention to the ongoing work on the 40 kilometres of hiking trails that wind through and connect all the Lakestone neighbourhoods.
“We have 250 acres of land (of the total) that is going to be left natural and two massive parks under construction,” he said. “We also have a trail plan that shows different loops that you can take depending on where you live in Lakestone.”
Another major draw for Lakestone is that Kelowna International Airport is just 12 minutes away. It has several flights daily to Vancouver and Calgary and direct flights to Toronto and several U.S. cities. Driving time to Kelowna is about 20 minutes and about four and a quarter hours to Vancouver.
The earlier phases saw a healthy percentage of buyers from Alberta, but the emphasis has shifted to local buyers and those from Metro Vancouver, Erdely said.
Macdonald has enlisted the services of five of the Okanagan’s top builders: Candel Custom Homes Ltd., Destination Custom Homes Okanagan Ltd., Noba Vision Construction Ltd., Richmond Custom Homes Ltd. and Gibson Contracting. Gibson Contracting received multiple 2018 Tommie Awards from the Canadian Home Builders Association of the Central Okanagan.
Metro Vancouverites will get a chance to have a closer look at Lakestone when Macdonald sets up a display at the Vancouver Fall Home Show at the Trade and Convention Centre Oct. 18 to 21.
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