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There has been plenty of activity near the proposed Aqua Resort site over the last few months, and now it appears Mission Group is ready to proceed once again.
The company over the weekend filed a development permit application for the “form and character of a resort development with three residential towers, boat storage, clubhouse and commercial retail units” at 3838 Carpozzi Rd., which is the proposed Lower Mission location of the Aqua development.
Mission Group also applied for a development variance permit for height, front yard setback, side yard setback and parking.
Plans for the massive waterfront development have been in the works for more than a decade. Kelowna city council first gave rezoning approval for the project, which is just south of Eldorado Resort, in May 2017 and then approved zoning exceptions in January 2018, but the project has failed to advance past that point—until now.
Mission Group in late 2018 and early 2019 searched for a financial partner for the project, and the company had hoped to start construction last March. It’s likely any permits Mission Group received three years ago have expired, hence the return to council.
Aqua plans to have 319 units, spread across three apartment hotel towers of 12, 14 and 16 storeys, perched atop a four-level podium and flanked by townhomes. It will also have a four-storey boat rack that will allow residents to store their boats and use them all year round.
“It’s been a long process for us, but it’s just so worth it,” Mission Group CEO Jonathan Friesen said in January 2019. “I don’t think that there is another project that Mission Group has right now that we’re more excited about and more invested in.
Crews have been hard at work for the last several months on the Cook Road parking lot, which will be located next to the Aqua development. The revamped parking lot was a condition of a development permit issued to Mission Group for Aqua, as the city and Mission Group agreed to a land swap to accommodate the development.
The new configuration will add an additional 20 spaces in a combination of boat staging, trailer parking, accessible and regular vehicle parking stalls.
The lot will include the addition of nine boat staging stalls, two accessible stalls and 25 on-street parking stalls.
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