A $29.5-million bid to purchase the stalled Kelowna SOPA Square development has received the final go-ahead.
The oft-delayed project in Kelowna’s Pandosy district fell into receivership, and the bid by Vancouver’s Aquilini Group was accepted Dec. 5, triggering a six-week waiting period during which other prospective developers had the opportunity to outbid the owners of the Vancouver Canucks.
Marshall McAnerney, with commercial real estate firm Colliers International, said Tuesday afternoon receiver Ernst & Young has issued a certificate to the Aquilini Group and the courts, terminating the sales process.
The receiver is working with Aquilini to close the transaction in accordance with the so-called “stalking horse” agreement, with a target closing date of mid-February, said McAnerney.
The SOPA Square project, approved by Kelowna City Council in 2008, has been beset with financial problems nearly from the outset.
The project stalled after the original developer ran out of money.
A second developer from Alberta took over the project, but it too was unable to fund the project to completion.
It went into receivership late last year.
Only two floors of the 11-storey project have been completed.
The Aquilinis also have a large stake in the 24, a proposed Bernard Avenue development that has yet to get off the ground.
The stalled project so far consists of two commercial buildings of approximately 40,000 square feet of ground floor retail space and 23,490 square feet of first floor office space. It is zoned and planned for for an 11-storey residential tower and six-storey townhome complex and includes a below-ground parkade and partially constructed surface parking lot