Photo: Contributed

The Vancouver company that owns Prospera Place has taken the first steps toward building a pair of highrise towers directly in front of the arena.

GSL Group has submitted plans to the City of Kelowna for two towers — stretching 37 and 27 storeys high — it wants to build on the Water Street property that currently acts as the arena’s main parking lot.

The two towers will be primarily residential (with 332 total residential units) and set atop a retail podium that “playfully interacts with the plaza and streetscape in a dynamic layering of retail shops and cafes.”

Adam Cseke, a planner with the City of Kelowna, points out that, while the property has been used as the arena’s de facto parking lot for years, it is actually zoned for the kind of development GSL proposes.

For more details on the development, as well as what the city is doing to try and ensure some public parking remains in the area, check out the full story on Castanet's sister business news website, Okanagan Edge.