Thomson report

The Rise has contracted Land Launch Project Marketing to market the existing real estate inventory in its established neighbourhoods. Land Launch was the first to bring liquidation style selling to the Okanagan with its recent sale for the Kelowna Mountain project.

As a result of the worldwide recession, liquidation real estate sales are a growing trend as several successful blowout sales have been conducted in Vancouver this year. One such sale for the Omni Development Group sold more than 350 condos in eight weeks. Liquidation sales work when a developer has large inventories and can justify large discounts.

Land Launch moves to The Rise after four record sales years at Predator Ridge where in 2008 they sold out two phases of the Osprey Green town home project. Land Launch has selected to work with The Rise because the resort development has the type of product that is selling today: liquidation priced property.

Last October, The Rise, a 735-acre development with master plan approval for 1,200 units, was listed for sale with CB Richard Ellis in Vancouver. In December 2008, The Rise was awarded protection from its lenders and creditors by the Supreme Court of B.C. using the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act for a period of nine months. The developer is currently operating the resort and the completed golf course while it works through its financial difficulties.

The company CB Richard Ellis has The Rise property for sale. The man in charge of the account Marshall MacLeod says he has a number of buyers seriously considering the opportunity to purchase the Vernon golf resort.
There seems to be one of the parties very interested.

The resort’s Fred Couples Signature Golf Course is open for the season and is generating good reviews. Score Golf magazine named The Golf Club at The Rise a nominee for its 2009 Best New Golf Course in Canada Award.

At this point $14 million has been invested on the golf course and a total of $105 million in the resort community itself. The resort offers a beach club on Lake Okanagan and while plans for a winery are currently on hold, the resort has 17 acres of vineyard with Gewurztraminer, Pinot Noir and Riesling vines. The first harvest last year produced a quality of grape that has created good reviews from the winemaker.

With over $310 million of recreation property sold since 2002 in the Okanagan, California and Washington, Land Launch attributes its success to knowing what the market wants.

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Western Economic Diversification Canada announced Tuesday it would put up $72,280 toward such a study by the Okanagan Valley Public Market Society, with an eye toward improving area producers' cash flow throughout the full year.

The society plans to determine the economic viability of a year-round public market focused on locally grown produce and products, and should it prove feasible, the project will move ahead to identify potential locations and create a "strategic action plan."

"An all-season public market would strengthen the Okanagan economy by allowing community vendors to better fulfill demand for local products," WED said in a release.

"Currently many producers struggle because they shut down over the winter months," society president Sharon Hughes-Geekie said in the WED release.

"A public market is a win-win for consumer and producer. It provides the consumer with easy access to local product and encourages agricultural producers and artisans to diversify their product offerings by providing a year-round venue from which to sell."

The society bills itself as a non-profit organization formed for the purpose of creating a local public market, and contributing to the region's growing economy by supporting local agriculture, regionally owned food-related businesses and "creative products."