Aqua developers stay patient

Photo: Contributed

The developers behind the proposed Aqua project in Kelowna’s Mission Creek neighbourhood have been working for nearly a decade to bring it to fruition, so they have no problem being patient as they search for a new financial partner.

Mission Group CEO Jonathan Friesen said it is common for financial partners to exit a project once the entitlements have all been secured, which is what happened last year.

“The most typical way that a financial partner exits is for them to wait until the project is sold and closed, and then the profits are divided according to pre-agreed terms,” Friesen said. “But, quite often, a group will say: ‘Our exit is not at the end of the project when it’s sold. It’s somewhere in the middle.’ And a very common time to do that is after entitlements but before construction because it’s a nice line in the sand.”

The land, which is just south of Hotel Eldorado, has been listed with Colliers International, and Mission Group will be buying back into the project along with another group that chooses to help finance the construction of the lakeside residential resort complex. Friesen expects the new financial partner to be in place this spring, which means construction could start in March 2020.

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