Mission Group, one of the most active developers in Kelowna, B.C., is moving forward with a 32-storey residential tower downtown which will be the city’s first to include a mix of rental homes and condos. 

The new project comes as the developer marks 20 years in business and charts its course for the coming years and decades. 

Mission Group, also developer of the mixed-use complex Bernard Block and the Aqua Waterfront Village, recently received its development permit for the new hybrid residential tower at Lawrence and Water streets, said Jonathan Friesen, CEO with the company. 

"We expect to be applying for a building permit somewhere between spring and summer of 2025," Friesen told RENX. "Once we have the building permit in hand, we can start construction."

Friesen and his team took a broader strategy with this latest tower, opting to mix rental and condos with commercial at street level. 

The building is to include 89 rental homes on levels six to 12, and 173 condos on levels 13 to 32. Friesen said the commercial component will likely include a mix of retail and restaurant uses. The building will also have five levels of parking on the lower levels, discreetly disguised within the building. 

Kelowna housing demand is changing

Demand for the new project will likely include a broad range of buyers and renters, “probably on average, 35- to 60-years-old,” he said. 

Residents are expected to include many locals and a mix of downsizers, younger buyers and urban professionals who want to live and work downtown. He said the condo portion of the tower will include three-bedroom homes and enclosed balconies for year-round use, also a first in Kelowna's new condo market.

While construction activity remains visible in the downtown core of Kelowna, like other cities, developers are slowing down on new pre-sale projects. Friesen suggested most of the current under-construction projects are sold-out projects from the previous cycle. 

Meantime, demand for new rental homes in the city remains strong, and is actually increasing, he said.

"We see a change where it used to be a town where everybody wanted to own their little white picket-fenced house," Friesen said. He estimated that roughly 40 per cent of households in Kelowna are now renters and that will likely keep climbing as the city grows, diversifies and homeownership becomes more costly. 

Other high-profile projects continue

Meanwhile, Mission Group continues planning for a tower at 1355 St. Paul St., a 40-level rental building located across the street from the future UBCO Downtown Campus currently being built at 550 Doyle Ave.

"It has 384 units," Friesen said of the project. "It is unheard of to have a high-rise tower, especially at that scale, completely dedicated to rental, but our internal strategic plan has us building as much rental as possible . . . it's really a long-term investment that builds stability not just for our organization, but for Kelowna itself."

As Mission Group expands its portfolio from condominium homes to rentals and office, it is adding an industrial element, and is launching a boat club. Aqua Boat Club is part of Aqua, the company's master-planned resort community on Okanagan Lake. Aqua Tower 1 is nearing completion. 

With inflation cooling and interest rates likely continuing downwards, the home sales market has shown positive signs in Kelowna, Friesen said.

"There's been a lot of pick-up on a month-over-month basis in sales activity in Kelowna," he said. "We also see it internally as we're interacting with the market all the time. We don't think that there'll be a meaningful change until the spring, but that's normally when markets wake up anyway."

Developers are hoping to see the market accelerate so they can move forward with their plans and build more much-needed homes in the city, he added.  

Mission Group marks 20th anniversary 

Founded in 2004, Mission Group has been one of the Okanagan’s most transformative developers, bringing over 2,314 condominium homes and 374 rental homes to the market (with an additional 1,755 homes currently under construction), the company said. 

This year, the company also moved into a new headquarters within its own 110,000-square-foot class-A office tower at Bernard Block.

"We started our company here," Friesen said. "We love Kelowna."

He said the vision for the coming years and decades is to continue to help move Kelowna forward.

"Our little catch phrase that we often use is building forward, and that just puts into words our philosophy around how we contribute to our community, and it simply means that if we do a good job . . . through the built form, everyone in Kelowna will benefit."