Major overhaul for tower development planned alongside UBCO

Substantial changes have been made to a proposed development alongside the future University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) vertical campus in the downtown.

Kelowna-based Mission Group has revamped its design for the mixed-use project at 1355 St. Paul.

Schematics recently submitted to City Hall detail a modern 40-story mixed-use tower, with street level commercial space, and two-thirds of the residential units set aside for rentals.

Plans details 308 rental units running from the eighth to the 29 floor, and 154 condominiums on the upper 11 floors.

Shared indoor amenities include a gym, entertainment centre, and lounge on the seventh floor, with shared outdoor space on the sixth. The tower will sit upon a four level above-ground parkade.

The new plans are substantially different from what was pitched in January 2022, which included a 17-storey office tower and 30-floor combined condo and long-term rental residential tower. These two towers were to occupy the northern portion of the parcel of land.

The office tower was to go between the campus and future residential tower. Now, plans seem to show the residential tower abutting the campus, with a smaller parcel of land to the north undeveloped, for now.

The under-construction vertical campus will stretch 46-floors into the sky and was heralded as a “marquee development” and “iconic building” that will forever shape Kelowna’s skyline and the fabric of the downtown core when approved.

It will have 33 floors of residential accommodation alone, from floors 12 to 45, alongside dozens of classrooms, labs, and a circular lecture hall on the lower academic floors.