Oasis Luxury Residences Update

I love southern B.C’s Okanagan region. Think the South of France with the Côte D'Azur's ocean, beaches, mountains, orchards, and wineries, but substitute the ocean for lakes tens of kilometres long and subtract a whole lot of people. That's the Okanagan!
 
The Okanagan valley is a focal point of my development projects. People need homes here as more and more folk discover the region. Lots of retirees and downsizers from Alberta and Vancouver move here. The vacancy rate for rentals is 1% and I enjoy working with local officials to provide affordable rental housing. 

But this is a totally different kind of project at the other end of the affordability spectrum: luxury housing on the foreshore of Okanagan Lake.
 
Waterfront is the gold standard for sought-after land. It doesn't suit rental housing because of its high purchase cost, so build-and-sell luxury units is the only way to go. ​

Oasis Luxury Residences in Summerland B.C. is quite literally just steps from the water. The local yacht club and marina is on one side and community tennis courts are on the other, with restaurants and small shops in between. 
 
Building on beach land is geotechnically challenging. We had to truck in four storeys worth of fill material, dump it on the site, and then cart it all away again months later. Sounds daft, right? But this was the most cost-efficient way to compact the soil so it would be stable enough to build upon. Pilings were then driven into the ground until we hit bedrock. ​

The building’s design had to maximize the 180 degree lake views - it’s what buyers are paying for - so we chose a terraced, step-back design to create 24 luxury apartment homes with high ceilings. This allows a massive 1,250 square feet patio for each apartment, not to mention a private swimming pool. The enormous steel frame – no wood – is an engineering masterpiece. Very hard to create.

The Lego-style, stacked approach of the structure mimics the steeply ascending cliffs opposite the lot. But equally interesting is what we did with the deep internal space of the step-back building which reaches back toward the main road. The answer is nothing. There is no living space on the non-lake side. It’s a metal framed void kept for tenant storage.

​​We could have added lower-value apartments without lake views back here, but they would have been facing a car park and the rear of a  nondescript, low-rise commercial building  (right) we added next to the road. ​​Economically, it made sense to have fewer apartments and to make them as exclusive in their design and proximity to neighbours as possible.  Less is more. Buyers who are willing to pay $1M-$2M for a waterfront apartment expect this kind of exclusivity.

Navigating COVID & the Economic Shutdown

​The Oasis project began more than four years. Navigating the economic lockdown caused by the pandemic was challenging. We had four vendors go bankrupt during this time period, which saw their unpaid sub-contractors place liens on the property. It was no one’s fault, but everyone needed to be paid, so we were as much a victim as the subs who were left high and dry and the vendor companies that went bust.

Summerland is a small community and finding skilled labour is not easy. My Cormode and Dickson business partners and I have such scale though, that we bring in teams of tradespeople from across Canada. It actually works out to be more economical. We even have a crew of Turkish drywallers throwing up board right now. They will work like crazy  making coin until the cold weather comes, and then go home for winter to be with their families.
 
Thanks to all the stakeholders involved in Oasis. It’s the largest construction project the community of Summerland has ever seen. It’s also a great calling card for what Redgum stands for: real estate development with quality, innovation, and cost certainty.

Oasis Site Visit with Caleb West, Cormode & Dickson VP
​& Cameron Morrell, Redgum Real Estate CEO
July 3 2024 ​

Composite rendering of the finished project