Recently I was in Penticton and sat down with Randy Kowlachuk, president of the Chamber of Commerce, builder, developer, hotel and restaurant owner about the state of the nation in the Peach City. Randy is a busy man these days with lots going on.

“We have our waterfront development project in Osoyoos ready to market with the presentation centre scheduled to open on June 16.”

(Q)The development in Osoyoos is on the lake correct?

“Yes, it is called Reflection Point. A total of thirty-seven home sites in the first phase and there are twelve waterfront and six none waterfront. The buyers will get the opportunity to build their own homes. Home sites start at sixty-seven feet of frontage to 150 feet of frontage. If that property was on Okanagan Lake in Kelowna it would be selling for between $40 and $50 thousand per lineal foot and we expect to sell for $15,000 per lineal foot. Historically if you look between Okanagan values typically it has been seventy per cent.”

(Q)Can I take a couple minutes of your time and ask the question how is business shaping up in the area?

“Business is great. Our main numbers at the hotel are up considerably, up seven per cent for May and if we look at last year’s May, which was, a more difficult time and we were up three per cent. We ran 83 per cent occupancy this year and 77 per cent the year before.”

<(Q)Is this from rising costs or new business?

“Mostly new business. May’s number for the last three years are numbers we would be recording in June and July each year.”

<(Q)Your numbers are good and positive for the new season but is business good all over the area?

“I think so.”

(Q)I noticed lots of traffic and everywhere we went there were people doing things, shopping was busy. We went out to eat two or three times and there weren’t line-ups, it was just busy. The food sellers have the same problems in every city, there just are not enough people to do the work and we have to adjust to the new world. The extra cost of gas wasn’t an issue?

“No I don't think if someone is going to come in from Calgary say, and it is going to cost an extra fifty dollars for gas, that isn’t going to stop them from coming. I think it is going to be just fine this year.”

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The $54.7 million South Okanagan Events Centre, which will be adjacent to the existing Penticton Trade and Convention Centre, is scheduled to open in September. The building features space for the B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame and a main bowl with seats for 5,100 people. Designed by Chernoff Thompson Architects, the facility has a cast-in-place concrete structural frame and a steel structural frame. The general contractor on the project is Western Industrial Contractors...

Be careful, the new crime is siphoning gas from your parked car. Siphoning is very easy to do and tempting when the cost of a fill up is over $100. Many vehicles older than the mid to late '90s do not have anti-siphon locks preventing theft. Lordco, the parts wholesaler located just about everywhere, says there is a definite increase is sales of locking gas caps over the last few months. There is also an increase in fuel filler hose
sales. These crooks that siphon gas are now cutting the hoses if there is a lock on the cap. Fuel filler hoses are about $80 to replace...

Jim Owens, the former CEO at the Penticton Trade & Convention Centre for over twenty years, is doing really well in his new digs at the Port of Nanaimo Centre. According to my sources in Nanaimo the new $72 million centre is a state of art conference centre where he is Director of Sales and Marketing. It is scheduled to open in June. Jim has had a good run at the market early and has signed eighty events for the new facility so far...

As you know, we have a lot of Prairie farmers who come out to the valley to spend their winters. It has become their second home. Most will move here in the future. They are looking at some very good crop news these days back home with the weatherman predicating rain in some of the drier regions. The grain and oilseed crops have been planted. Drew Lerner, with World Weather Inc. said the near term forecast for producers is very encouraging...

Staples, and we have four of them in Valley, ranked number one for most admired companies ahead of Sony, Tim Hortons and Canadian Tire. Staples are very good with customers and try their best to serve you well. They understand the importance of the customer. In the top 100, Telus finished 77th. HBC The Bay and Zellers went from 8th to 14th and Sears went from 6th to 11th...