Located above the Thompson River and west of Kamloops, rolling hills under a big sky dominate Six Mile Ranch site
Mike Sasges
Sun
Townhouses from a veteran resorthome builder and designed by two long-time suppliers of design services to the Greater Vancouver development industry will be the first homes sold from the Tobiano presentation centre on the Six Mile Ranch, west of Kamloops. Tobiano principal Michael Grenier expects to open the centre next weekend.
PROJECT PROFILE
Tobiano
Location: Six Mile Ranch, west of Kamloops on the Trans-Canada Highway
Project size: 615 residential lots, 500 apartments and townhouses, three hotel sites, up to 40,000 square feet of retail and commercial space
Telephone: 604-632-3310, Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, Vancouver
Web: tobianoliving.com
Developer: Pagebrook Inc
Design: Civitas Urban Design and Planning Inc.
What follows might be considered a six-month Vancouver Sun checkup on the Tobiano project west of Kamloops and the Grenier family of Six Mile Ranch.
The family graced our front page last Christmas Eve (below), father Mike, mother Shelley, and daughters Rebecca and Allison gathered at the Christmas tree inside their ranch home above the Thompson River.
The Greniers expect to open the 3,000-square-foot Tobiano presentation centre next weekend (above). The first homes to be sold there will be townhouses designed by the architectural firm of Ankenman Marchand and interior designer Christina Oberti for the Emerson Homes development company.
The Emerson Homes principals have at least a thousand resort homes behind them, here and in Ontario. Ankenman Marchand and Oberti are veteran suppliers of services to the new-home industry in the Lower Mainland.
“People are really struck by the contrast between the more traditional, rustic wood and stone materials, and the modern features such as the vaulted ceilings,” Michael Grenier reports of the presentation centre.
“Our intent with this project is to integrate the agricultural history of the area with a low-density, equestrian and residential lakefront development. The stone and wood of this centre, combined with the crisp, fresh architectural approach celebrates new arrivals while grounding with tradition.”
At the presentation centre Hamill Creek Timberwrights provided the architecture services and the timber frame. A team from Tobiano’s sales campaign organizer, Sotheby’s International Realty Canada and led by Stuart Waddell, is responsible for the interior design.
“It’s neutral and truthful to the surrounding environment, taking full advantage of the views and the texture of the area’s landscape, making the rolling hills and big sky seem as if they are a part of the interior,” Waddell under-reports.
The presentation centre will not go down as homes go up, Grenier says.
“It really is intended to become some form of community gathering place, such as an art gallery, a museum, a library, an artists-in-residence centre, perhaps.”
The work of two local artists will be on display in the presentation centre: oil painter Trish Sellmer and David Trembley, a member of the Spallumcheen First Nation and a youth worker.
The resort’s first public facility to open, the golf course, is scheduled to open next June, with seeding and irrigation installation scheduled for completion in September.
The water-intake system is complete, Grenier reports, and the roads into the property are under construction.
Lastly, the horses which inspired the project’s name, Tobianos Wiseguy and Magnum (below, right), have been joined by a third, 12-year-old Chief. They are “lazing the time away in surrounding fields colored by mustard plants,” Grenier reports.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
