Imposing big-city ways on a small town rarely appreciated

Suzanne Morphet
Sun

After the excitement of finding your dream out of town property comes a reality, that other people share your new neighbourhood, perhaps people who’ve lived there a long time and view life differently than you do.

If all the time and energy you invested in finding and purchasing your property is going to be well spent, you need to learn — if you don’t already know — how to get along with the locals. After all, they were there first.

Pick any of the Gulf Islands and chances are you’ll hear horror stories of newcomers who want to “improve upon paradise,” in the words of one long-time Cortes Island resident.

Marcel Creurer recalls an American who purchased a home overlooking Cortes Bay and then objected to the appearance of a log ramp where locals tied up their boats.

“One day this guy, who comes [here] maybe two weeks out of the year, if that much, got into some regional district meeting and raised hell that this log ramp was interfering with his view and because it was not a legal ramp, they [the owners] had to remove it.”

“This sort of thing doesn’t go over too well,” adds Creurer, who says newcomers “are always bringing a little bit of the city life with them.”

His own neighbour was a case in point. After purchasing a property, Creurer says the first thing his neighbour did was survey it, “which is the thing you do in the city, right? And he found that the neighbour on one side had a fence that was about three feet on his property, so he made him move it.”

Creurer chuckles when he tells how the story ended; the man found that his own fence was 65 feet over the property line on his other neighbour’s side, “so he lost 65 feet on the other side!”

“But now, that guy has assimilated himself extremely well in the neighbourhood and is one of our best friends.” Creurer believes newcomers can “acclimatize” if they want to. His neighbour was able to build better relations with the locals simply by “being a nice guy.”

On Mayne Island, long-time resident Jeanine Dodds has three words of advice for newcomers: “volunteer, volunteer, volunteer!” In Dodds‘ experience — and she’s lived on the island since 1960 — newcomers often don’t realize that all the services are run by volunteers.

“Fire, ambulance, recycling, parks, our community centre . . . everything you see here. There are some paid people, but mostly they’re volunteer.”

Dodds, who is one of two elected trustees for Mayne Island, understands that people buying property for week-end escapes or summer holidays want to relax and may feel they’re contributing to the community simply by supporting local businesses. But in her view, that’s not enough.

“You’ve got to become part of the community. You don’t have to do it every day. These [volunteer] services have slots, but you could come on a Saturday morning and put in two hours at the recycle centre.

If you happen to be a paramedic, book some time to be an ambulance driver.”

Dodds thinks this is especially important in the summer, when the population of the island doubles.

“Everybody is so burnt out by the end of August. The people you see waiting on your table also have other hats they wear, they have numerous involvement in the community.”

If locals are not as welcoming as newcomers might like, it may be due to factors other than burn-out.

On Saltspring Island, for instance, growing interest by outsiders has pushed land prices up to the point where people who were born and raised on the island can no longer afford to buy into the market. Jean-Paul Martin, a project manager for Three Point Properties, which has two new developments in Ganges, says that can affect the way locals view newcomers.

“Looking at purchasing land is pretty remote for a lot of people, so there may be a bit of resentment in terms of newcomers with more money coming to the island.”

Don Keith “sensed the same thing” when he moved to Saltspring Island last fall from Kelowna, after purchasing a townhouse in Bishops Green, one of Three Point Properties’ new developments. The first week he was there, the local newspaper carried a story about the locals not wanting any more trees cut down to make room for development.

However, Keith says he’s had no problem adjusting to life on a small island and fitting in with people who’ve lived there a long time.

“People are very friendly and open, there’s certainly lots of opportunities to volunteer. I volunteered for therapeutic [horseback] riding this year and really enjoyed it.” He also volunteered at the high school and hopes to resume a teaching career that he took early retirement from, a few years ago.

After all the traffic, noise and pollution in Kelowna, Keith finds life is simpler on Saltspring, which doesn’t have a single stoplight.

“It’s totally delightful to be able to walk down — and I can walk — down to the dock and buy a crab for $10 and bring it home and cook it up for company and they think that you’re in heaven.”

Still, he says the island is not for everybody. “It is a quiet community. . . you can be terribly isolated here. If you’re used to a large social network, you might probably find it isolating because there’s only so much running around downtown you can do.”

To help potential buyers decide if the island is for them, Three Point Properties offers week-end tours of the island with a focus on their two new developments, Bishops Green and Bishops Walk.

Sales manager Graham Bavington tries to give people a feel for what it would be like to live there. “Nothing’s required of anyone, no seminar or anything. . . . It’s a great opportunity to meet their neighbours before they buy, get immersed in the island life.”

“We want to avoid any buyer’s remorse, or any sort of ‘Gee, I didn’t realize it was this isolated’, or ‘I didn’t realize that I was in for that extent of island life,” adds Jean-Paul Martin. “We try to give them a pretty good idea of what they can expect, exactly what the island lifestyle entails.”

On Cortes Island, Marcel Creurer advises newcomers to arrive with an open mind, because islanders tend to be more liberal than people in the city. And if a conflict develops, talk it over. A few years ago tensions between oyster farmers and upland residents — some of them newcomers — escalated, so the Cortes Island Seafood Association, of which Creurer is the director, threw an oyster party for everyone on the island.

“Ever since we did that, the whole situation changed dramatically,” he says, noting that the sixth oyster festival was successfully held earlier this year. “It has become a major annual event, and a lot of people are now involved in organizing it, a good portion of whom are not oyster people. It has gone a long way in bringing the island together.”

On the other hand, Creurer says newcomers have to be realistic about how much locals will adapt to suit them.

As he told one newcomer: “You can’t expect to buy a piece of property at the end of an airport runway and then expect them to change the flight paths for you.”

Suzanne Morphet is a photojournalist in Victoria and contributor to a new book, The Vancouver Island Book of Everything, to be published this summer.

 

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Central bank expects peak increase of 4.3%

Eric Beauchesne
Sun

OTTAWA — Canadians will pay a lot more to fill their gas tanks and heat their homes, and a bit more to fill their bellies, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney warned in explaining where the average family can expect to be hit by what it now predicts will be a surge in inflation to more than four per cent by year end.

“The price of natural gas and gasoline for our cars is going up,” Carney told a news conference after the bank warned that the annual increase in the cost of living would reach 4.1 per cent late this year before peaking at 4.3 per cent early next year. “I think we’re all aware of that, we live with that on a daily basis.”

And food prices are “firming” up, but not dramatically, he added

Offsetting those increases will be an easing in price inflation for less frequently purchased goods, such as cars and houses, as well as some services, he said after the release of the bank’s Monetary Policy Report Update.

While the central bank expects the spike in the cost of living to be temporary, it admits there are significant risks that the cost of living could rise even more, just as it warns that economic growth could be even weaker than the one per cent now forecast for the year, which is already the weakest growth in more than a decade.

And some analysts suspect that the central bank is being “optimistic” on both inflation and economic growth.

“The Bank of Canada remains remarkably optimistic,” said Patricia Croft, chief economist at Phillips, Hager & North Investment Management Inc.

“I think the U.S. is already in recession, and I think the Canadian economy is beginning to fray around the edges,” she said. “Employment growth was negative in June. House prices are now declining for the first time in a decade … . I think there are significant uncertainties going forward.”

TD Bank economist Pascal Gauthier also felt the central bank was overly optimistic.

“As for downside risks, we remain more pessimistic …,” Gauthier said. “The likelihood remains high that growth could disappoint, while energy prices or their trickle-down to final goods prices will be higher yet.”

Analysts with an Ontario think-tank estimated that Canada and Ontario in fact both slipped into mild recessions in the first half of this year, with back-to-back contractions in the first and second quarters.

The Institute for Policy Analysis at the University of Toronto also projected Canadian economic growth this year would be only 0.6 per cent.

The recessions, however, will be milder than the recession of 1990-91, which was a “doozy,” said institute economist Peter Dungan.

The Bank of Canada says the worst is already behind Canada.

It projects the economy recovered from its first-quarter contraction to expand at an annual pace of 0.8 per cent in the spring quarter, thus avoiding a technical recession of back-to-back quarterly contractions.

“The Canadian economy remains robust,” Carney said.

And it projects that was the start of a recovery that will see growth steadily increase from an annual pace of 1.3 per cent this summer to 3.4 per cent in 2010. However, it expects that the economy will grow by only one per cent this year before accelerating to an average of 2.3 per cent next year.

It is final domestic demand — spending in Canada by consumers, businesses and governments — that will drive growth over this and the coming two years, it said.

“Recent increases in global commodity prices led to higher wages and salaries, higher government revenues, higher corporate profits and equity valuations, and stronger investment growth, particularly in the energy sector,” it said.

Meanwhile, trade will continue to act as a significant drag on the economy this year, though that drag will ease as the U.S. economy recovers in 2009 and 2010, the central bank said.

“While the bank is relatively upbeat on global growth and the Canadian economic outlook in 2009-10, they are still sounding relatively relaxed about the inflation outlook,” said BMO Capital Markets economist Douglas Porter.

Carney was also upbeat about the improvement in credit conditions in Canada, the health of its banking system, and the impact of oil prices.

He said high petroleum prices are a small plus for Canada‘s economy, and not just in oil-rich regions.

“There are variety of industries that feed into the energy industry, including manufacturing industries in Ontario and other areas of Central Canada; there are wealth effects in portfolios; there are wage effects for secondary and tertiary industries spread across the country,” he said.

“And that puts us, in the industrialized countries, in very rare company.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Other

Darah Hansen
Sun

It was one of the great mysteries of Vancouver.

For years, city dwellers walking and driving past The Lido’s stylish old storefront on East Broadway have wondered just what was behind the perennially closed glass door.

Now, we finally have an answer.

Hidden among the retro furniture and 1950s-era electronics, the piles of mildewed clothes, rat droppings and a mountain of rusted tuna and salmon cans, was a treasure no one could have anticipated: $400,000 in Canadian bank notes circa 1930.

The money was uncovered earlier this year following the death of the building’s owner, an elderly German woman who lived in a small apartment above The Lido shop — at 518 East Broadway, just east of Main Street — for decades.

A cleanup crew hired to clear out the place — which operated sporadically as a deli and general store before closing for good more than a decade ago — found $950 in old $100 and $50 notes hidden under a rug.

But it was the caretaker who made the greatest discovery, stumbling on a bag containing a whopping $400,000 stuffed inside a bedroom closet.

“It was pretty amazing,” said Brendan Fuss, a driver with 1-800-GOT-JUNK.

Crews spent five days at the site removing enough furniture and garbage to fill 10 truckloads.

Inside, Fuss said, was “like a time warp.”

“There were some crazy retro things in there … nothing modern at all,” Fuss said.

Fuss said the banknotes found under the rug were so antiquated the young clean-up crew thought they were fake.

“They thought it was play money from a Milton Bradley game board. They were almost ready to bag it up and toss it in the garbage,” he said.

Fuss said the money was turned over to a chartered accountant working on behalf of the elderly woman’s family.

Also found in the house was a suitcase containing old German passports dating to the 1940s and ’50s, and a remarkable 15 cubic yards of rusted food tins — evidence of The Lido’s working history, though few in Vancouver can recall ever seeing the shop open for business.

“In its heyday, I think it was a specialty goods store,” said Craig Sexton, 1-800-GOT-JUNK’s general manager, who recalled visiting the store once in the early 1990s.

Vancouver coin dealer Brian Grant Duff called The Lido discovery an “incredible find,” adding that the recovered money could be worth as much as double its face value depending on the condition of the notes.

“The family,” Duff said, “should definitely check them with a reputable dealer before taking them to the bank.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Weak U.S. economy and strong currency send buyers stateside

Fiona Anderson
Sun

The slump in the United States economy and the strong Canadian dollar are good news for Canadian car buyers who have been snapping up U.S. vehicles twice as fast as they did a year ago.

By the end of June, 151,169 automobiles had been imported into Canada from the U.S. — more than two times as many as during the first six months of 2007, according to numbers provided by the North American Automobile Trade Association, an Ontario-based association of dealers who buy and sell cars across borders.

While numbers aren’t broken down by province, in the past two years about 20 per cent of imports from the U.S. came to B.C.

The strong Canadian dollar and the faltering U.S. economy are two major reasons for the influx of cars, NAATA’s president and CEO Brian Osler said in an interview.

With the weak U.S. economy, there is less demand for cars, so manufacturers have to charge less to make the sale, Osler said.

Even if the car is actually built in Canada and then shipped to the U.S., it still could have a lower sales price, “because the manufacturer can get a higher price in Canada,” Osler said.

In fact, the latest numbers show that in June, cars sales in the U.S. dropped more than 13 per cent falling to a 15-year low, according to BMO Capital Markets senior economist Sal Guatieri.

But what is also fueling cross-border purchases is Canadian awareness that not only are cars cheaper in the U.S., they’re not that hard to import, Osler said.

While some purchasers may make the trip south themselves, many will buy through a local dealer that specializes in importing cars. And those who do buy themselves can hire companies to do the importing paperwork for them.

Advantage Trading Ltd. in Burnaby helps customers bring their newly-bought cars into the country.

Business this year has been booming, Advantage’s Jennifer Hunter said in an interview.

And the main reason is cost.

“The Canadian consumer is sophisticated,” Hunter said. “With access to the Internet they can do research and they can see that the exact same vehicle in the States with minor differences . . . is considerably cheaper. We’ve had people say [they’ve saved] sometimes $15,000 to $20,000 on high-end vehicles.”

But while Advantage doesn’t help clients find cars, they do recommend people do a few things to make sure they don’t have problems down the road.

First they should buy through an authorized dealer or authorized auction, both of whom would guarantee the car is as advertised.

Buyers should also check the car’s history on Carfax, and ensure the car’s warranty will still be valid. The Automobile Protection Agency’s website apa.ca has a list of cars and whether the warranty will be honoured. Many won’t, according to the website.

“But the best thing to do is call the manufacturer directly,” Hunter said.

Another good website is http://www.riv.ca/english/html/how_to_import.html which lists what has to be done to get a car into Canada, and what cars are importable. Modifications often need to be made to the cars — such as switching on the daytime running lights — to ensure they comply with Transport Canada regulations.

Westport Motor Cars in Vancouver specializes in finding high-end slightly-used cars in the U.S. which the dealer resells in B.C.

But it’s not just a price issue, it’s also an issue of availability, owner Todd Macdonald said.

“The problem is there is only 30 million people in Canada and [these high-end cars] are not readily available,” Macdonald said.

“Where can you find the Bentley and the Porsche that are a year old and have a few thousand miles on them here in Canada?” Macdonald asked. “We just didn’t have the allocation to the dealers here in Canada. Nor, a few years ago, did we have the economy where people were buying stuff like that.”

In the U.S., on the other hand, people were buying high-end cars that, with the downturn in the economy, they may no longer be able to afford.

But not all cars are sufficiently cheaper in the U.S. to make going south worthwhile, Osler said.

“When you import you have to pay to ship the car up, you might have to do these modifications to the car, you certainly have some paperwork at customs and paperwork with Transport Canada,” Osler said. “So there has to be a big enough price difference to make it worthwhile.”

For cars built outside North America there is also an import duty of 6.1 per cent.

“The bottom line is, if you’re looking for a car, it’s worth finding out what the price is in the States . . . because you might end up saving a lot of money,” Osler said.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

GREG KEENAN
Other

Paved wharf at Jericho Beach requires overhaul

Allison Cross
Sun

VANCOUVER – The park board will vote Monday on whether to demolish a large part of a paved wharf at Jericho Beach that was once used by the Royal Canadian Air Force.

The project would restore the natural shoreline of the area, within Jericho Park east of the Jericho Sailing Centre. A few parts of the wharf would be preserved for historical and sentimental reasons.

The plan has a projected cost of $1.9-million.

Board vice-chairman Ian Robertson said the final plan is a compromise based on 500 responses received from the public through surveys handed out at a March open house and put on the board’s website.

The public was presented with five options and asked what they’d like to see done with the concrete wharf.

“[The recommendation] was a compromise of two options,” Robertson said. “There was feedback that said a lot of people wanted a part of the wharf retained for its historical and commemorative meaning.”

A small portion — about 464 square metres — of the wharf will be kept, along with the railings on its east side, which were the original railings on the Lions Gate Bridge, Robertson said.

If it’s structurally possible, a deck will be extended over the water, to provide an attractive viewing area.

The wharf was built in the 1930s by the Royal Canadian Air Force for its water-based operations. In 2002 and 2005, engineers inspected the wharf, which runs parallel along the shoreline, and found it required significant repairs or demolition to be safe for the public.

The board limited access to the wharf in 2003.

The public mostly uses the south side of the wharf now, between Jericho Beach and the Jericho Sailing Centre, according to a park board staff report.

Robertson said the removal of most of the wharf will give the public more direct access to the water and could also have a positive impact on fish habitat.

If the recommendation is approved, Robertson said planning will begin on how to demolish the wharf in an environmentally safe way.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Wineries cater to upscale visitors in booming agri-tourism market

Bruce Constantineau
Sun

OLIVER – Wine lovers and would-be connoisseurs don’t want to just visit their favourite Okanagan wineries any more.

Many want to stay on the properties a few days, stroll around the vineyards and generally soak up the ambience. So, winemakers are quickly becoming mini-hoteliers.

In the past two years, popular B.C. wineries like Burrowing Owl, Hester Creek and Mission Hill have invested millions of dollars adding guesthouses and villas to their properties.

Others are considering similar moves to cash in on the agri-tourism boom gripping the Okanagan Valley.

“We wanted to attract more people to our winery, and to get them here, you really need nice places for them to stay,” Hester Creek Estate Winery hospitality manager Lee Ann Openshaw said in an interview. “There is almost nowhere in Oliver now other than older motels, and some people don’t want to stay in those kinds of places.”

The newest products are clearly aimed at upscale customers, with Burrowing Owl rooms going for $350 a night during the current high season, while Hester Creek charges $305 a night.

Openshaw said three Alberta couples recently stayed in the villas, two of whom drove up in Porsches while the third drove a Ferrari.

Hester Creek spent about $2.5 million last summer to open its six Mediterranean-style villas, which offer outstanding wine country views, fireplaces, soaker tubs, walk-in showers and geothermal heating and cooling.

Agri-tourism accommodation is permitted on Agricultural Land Reserve property if the projects are restricted to 10 sleeping units and the total developed area takes up less than five per cent of the land parcel.

Burrowing Owl proprietor Midge Wyse said she and her husband, Jim, had a grand vision for the wine property when they acquired it in 1993. That vision included a fine-dining restaurant and a high-end guesthouse in a part of B.C. that clearly wasn’t used to such facilities.

A wine bar and restaurant — The Sonora Room — opened in 2003 and a 10-unit guesthouse opened 18 months ago.

“We’ve travelled the world and stayed in vineyards and eaten in beautiful restaurants and there was absolutely nothing like it here,” Wyse said. “There was a real void.”

She said local residents told them people would never pay high-end prices for fine dining or $300-plus-a-night for upscale accommodation. But they were wrong on both counts.

Wyse said the restaurant attracted tremendous business as soon as it opened and the guesthouse is practically full all summer. She said guesthouse detractors pointed to all the competition it would face from motels in Oliver and Osoyoos.

“This is a totally different market than the motels,” Wyse said. “What we have here is gorgeous scenery, beautiful wine and the best food in the Okanagan in our restaurant. So we’re not worried about the motels.”

She said only one guest has ever complained the rates were too high and noted many travel agents have told her the rates are low for the product they offer.

Wyse — who hates the term “Napa North” because the Okanagan has its own distinct character — feels the region continues to attract lots of new condominium and time-share developments. But she said the number of new related services, especially restaurants, has not kept pace.

“Maybe it’s tough to make a year-round business because things can still be a little lean in the winter here,” Wyse said.

Mission Hill Family Estate winery in Kelowna has dipped its toes in the guesthouse market this year by opening The Lake House on Green Bay, a four-suite building with upscale accommodations on the shore of Okanagan Lake, a few minutes down the road from the wine property itself.

Mission Hill marketing and guest services manager Ingrid Dilschneider said the new facility is a natural progression for Mission Hill.

“We built it to provide an extended experience in wine country — something to entice a certain clientele we get here,” she said. “There are some high-end resorts around but not a lot of smaller upscale guesthouses that provide an intimate experience.”

But Mission Hill has even grander accommodation plans for a seven-hectare land parcel adjacent to its vineyards.

Dilschneider said the project is in the early planning and approval stage now and is probably three or four years away from becoming reality. But it’s ambitious and not located on ALR property so it’s not restricted to a maximum of 10 suites.

Early plans call for an inn — or auberge — with 80 to 120 rooms, 12 to 20 townhouses, a wellness centre, a conference centre and a restaurant.

Just down the road in nearby Quails’ Gate winery, proprietor Tony Stewart says he’s giving serious consideration to building a new guesthouse. The winery has spent about $8 million recently on a new restaurant, wine shop, warehouse, bottling facilities and administration offices.

“We’d want to build a very small, very high-end facility that can offer visitors a really unique experience — a special place to go for an anniversary or a romantic getaway,” Stewart said.

He feels a guesthouse would help drive more business during the spring and fall shoulder seasons, when the region traditionally attracts fewer visitors.

“Having accommodation on the property would allow us to really grow that side of the business by offering things like cooking classes and demonstrations and educational events,” Stewart said.

On the sun-soaked Naramata Bench near Penticton, a 7,500-square-foot luxury log house called Apple d’or has emerged as one of the area’s highest-end wine country guesthouses.

While not located directly on a winery itself, the one-year-old facility’s location near 22 Naramata Bench wineries has made it a favourite with wine lovers. Owners Holly Stevens and Colin Moores plan to produce sparkling wine next year from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes growing on the 1.25-acre former apple orchard.

The two former West Vancouver residents built the home themselves after acquiring the property in 2000 and breaking ground in 2002. The five-year construction schedule clearly wasn’t fast-tracked, but the end result has earned Canada Select’s only five-star accommodation rating in the area.

High ceilings, hardwood floors, massive beams and an immaculately landscaped backyard with a swimming pool and hot tub tell you this is no discount hostel. Two of the three Apple d’or suites go for $325 a night while the third carries a $275-a-night price tag during the summer season.

“When we told people we bought property in Naramata, they didn’t even know where that was,” Stevens said. “But now everything has just taken off here.”

Moores said property in the area that sold for $50,000 an acre seven years ago now sells for $200,000 an acre.

He said they thought the guesthouse would achieve an occupancy rate of just 25 or 30 per cent when it opened for business last year but it ended up being closer to 60 per cent.

Bad weather hurt business this spring but July and August look to be “absolutely gangbusters” this year, Moores said.

Anthony Buree, general manager and partner in Osoyoos wineries Le Vieux Pin and La Stella, said the owners hope to build luxury villas on both properties within two or three years. He envisions buildings you might see in southern France or in the Tuscany region of Italy.

“They’d have five rooms, a professional kitchen, a pool and people would rent the whole thing,” Buree said. “The clients we’re looking at are people who really want privacy and don’t want to share a place with somebody else. It’s not a bed-and-breakfast concept.”

Hospitality industry consultant Ellen Walker-Matthews feels smaller, winery-related villas and guesthouses are finding their place in the Okanagan market now as the number of larger projects appears to be slowing down.

“I think the next big trend is the culinary side of things, as more wineries with guesthouses get into cooking classes and teaching people about wine and food pairings,” she said. “That’s a huge market in Napa but it’s not really up here yet.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

Bruce Constantineau
Sun

OLIVER – Wine lovers and would-be connoisseurs don’t want to just visit their favourite Okanagan wineries any more.

Many want to stay on the properties a few days, stroll around the vineyards and generally soak up the ambience. So, winemakers are quickly becoming mini-hoteliers.

In the past two years, popular B.C. wineries like Burrowing Owl, Hester Creek and Mission Hill have invested millions of dollars adding guesthouses and villas to their properties.

Others are considering similar moves to cash in on the agri-tourism boom gripping the Okanagan Valley.

“We wanted to attract more people to our winery, and to get them here, you really need nice places for them to stay,” Hester Creek Estate Winery hospitality manager Lee Ann Openshaw said in an interview. “There is almost nowhere in Oliver now other than older motels, and some people don’t want to stay in those kinds of places.”

The newest products are clearly aimed at upscale customers, with Burrowing Owl rooms going for $350 a night during the current high season, while Hester Creek charges $305 a night.

Openshaw said three Alberta couples recently stayed in the villas, two of whom drove up in Porsches while the third drove a Ferrari.

Hester Creek spent about $2.5 million last summer to open its six Mediterranean-style villas, which offer outstanding wine country views, fireplaces, soaker tubs, walk-in showers and geothermal heating and cooling.

Agri-tourism accommodation is permitted on Agricultural Land Reserve property if the projects are restricted to 10 sleeping units and the total developed area takes up less than five per cent of the land parcel.

Burrowing Owl proprietor Midge Wyse said she and her husband, Jim, had a grand vision for the wine property when they acquired it in 1993. That vision included a fine-dining restaurant and a high-end guesthouse in a part of B.C. that clearly wasn’t used to such facilities.

A wine bar and restaurant — The Sonora Room — opened in 2003 and a 10-unit guesthouse opened 18 months ago.

“We’ve travelled the world and stayed in vineyards and eaten in beautiful restaurants and there was absolutely nothing like it here,” Wyse said. “There was a real void.”

She said local residents told them people would never pay high-end prices for fine dining or $300-plus-a-night for upscale accommodation. But they were wrong on both counts.

Wyse said the restaurant attracted tremendous business as soon as it opened and the guesthouse is practically full all summer. She said guesthouse detractors pointed to all the competition it would face from motels in Oliver and Osoyoos.

“This is a totally different market than the motels,” Wyse said. “What we have here is gorgeous scenery, beautiful wine and the best food in the Okanagan in our restaurant. So we’re not worried about the motels.”

She said only one guest has ever complained the rates were too high and noted many travel agents have told her the rates are low for the product they offer.

Wyse — who hates the term “Napa North” because the Okanagan has its own distinct character — feels the region continues to attract lots of new condominium and time-share developments. But she said the number of new related services, especially restaurants, has not kept pace.

“Maybe it’s tough to make a year-round business because things can still be a little lean in the winter here,” Wyse said.

Mission Hill Family Estate winery in Kelowna has dipped its toes in the guesthouse market this year by opening The Lake House on Green Bay, a four-suite building with upscale accommodations on the shore of Okanagan Lake, a few minutes down the road from the wine property itself.

Mission Hill marketing and guest services manager Ingrid Dilschneider said the new facility is a natural progression for Mission Hill.

“We built it to provide an extended experience in wine country — something to entice a certain clientele we get here,” she said. “There are some high-end resorts around but not a lot of smaller upscale guesthouses that provide an intimate experience.”

But Mission Hill has even grander accommodation plans for a seven-hectare land parcel adjacent to its vineyards.

Dilschneider said the project is in the early planning and approval stage now and is probably three or four years away from becoming reality. But it’s ambitious and not located on ALR property so it’s not restricted to a maximum of 10 suites.

Early plans call for an inn — or auberge — with 80 to 120 rooms, 12 to 20 townhouses, a wellness centre, a conference centre and a restaurant.

Just down the road in nearby Quails’ Gate winery, proprietor Tony Stewart says he’s giving serious consideration to building a new guesthouse. The winery has spent about $8 million recently on a new restaurant, wine shop, warehouse, bottling facilities and administration offices.

“We’d want to build a very small, very high-end facility that can offer visitors a really unique experience — a special place to go for an anniversary or a romantic getaway,” Stewart said.

He feels a guesthouse would help drive more business during the spring and fall shoulder seasons, when the region traditionally attracts fewer visitors.

“Having accommodation on the property would allow us to really grow that side of the business by offering things like cooking classes and demonstrations and educational events,” Stewart said.

On the sun-soaked Naramata Bench near Penticton, a 7,500-square-foot luxury log house called Apple d’or has emerged as one of the area’s highest-end wine country guesthouses.

While not located directly on a winery itself, the one-year-old facility’s location near 22 Naramata Bench wineries has made it a favourite with wine lovers. Owners Holly Stevens and Colin Moores plan to produce sparkling wine next year from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes growing on the 1.25-acre former apple orchard.

The two former West Vancouver residents built the home themselves after acquiring the property in 2000 and breaking ground in 2002. The five-year construction schedule clearly wasn’t fast-tracked, but the end result has earned Canada Select’s only five-star accommodation rating in the area.

High ceilings, hardwood floors, massive beams and an immaculately landscaped backyard with a swimming pool and hot tub tell you this is no discount hostel. Two of the three Apple d’or suites go for $325 a night while the third carries a $275-a-night price tag during the summer season.

“When we told people we bought property in Naramata, they didn’t even know where that was,” Stevens said. “But now everything has just taken off here.”

Moores said property in the area that sold for $50,000 an acre seven years ago now sells for $200,000 an acre.

He said they thought the guesthouse would achieve an occupancy rate of just 25 or 30 per cent when it opened for business last year but it ended up being closer to 60 per cent.

Bad weather hurt business this spring but July and August look to be “absolutely gangbusters” this year, Moores said.

Anthony Buree, general manager and partner in Osoyoos wineries Le Vieux Pin and La Stella, said the owners hope to build luxury villas on both properties within two or three years. He envisions buildings you might see in southern France or in the Tuscany region of Italy.

“They’d have five rooms, a professional kitchen, a pool and people would rent the whole thing,” Buree said. “The clients we’re looking at are people who really want privacy and don’t want to share a place with somebody else. It’s not a bed-and-breakfast concept.”

Hospitality industry consultant Ellen Walker-Matthews feels smaller, winery-related villas and guesthouses are finding their place in the Okanagan market now as the number of larger projects appears to be slowing down.

“I think the next big trend is the culinary side of things, as more wineries with guesthouses get into cooking classes and teaching people about wine and food pairings,” she said. “That’s a huge market in Napa but it’s not really up here yet.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

$2-million facelift gives Valemount a boost

Derrick Penner
Sun

Valemount could have simply rolled itself up when its sawmill closed and pine beetles ravaged nearby forests, but the mountain community is fighting back instead.

The village of about 1,300 — nestled in the crook of the Cariboo, Monashee and Rocky mountain ranges about 670 kilometres northeast of Vancouver — has always been dependent on logging and sawmilling. With that industry in decline, Valemount is hoping to capitalize on its scenic location.

The Northern Development Initiative Trust is contributing $300,000 to a project worth almost $2 million to redesign and rebuild the village’s downtown streetscape with new sidewalks, trees and street lights.

Valemount Mayor Jeanette Townsend said the federal government’s Western Economic Diversification Canada is contributing another $600,000, also from a pine beetle recovery fund, to beautify the village, which is slowly styling itself as a resort municipality.

“We just want to make it look good,” Townsend said in an interview. “I said [to architect Oberto Oberti], ‘Let’s consider the pleasure of locals first, and it will attract tourists, too.'”

The street beautification will serve as supporting infrastructure for a proposed $75-million development by Edmonton’s Saas Fee Developments, consisting of a 170-unit condominium complex and retail space for 25 shops. Townsend said that project “will just give us the push over” the cusp in its bid to capitalize on its natural attributes.

Those qualities used to include a forest industry that directly supported some 40 per cent of its households.

So when Prince-George-based Carrier Lumber Ltd. shut down its sawmill, throwing some 90 people indefinitely out of work, it hurt.

“It means the younger families have to move to where the jobs are,” Townsend added. “And then it’s a domino effect. Fewer people buying groceries, fewer people banking.”

However, Townsend, who has been mayor of Valemount since 1990, said the community has also long been keen on diversification, developing secondary industries to act as a “shock absorber” to disruptions in forestry.

In the early 1990s, Townsend added, the community used provincial economic development assistance to facilitate local workshops on economic diversification.

By doing that, she said, community members were able to lay out what its assets were: its location, (near the entrance to Mount Robson Provincial Park, an hour away from Jasper National Park, midway between Edmonton and Vancouver), its scenery and its outdoor recreation opportunities.

“We’ve done our best to capitalize on our assets,” Townsend said.

Valemount has become known for its helicopter and snowcat skiing operations, snowmobiling and summer all-terrain-vehicle rentals, hiking and heli-hiking.

Now, Townsend estimates that Valemount boasts more hotel rooms and bed-and-breakfasts than households.

The Northern Development Trust, established in 2004 with $185 million in contributions from senior governments, was designed to help communities cope with the economic devastation of the pine beetle infestation.

To date, the trust has committed $45 million to 207 different economic development initiatives across a region that spans Lytton to Fort Nelson and from Valemount to the Queen Charlotte Islands.

The federal Western Economic Diversification Fund will spend about $33 million on projects across Northern B.C.

Judging by the traffic she has seen on Highway 5 running through Valemount, Townsend said there is no noticeable slowdown in the number of road-bound tourists heading into the region despite high gasoline prices.

If anything, Townsend believes, there will be fewer long-distance travellers and possibly more B.C. and Alberta residents who are cutting back on the distances they travel.

Townsend added that the town is also attracting a few new residents not bound by location: retired university professors, consultants who use technology to live wherever they want and former urbanites looking to get away from the bustle of cities.

As well, Valemount is booming with an influx of construction workers for Kinder Morgan’s major upgrade of its trans-mountain pipeline.

“I think Valemount’s future is very bright, and there are many opportunities,” she said. “All we need is the people who will recognize the opportunities and work towards having them realized.”

Townsend is also “looking with bated breath to see our forest industry rebound a bit.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2008