An old railway yard in Kelowna is on track to become a new mixed-use subdivision in the Okanagan city.
When Cascadia Pacific Developments starts work this fall on a multi-family project at Brandt’s Creek Crossing, it will be the first phase of development in the remediated former Canadian National Railway yard. Canada Lands Co., which bought the 25-acre yard from the CNR in 1995, last month announced an agreement with Cascadia Pacific to develop a new multi-family development.
The first phase is a 1.45-acre multi-family project on Sunset Drive, with construction expected to begin in the fall.
The residential portion will be about half of the former CN yard.
CN service to Kelowna started in 1925, and passenger service lasted until 1965. The City of Kelowna bought waterfront property from the railway in 1980.
Canada Lands Co. later bought the rest of the yard. Canada Lands is a federal Crown corporation founded in 1995 to deal with surplus government property. It receives no government funding.
Its earlier projects have included the award-winning Garrison Woods housing development at the former Canadian Forces base in Calgary. Dale Knowlan, project manager for Brandt’s Creek Crossing, says that Canada Lands has since planned development and achieved subdivision and rezoning approvals.
The corporation also remediated the effects of the long industrial use of the site, including moving Brandt’s Creek to a new channel and transplanting all the fish by hand and bucket.
A park was built and services brought to industrial, residential, office and commercial sites.
“It was actually fairly complex,” Knowlan said of the $1.5-million remediation – and it cost another $1 million to move Brandt’s Creek.
CN previously had an oil company as a tenant and there were hydrocarbons, as well as copper, present at the site.
The hydrocarbons were localized but the copper was all over the yard in the fill, she said.
Remediation was difficult because of the volume and because copper is classed as a “special waste.”
Because it’s a metal, the copper had to be shipped off rather than being dealt with locally.
After remediation and planning steps were complete, Canada Lands put out a request for proposals about a year ago.
About 19 acres are involved in the redevelopment of Brandt’s Creek Crossing. There is a hotel site, the residential area, 1.5 acres for commercial use, four acres for office uses and 3.5 acres for light industrial such as warehousing.
Knowlan said the company is marketing the hotel site through a real estate broker and the office sites itself. It just recently closed a deal on one of the industrial sites.
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