KELOWNA, B.C. — Construction on a luxury hotel and convention centre at the former Willow Inn site in downtown Kelowna, B.C. is expected to begin this year. The project idea was brought to city council in 2014 and is now being undertaken by Westcorp Inc. Currently, ground testing is being conducted before the project can move forward.
The hotel will boast 184 guestrooms, 65 residential units and a conference centre. The project will also include ground-floor retail space, as well as an 18th-storey restaurant overlooking Okanagan Lake.
“If we were just a residential project, that would never have been an issue because residential has done so incredibly well,” Gail Temple, vice-president of Operations at Westcorp Inc. told Global News. “It’s the hotel piece that stopped us from re-starting, but we are confident now that we [can] go through all of the steps that we need to go through [to] move forward and bring this project to life.”
The cost and brand of hotel has not been revealed yet, but it’s expected to open sometime in 2026.
