While the project still requires rezoning and public consultation, a large mixed-use health and housing development received unanimous approval from Penticton City Council on October 3.
Council in the southern Okanagan city approved an official community plan amendment for the 10-acre property at 1704 Government Street, Penticton, B.C. The industrial-zoned site, under-utilized for the past decade, will now move forward for a housing, retail and office development, tentatively called the Penticton Health and Innovation District. .
“We are still at the early stages,” said Rocky Sethi, managing director of Stryke Group, which plans to develop the site in a joint venture with Tien Sher Group of Companies, also of Richmond, B.C.
The developers have proposed constructing 11 buildings ranging from six to 12 storeys. This will result in upwards of 1,500 residential homes; plus office and retail space with the opportunity to create over 300 jobs, all located directly across the street from the Penticton Regional Hospital.
The land, currently assessed at $11 million, was the former site of a modular home company that closed in 2020.
Penticton has a severe shortage of housing, according to a 2023 housing needs assessment report from the city.
In the months ahead, Stryke will be working with the city and the community on rezoning, after which a development permit process is also required, Sethi explained.
Tien Sher Group is best known in the Lower Mainland for the construction of a series of residential projects in Surrey’s Whalley area, but it has also worked with Stryke Group on master planned communities in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.
Aside from the housing, the development will likely be anchored by a medical office complex, where commercial space will be sold as strata, Sethi added.
“The full project build-out will take more than 10 years, and we're looking to get started as quickly as possible,” he said.
