A major hotel chain could be setting up shop in Vernon.
City council was told Monday that Four Points by Sheraton is proposing a development on Anderson Way.
“It’s a big one for Vernon to bring in a hot brand,” said Kevin Poole, economic development manager.
The proposed project on five acres could include a six-storey hotel with 120 rooms covering 77,791-square-feet and a two-storey conference centre with 400 seats and 26,684-square-feet.
An additional six-storey hotel could also be constructed in the future.
“It will proceed down the road,” said Poole, adding that the entire project will boost the economy.
“It brings in new money to the community.”
However, Coun. Catherine Lord has some concerns about the hotel increasing traffic on Anderson Way.
“I need some comfort level that the road can handle additional traffic,” she said.
Other projects that could possibly proceed are a 5,775-square-foot micro brew pub on 35th Street, while city staff continue to work with a developer on a mix of residential and commercial uses for the old legion site downtown.
Recently, SQM, a market research firm, opened new corporate headquarters on 31st Avenue.
“It’s a fairly significant investment. They have 175 staff and they continue to grow,” said Poole.
Westwood Electric has also acquire additional land on Fairweather Road to expand its corporate office.
“It’s a big company to keep. They were looking at the Kelowna region,” said Poole.
Westwood has 35 staff at the office and a workforce of about 700 employees.
“Building permits were up 14 per cent in 2016 and in the first quarter of 2017, 87 permits were issued with a total building permit value of $24.3 million.
Single-family residential construction accounts for 42 permits with a building permit value of $15.3 million.
“We have a lot of large multi-family projects in the pipeline,” said Poole.
