Grand Okanagan reno has local theme

By Mike Deibert
Contributing editor

KELOWNA—The waterfront luxury Delta property on the shore of Lake Okanagan is set to start 10 months of renovations at a cost of $7 million.

The first phase of the facelift for the Delta Grand Okanagan Resort & Conference Centre, with 390 guest rooms, villas and suites, is scheduled to begin late this month.
Delta Hotels announced that it would be putting the money into renovations when it struck a deal to buy the property from Royal Host Real Estate Investment Trust of Calgary for $131 million in July last year.

The new décor, in guest rooms and other facilities, will have a theme that reflects the Okanagan Valley and wine country, Heather Farris, director of sales and marketing, told CLN last month.

The Vancouver design company Chill has been hired to bring in the new ambiance that reflects the lightness and tranquility of the exterior landscape, said Farris.

The 25,000-square-foot conference centre, which can accommodate groups of up to 1,200, is being completely refurbished. It is scheduled to have its new look by the end of summer, in time for the busy convention and meetings season in September and October.

The former Grand Lounge is being transformed into the Signature Club, a special ninth floor space for guests occupying three floors of the hotel in the north tower. It will be open 24 hours a day and offer continental breakfast in the morning and complimentary hot and cold hors d’oeuvres in the evening. It will also have an honour bar.

Signature Club guest rooms will offer free high speed Internet access and newspapers.
The 88-seat Grand Bay Café and Vines Lounge, with 35 seats inside and 30 on the outdoor patio, will be completely renovated.

The spa and health club is also being upgraded.

Delta is sticking to its schedule for overhauling the Kelowna property at a time when tourism is stagnating. The occupancy rate is down slightly from last year, said Farris.
And while the number of corporate gatherings held steady in June, she said, in recent times they have tended to have lower attendance. Where a company might have sent three or four people in previous years, now it is sending one or two.

The economy is “dead” in the Okanagan at the moment, commented architect Charl Johnson, partner in the Calgary firm BKDI Architects.

This makes it a good time for businesses with the money to invest in upgrading and expansion for a time when the economy picks up again, according to Johnson. Now it is easier to find tradespeople to work on projects and prices are better than when the economy is booming and everyone is busy, he pointed out.

His firm worked on the expansion of the Kelowna Lake City Casino attached to the Delta Okanagan Grand, doubling the size of the gambling facility with the addition of another 21,000 square feet, and also adding two more levels to the parkade.

He estimated the cost of the casino renovations to be $12 million.

Lake City Casinos, which also has casinos in Vernon, Penticton and Kamloops, has hired Kasian Architecture of Edmonton to design the interior of the new casino space in Kelowna.