Trendy, compact suites to be built in Vernon

The builders of Kelowna’s first modern compact suite complex are working on a new project, and Vernon will be the first city to see it fully formed.

Vita Resort Residences are 313 square-foot condo units designed with flexibility and functionality in mind. After a year-long process, real estate developers Dennis Pirot and Kevin Bird received a development permit from the City of Vernon to construct a 103-unit building on Lakeshore Road.

Vita plans to break ground in the spring, and the move-in date is currently set for March 2021.

Joel Ellams used to live on Lakeshore Road after moving to Vernon from Calgary in 2005. Now the Realtor for the Vita residences, he’s been amazed to see the location undeveloped until now.

“If someone told me that nothing was going to happen on Lakeshore Road for 14 years I would have wanted to smack them,” he joked.

Pirot and Bird formed K West Homes in 1991 and have since built 1,500 homes in Kelowna, including the 192 micro suites at Cambridge House.

The new residences are not micro units, but they utilize many of the same innovations that allow for high functionality in a compact space.

“They’ve used every nook and cranny to optimize the functionality for living,” Ellams said.

The Vita residences are marketed as “smart units.” They come equipped with Google Nest products to allow users to adjust the temperature or lock their doors from their phones.

The units can fit four people and come fully furnished — down to the cutlery.

“They come with your forks, your linens, your cleaning stuff… You basically just bring your bag and move in,” Ellams said.

“It’s 313 square feet, but the nuances of it are like nothing you’ve ever seen,” he said.

“You can do whatever you want with it. You can live there, you can have it as a secondary residence, or you can rent it out,” Ellams said.

“It’s zoned for short-term rentals, so if someone wants to make it an AirBnB they can do that.”

The average sale price of the units is $195,000 with a 20 per cent down payment of $39,000. A studio with no deck ranges from $161,900-$190,900. The most expensive units — ground-floor suites with a walk-out patio — cost as much as $234,900.

Interested buyers would do well to inquire early, as Ellams says sales have been “overwhelming” so far. At the beginning of this week more than half of the units had been sold, and even more have gone off the market in the few days since. Ellams suspects it won’t be long before the units have completely sold out.

For those who miss the boat on Vernon project, Ellams said people interested in buying could likely be put on a priority list for Vita projects will be going up in nearby cities in the future.

A show suite of the units can be viewed in Kelowna in the Orchard Park Mall parking lot. The show suite is an exact replica of the units for sale in Vernon and is open from 12-5 p.m.