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Crystal Ski & Golf Resort
KELOWNA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA
Crystal is a 7,166-acre, year-round alpine destination developed as a long-term real asset.

  • Master Development Agreement

    A real estate development agreement, valid for 60 years, has been signed with the Province. This gives the developer exclusive rights to 7,166 acres and to construct the project according to its Master Plan.

  • Approved Master Plan

    A Master Plan has been approved by the Province and guides the development. The approval is for 3,801 bed-units, including:

    • 384 single family estate lots
    • 223 condominium units in six buildings
    • 201 hotel rooms
    • 94 townhomes

    The developer retains the right to modify the real estate mix and development timing according to market conditions.

  • Official Community Plan

    An Official Community Plan, essential for rezoning, has been approved by the local government — the Regional District of Central Okanagan.

  • Environment

    A comprehensive multi-year environmental review has been completed resulting in a project that is designed to leading conservation and environmental mitigation standards.

A Unique Opportunity

Crystal Mountain is a former ski area located near Kelowna with all required Provincial approvals in place for redevelopment and expansion. The project is positioned within an established tourism region with existing transportation access, services, and year-round visitation fundamentals.

The approved master plan contemplates the development of a compact, pedestrian-oriented resort village delivered over three phases. Planned uses include a mix of condominium residences, hotels, townhomes, and single-family residential lots, governed by design guidelines intended to ensure cohesive development. Lot configurations are designed to take advantage of the site’s topography, access to recreational amenities, and regional views.

Real estate development is planned to proceed in coordination with phased upgrades to core tourism infrastructure. The existing ski area is intended to reopen and expand over multiple phases, including the addition of modern lift infrastructure and on-mountain facilities. The master plan also provides for the development of a golf course and a range of year-round recreational amenities, supporting diversified, multi-season use of the asset.

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Master Planned Resort Community

Phased Development

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A quality tourism and recreation destination

Crystal Mountain is a unique opportunity for the creation of a large, quality tourism destination in a favourable climate and in a popular region. Skiing and bicycling are the current major activities, with an opportunity for golfing and many other activities in the master plan, providing unique winter and summer recreation in one of the most popular tourism regions of Western Canada.

A growing market

The tourism industry in British Columbia has seen constant and accelerating growth over the past three decades. British Columbia is ideally situated to welcome the rapidly growing Asian tourist market with quality new developments and access to its tremendous natural wonders.

An accomplished and proven team

The team previously created Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, an industry leader in sales and growth since 2000, and is comprised of key collaborators that have been working together for over 35 years; Pheidias Project Management and Oberti Resort Design, Leitner Poma lifts, Doppelmayr Lifts, McElhanney Consulting Engineers, Golder Associates, Enkon Environmental and other specialists.

What is the Project?

It is an approved year-round destination adjacent to Kelowna. It is a trophy destination for the Okanagan region of British Columbia. It is a new development over an abandoned former ski hill, shovel-ready following a lengthy approval process. It has an approved Master Plan for 3,801 bed-units and an area of approximately 2,900 hectares (7,166 acres). It has a Master Development Agreement with the Province of B.C. and an approved Official Community Plan from the local government.

Zoning for the opening of the ski area is already in place and zoning for the first phase of the real estate development is substantially ready for application. The local First Nation and the local government have been very supportive during the entire approval process. The development will create an economic engine that will continue to generate cash-flow in perpetuity.

The Market

The resort village site, at 1,100 m (3,600 ft.) elevation, has exceptional access from Kelowna International Airport and the Coquihalla freeway from Vancouver, B.C. The Okanagan region’s attractiveness has been proven by its summer visitors and famous wineries and lake attractions. The region is the second-most visited in British Columbia with approximately 4 million yearly visitor-days from Canada, the U.S., Asia and Europe. There is considerable opportunity for growth in the tourism industry in British Columbia, which has seen record growth in revenue and visitor numbers.

Kelowna and Lake Okanagan are already popular with Albertans as well as British Columbians as a vacation getaway — but also as a family and retirement community. Kelowna is the fastest growing city in British Columbia, with a 1.8% average annual growth rate. Approximately 360,000 people live in the Okanagan.

In winter, Crystal is a bit like Colorado, but with more comfortable elevations and easier accessibility. In summer, Crystal is minutes away from the most popular warm-water lake in Western Canada as well as some of Canada’s most popular wineries.

Current visitor projections are very conservative and envision 75,000 skier/day visits at opening and approximately 250,000 visits are projected at build-out. By way of comparison, Big White Ski Resort, which is located an hour to the east of Crystal (45 minutes east of downtown Kelowna), currently sees 650,000 annual skier/day visits.

Market conditions, visitor projections and the project’s pro-forma have been reviewed favourably by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Competitive Advantage

Large, contiguous land holdings suitable for destination-scale recreation and resort development, particularly those with favorable climate characteristics and proximity to established tourism markets, are increasingly constrained by environmental regulation and land-use policy. As a result, barriers to entry for new projects of this scale are substantial. Approval processes alone commonly require five to ten years to complete, with no assurance of success.

Crystal has completed an approximately eight-year regulatory process, culminating in the execution of a Master Development Agreement with the Province of British Columbia. This milestone materially reduces entitlement and political risk and provides a defined framework for long-term development.

The site’s combination of elevation, climatic conditions, snow reliability, landscape attributes, and regional accessibility reflects inherent geographic characteristics that are not replicable and are increasingly difficult to secure for new alpine resort developments in Canada or North America.

Three factors are key for profitability of a mountain resort area:

  1. The length of season (year round).
  2. The guarantee of snow, with good climatic conditions.
  3. The year round use of the infrastructure.

With planned snow making to extend the winter season, the project is strong on all three points, and is in one of the best climatic zones of North America that is renowned for its wineries, water sports and many amenities nearby.

A Credible Pro Forma

The project’s pro forma is the result of over 30 years of industry experience and is based on conservative visitor projections, conservative real estate absorption rates and capital costs based on current contractor estimates. The pro forma has been reviewed by PricewaterhouseCoopers who assessed its assumptions, market conditions and comparable projects.

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