Half of the property known as Kelowna Mountain is now up for sale, and the rest will soon follow.
After failing to follow up with payment on the controversial project, Mark Consiglio’s lenders have taken the 320-acre parcel of property to market as per a 2016 court judgment. They’ve had permission to do so since October, although contracts weren’t drawn up until earlier this week.
Jeff Hudson and Marshall McAnerney of HM Commercial Group — a team of Realtors licensed with Macdonald Realty Kelowna — have the property priced at $7,995,000.
As of June of last year, Consiglio’s lawyer Reinhard Burke, from Burke Law, said his client had $4 million owing on the property that was assessed in the area of $15 million.
Hudson explained that the listing — which is held by five to seven entities— will have to wait for final court approval before the sale is finalized.
“Once it goes to court and becomes public knowledge someone else can show up and make an offer,” said Hudson. “At that point, though, they have to show up with a cheque.”
Curious developers have already expressed interest in the land, which includes the 5,700-square-foot welcome centre.
What they choose to do may not reflect Consiglio’s vision of a ski hill, winery, golf course, four suspension bridges, mountain bike park, commercial amenities including restaurants, plus residential and resort accommodations.
“Every developer will have a different vision for what they want to happen with the property,” said Hudson. “It won’t necessarily be the same one as the developer had.”
In the days to come more will likely be known about the other two parcels of land that make up Kelowna Mountain.
One 160-acre parcel of land is already in a listing agent’s hands, while the other of the same size has yet to reach the market.
There’s no word on what Consiglios are doing now. Last June, their lawyer said they intended to be back in the business of agritourism by summer, although they’d moved to the Lower Mainland where they successfully completed a number of real estate projects.
Consiglio has a storied history in development. He got his start in the mid-’80s. While working as a waiter at The Keg Restaurant, he won a $10-million federal Scientific Research Tax Credit to develop an enviro-friendly car named Enterra, based on the Pontiac Fiero.
According to information provided to the Capital News by onetime Kelowna Mountain spokesperson John Harding, when the Kelowna Mountain project first went public in 2006, that $10-million grant became seed funding for his first real estate aspirations as the Fiero line of cars was discontinued, forcing Consiglio to close his production plant.
Within a few years he was embroiled in legal entanglements over a development in Ucluelet where bills were going unpaid.
Those matters resolved, his name has remained off the court registry since the early 2000s.
He completed a townhouse development at Big White and The Cottages at Secret Point, a $20-million vacation spot on Okanagan Lake, the proceeds of which were used to start Kelowna Mountain—both its housing development and amenity park.