NEWS PENTICTON WESTERN
www.pentictonwesternnews.com
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VOL. 48 ISSUE 75
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MARINA CAUSING WAVES Steve Kidd
NEWS PENTICTON WESTERN Western News Staff
Penticton City Council’s promised announcement about the future of the Skaha Lake marina area Tuesday still leaves many questions unanswered. During an in-camera meeting Tuesday afternoon, council approved Trio Marine Group as the new leaseholders of the area, replacing Penticton Yamaha and Marine, owned by Mark and Matt Attrill. The nearby splash park will not be affected, and the boat launch and marina will continue operating, but answers about the future development of the area will have to wait until negotiations with Trio are complete, according to Mayor Garry Litke. “We are just doing our due diligence at the moment,” he said. “There is not much more that we can say.” The new $33,000 lease is only for a one-year term, starting Jan. 1, 2015. Mitch Moroziuk, director of operations, describes it as an interim lease. “The terms and conditions … are the same as have been in place with the previous operator. Over the one-year period, Trio intends to address the following: boat storage, boat rental, slip rental, fuelling, lake sports-related retail,” said Moroziuk, listing similar services to what Penticton Yamaha and Marine currently provides. Moroziuk said Trio Marine may also be looking at other improvements to the area, but refused to elaborate on rumours of significant developments, which include a waterslide, restaurant and possible commercial developments in the Skaha Lake Park area. “This process is still in negotia-
CO-OWNER MARK ATTRILL of Penticton Yamaha Marine on the dock of the business with some of the thousands of dollars of boat rental inventory behind him. New lease holders, Trio Marine Group, nor the City of Penticton, which owns the land, are saying what the future plans for the area will be.
Mark Brett/Western News
tion. That has not concluded, so we are not in a position to do that right now,” said Moroziuk. Rob Campbell, spokesperson for Trio Marine, echoed Moroziuk’s comments. “We are not at liberty to say anything at all about what is going to happen for the future, other than the fact that the plans include a vibrant waterfront,” said Campbell, who also wouldn’t confirm whether their negotiations included the two adjacent properties mentioned in the
city’s May 2013 expression of interest document, one of which borders directly on the splash park in Skaha Lake Park. “We have to focus on the main issue, which is the marina, the building and the water and that is all we can deal with or discuss,” he said, confirming the marina and boat launch would remain in operation. Campbell did say the negotiations concerned “other amenities” and what might be suitable for the Skaha marina area.
“Everybody wants some good things to happen and that is the direction we are moving in,” he said. “I know it is unfortunate, everybody is anxious and wanting to know. We know what will happen if the wrong thing is said and we just want to avoid that.” The city has been negotiating with Trio Marine since Nov. 2013 after receiving four responses to their EOI request. The Attrills’ proposal, said Moroziuk, failed to make the cut and two companies
were asked to submit proposals, but Trio Marine was the only proponent to follow through. Mark Attrill said losing the lease didn’t come as a surprise, but council’s announcement of a one-year interim replacement did. He expected to hear about a longer lease and a larger project. “I have been told it was a 30year term,” he said, noting that the original EOI request specified special consideration may be given to intensive redevelopment of the site as a restaurant/hotel complex. “It was for a long term, they were looking for someone to come in and put in big dollars,” said Attrill. “How could anyone invest what we have for one year?” Campbell explained the oneterm lease was due to a timing issue. “The rest of the due diligence couldn’t be completed in time,” he said. “It was in everybody’s best interest to have the one-year agreement in place. Then it will cease and the new agreement will then take effect.” The Attrills have been long-term tenants of the site, having operated their business there since 1986. Attrill said the family has an even longer history, though. “Our family has operated marinas on both lakes in Penticton for 43 years. My father started in 1971 on Okanagan Lake,” he said, adding that he finds the current situation ironic, since a similar event happened in the 1980s, forcing his father to close their business on Okanagan Lake. “I have no idea why council would want to close businesses in Penticton,” he said. “We have a lot of money invested in this business, inventory and everything else. City hall, they don’t take into consideration any of that.”
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