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New desert destination;

Osoyoos is quickly losing its campground town image

as lakefront resorts pop up

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New desert destination

Osoyoos is growing from a little campground town to a luxury international tourist destination. 

The catalyst is three lakefront condominium resorts worth $185 million that are attracting sophisticated buyers from around the world. 

They are: the $75 million Spirit Ridge Resort and Spa beside Nk'Mip Winery, the $65 million Watermark Beach Resort and Walnut Beach Resort. 

In 1999, the value of construction in Osoyoos was $3 million, in 2006 it was $34 million. 

"We know sun and fun sells itself, this has been our product for years and we'll maintain our small town appeal," said Destination Osoyoos executive director Glenn Mandziuk. 

"But we now know there is a high-yield visitor who is sophisticated and well-travelled. They have investment dollars to spend and they're looking for an exciting and quality experience. That's our focus now." 

In fact, Destination Osoyoos' new strategic plan isn't necessarily to increase the number of visitors to the town, but to certainly see their spending increase. 

For instance, in 2006, Osoyoos attracted 350,000 tourists who spent $60 million. 

A similar number of higher-spending tourists could push revenues to $85 million by 2008 and $126 million by 2015. 

The Town of Osoyoos, Tourism B.C. and the Osoyoos First Nation, which owns Nk'Mip Winery, are supportive of the Destination Osoyoos strategic plan. 

For decades, families have come to Osoyoos for its hot dry summers and lake, mostly as campers. 

However, those baby boomers are now older and want condos instead of tents, plus they like the idea of an investment in a condo as a vacation home or retirement place. 

Osoyoos' population is 4,800 and that's unlikely to get much bigger because there's a shortage of developable land between the mountains, Osoyoos Lake and the U.S. border. 

That means what's being built is high-end and quality. 

"This won't ever be a big city," said real estate development manager Curt Jansen of Bellstar Hotels, the builder of the Spirit Ridge Resort. 

"I call it the perfect storm: limited land, a great climate, one of the most beautiful settings in Canada, wineries, golf courses, skiing at Mt. Baldy, and a small town with a lot of character that has made a decision to stay that way." 

Osoyoos Mayor John Slater is on side. 

"We still want to maintain our small town appeal," he said 

"We want that family feeling of: 'Let's go to grandma's house.' It's really important. We also want to make sure that the development we do is positive." 

Osoyoos is also positioning itself as uncrowded and inexpensive compared to Kelowna and Penticton. 

Vancouver real estate consultant Ozzie Jurock, publisher of the Jurock Real Estate Insider, is bullish on Osoyoos. 

"For those looking for a retirement home or a buy-and-hold situation, Osoyoos' lakeview condos are now a relative bargain." 

Osoyoos also boasts many natural attributes. It is Canada's only desert, part of the Sonoran Desert which extends from Mexico to the southern tip of the Okanagan. 

As such, it gets less than 12 inches of rain a year, 2,000 hours of sunshine annually and Osoyoos Lake is the warmest in Canada. 

Its average summer temperature of 29C is also the highest in Canada.  
 

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