Kamloops will soon be home to another craft brewery, with plans for a new establishment to open on the ground floor of The Station, a condo development currently under construction on Tranquille Road.
Construction at The Station is slated to wrap up in spring of 2019 and the brewery is set to open with the completion of the build.
Developers have so far released few details, but Arpa Investments spokesperson Joshua Knaak said the lease has been signed.
“The best part about it, from my perspective, is it's not a relocation of anybody else. It's new, which is great. It would be less exciting to see somebody relocating from another place. We want to see something new and it is new,” Knaak said.
“Bryce Herman referred to this as becoming sort of a Commercial Drive kind of district and I think we will certainly start to see that.”
A brewery and tasting room will take up 3,500 square feet of restaurant space planned for the development at 280 Tranquille Rd., plus an outdoor patio at the corner of Clapperton. Knaak said the project is bringing together some local brewers and experienced Kamloops restaurateurs.
“There are some people in the community that are pretty excited about what's happening on the North Shore and want to expand their footprint with what's going on here,” Knaak said. “The first people we approached were the ones that ended up signing a lease.”
Plans for The Station include 10,000 square feet of commercial-retail space, 47 condo units, including 24 micro suites, two rooftop patios and enclosed parking. So far, 15 units have sold under contract, 11 of which are micro suites.
It’s one of three projects planned on the block that include an expansion to the Kamloops Innovation Centre and a recently announced supportive housing project at 317 Tranquille Rd.
The provincial government has invested in the construction of 52 modular housing units on the city-owned lot. Once completed in fall 2018, ASK Wellness will assume operations of the project and provide 24/7 wrap-around services for residents.
Knaak said he’s in full support of the project and he believes its location in a high-traffic, high-visibility area will help ensure its success.
“The challenges that the supportive housing is going to address are already here,” he said. “It's not a situation where we are importing challenges from another neighbourhood or from another community.
“It's no secret that homelessness and all the things that go along with it are an existing issue here, so to deal with it right here just makes sense.”
