After another round of legal wrangling, the Kutenai Landing development is up for sale for a third time.
The marketing campaign for the waterfront housing complex was initially relaunched last November, but all new listings for the property had to be pulled when parent company New Future Group, headed by Kamloops developer Mike Rink, sought protection from bankruptcy under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act.
New Futures currently has until April 30 to refinance and restructure more than $120 million of debt, but must also declare it sought credit protection on its legal documents — including those that allow it to market Kutenai Landing.
“That’s why there hasn’t been any activity around here, because we’ve been waiting for them to jump through the hurdles that they needed to,” says relator Phil Hare, who is in the process of listing the condominiums once again and re-opening the development’s Cedar Street showroom.
“Everything else is the same, the dates are the same. It just says that New Future had to apply for the CCA and they’ve been successful.”
Hare says nine of the 17 buyers who originally purchased units in the project have stayed on, and several more have suggested they will return to the project “once they see some movement.”
Hare estimates he’s sold $6 million of the $12 million he’ll need for New Future to begin building.
This is only the latest in a series of hiccups for the development, which met with criticism and legal action when it was originally proposed. But Hare says he doesn’t think New Future’s credit problems will scare off potential buyers.
“The reason I’m sticking with it is because this project has legs,” he says. “I’m not worried about it at all. Despite the problems the developer had or has, the city needs this housing area.”
According to an independent assessment of New Future’s current projects done by financial advisory firm The Bowra Group, Kutenai Landing is one of only two that could see the developer make money.
The other project is a 30-acre RV resort being developed in the Shuswap, which is valued at $29 million.