When Kelowna-based PintoWest bought Hyde Mountain Golf Course in 2021, there was a clearly different approach for development…

It started with bringing in GolfNorth not just to operate the golf course but also to lease it.

At the time in a press release, PintoWest's Brian Lovig made it clear their focus would be on the real estate side, “Partnering with GolfNorth allows PintoWest to focus on the future development of the Resort and improving many of the amenities that RV owners will be requesting when purchasing a lot on the property.”

The second major difference in their approach was how they planned to sell their real estate… by live auction.

On their website, they explained the rationale:
"An auction accelerates the process of a real estate transaction. An owner will sell out a development or portfolio in one day instead of several years. Time is money. Interest, other costs and supply can create huge savings to be passed on to a buyer. All prices are established by open and competitive bidding… All RV lots will be sold in one day with prices established by a live bidding process and sold to the highest bidder."

Fast forward to last year and PintoWest was clearing land for the first five-acre subdivision while waiting for approvals from the Regional District and the Ministry of Transportation. The approvals came by early summer meaning the first 100 bare land strata RV lots could now be sold.

Site Clearing From 2022

At the auction held right at MaraHills on August 13th, all of the available 100 lots were bought for a total value of 13 million dollars. More than 400 people were in attendance either in person or online. A further three additional lots sold via Zoom auction on November 9th. Two lots (#'s 35 & 36 indicated by red dots in the image below) would be resold on March 9th.

The site of the first subdivision was the existing driving range adjacent to the 3rd fairway.

According to a release earlier this year, ”Site grading for the 100 RV lots is moving along well and much has been done to level out the lots. A lot of rock will be excavated and some blasting is needed for the remainder…Work over the next few months will be weather dependent, but we are hopeful a lot will still be accomplished. A full crew will start in March installing services to the RV park and each lot.”

Longer term, PintoWest plans to develop the 264-acre waterfront property with residential, commercial and recreational units. The developers have a build out vision of up to 1000 units.

And yes, there are no plans to change the sales approach, “Future RV lots / resort properties lots will be sold by live and online auction, for investment and personal use.”

For more information about the MaraHills real estate, visit marahillsrealestate.com or www.lovigauction.com

For more information on MaraHills Golf Resort, visit golfnorth.ca/marahills