File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Stephanie Swensrude

Kamloops council

Tax break approved for Kamloops property owners who redevelop hotels and motels into housing

Jul 19, 2022 | 5:23 PM

KAMLOOPS — To incentivize the redevelopment of nuisance hotels and motels, the City of Kamloops will provide a ten-year property tax exemption to those tearing down hotels and motels and building residential and mixed-use properties.

At a council meeting Tuesday (July 19) council put the final stamp of approval on a new bylaw that was first introduced on January 25. To qualify for the exemption, the parcel must contain a hotel or motel and be completely removed to make room for multi-family residential or mixed use, which may or may not include hotel and motel.

The bylaw faced opposition from the tourism industry in Kamloops. Monica Dickinson, CEO of Tourism Kamloops, said the removal of hotel and motel rooms from the city’s stock would have negative effects on the city’s economy.

Representatives from the tourism industry wanted the bylaw to include incentives for new hotels and motels to be eligible for the tax exemption.

Loss of accommodation inventory in the years following the pandemic would severely restrict our ability to recapture market competitiveness and regenerate our industry’s robust economic contributions both in the short and long term,” she said in a letter to council.

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Acacia Pangilinan, executive director of the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce said there isn’t a need for new hotels and motels in the city.

“The [Business Advocacy Committee] felt that there is currently no clear need to create a tax incentive to build more hotels in Kamloops,” said Pangilinan.

“Incentivizing a very specific development, which forgoes future tax revenue, without a clear ‘gap’ or ‘need’ is not fiscally responsible.”