If you haven’t heard of Phil Milroy -- you're about to.

He's the Kelowna businessman who is proposing to give the city a major makeover.

His company, Westcorp Inc., wants to build what is now known as the Lawson Landing Project at the base of Kelowna's downtown waterfront.

Milroy's proposal includes three residential towers, a hotel, retail stores, and a 120-slip marina at the foot of Bernard Ave.

Right from the start, Milroy's project was met with skepticism. Some say it's too big -- it will damage the environment -- it will block the view of the lake. Milroy has heard them all.

"The human organism is one that resists change. It's the second largest fear that humans have and when people hear about massive changes coming, they resist it and with time, rational kicks-in and you come to understand whether or not what you're doing is the right thing."

But Milroy says what is often not reported in the local media is the support he's getting for his mega-million dollar project.

"I believe that we have overwhelming support. There's no question that there's a vocal, well organized group of people that would like to see this project not go forward. However, we have shown this presentation to in excess of 200 people and only six of them said they don’t like it.”

Milroy says the most common complaint he gets about the project is its size.

"The most common complaint is that the project is out of scale for Kelowna. There are people who really like it, but if it could be done smaller, they would like it even more. But once they come to understand that in order to have this, it has to be the size I'm proposing. They agree that it is better to have this way than not have it at all."

Another complaint is that the buildings will block the view of the lake.

"Buildings block views. I don't know a way of building, a tower that doesn't get in the way."

But Milroy adds that he's designed his project so that it has a minimal impact on the view.

"We've designed our project so that it's permeable. You can see through it, you can flow through it, you can drive through it. And I don't believe that it does block the view. The lake is visible between the buildings. We have also worked hard on keeping the view corridors that are important open -- down Bernard, down Queensway and through Mill Street, so you can see the lake through them."

The third most common complaint Milroy hears deals with the land issue. Critics say it will swallow up a good chunk of public land. Milroy says those critics have got their facts wrong.

"The interesting thing is, there is currently 71,000 square feet of public space there today. When we're finished with our project, there will be 188,000 square feet of public space. So, one of my claims is the public space gets bigger and better and anyone who has seen what we're actually proposing seems to agree with that."

The land issue came to a head a few months ago when a Kelowna resident claimed her ancestors gave the city the land Milroy is proposing to build his project on. That resident says the city agreed not to modify the land and the matter is now headed to court. Milroy says the "covenant" issue is out of his hands.

"It's really not my headache. That's between the City of Kelowna and the Simpson family. I'm just an observer."

And for those who accuse Milroy of trying to make a quick buck, he says that's simply not the case.

"The fact is we intend to own the retail and the hotel for as long as I'm able to manage my business. It's not for sale. It would be a lot simpler for me to build a building, sell it off and leave, but I'm not doing that."

So, has Milroy ever thought about giving up? The answer is no.

“It won't be me who gives up. As long as I see something that I can do to keep moving forward with this idea I'll be doing that. I thought long and hard about what this property should be before we proposed anything. We got lots and lots of input from all levels to insure that we, in fact, are doing the right thing before we took it forward. It would be much easier for me to do a project that's half this size -- if it was the right thing. I believe passionately that it would not be the right thing to scale this project back and to lose a lot of things that are important to the city. I'm going to keep going."

Milroy is currently in the process of trying to sway downtown local merchants on supporting his mega-project. He says public meetings are down the road.

[ Source: Castanet.netReporter: Kelly Hayes   Posted: December 13 / 5:00 am   Story# 5786 / KH ]