Of course, the first thing you notice is the jaw-dropping view.
Out of the elevator onto the 23rd floor and past the big fish tank in the lobby is the open-concept reception area with city and lake views.
The boardroom, offices and client meeting rooms that ring the floor also all have killer vistas — downtown and Okanagan Lake to the west, Parkinson Recreation Centre playing fields and mountains to the north, up Highway 97 to Orchard Park to the east and Springfield Road, farmland and mountains to the south.
“We wanted to differentiate ourselves in Kelowna with space in the city’s tallest and grandest office building,” said Jennifer Hochstein, Wellington-Altus’ Western Canada associate vice-president.
“It’s high-end, classy, modern and inviting. It delivers our best for our staff and clients.”
Being on the top floor of Kelowna’s tallest office building makes Wellington-Altus’ address of #2300 — 1700 Dickson Ave. the most exclusive in the city.
Using that top-of-the-tallest criteria, Kelowna’s previous best business address was #1800 — 1631 Dickson Ave., the space that Petraroia Langford Lawyers occupies on the 18th floor of Landmark 6, which has now been eclipsed as Kelowna’s tallest office building.
Landmark 7 caps the Landmark District, the cluster of seven office buildings ranging from seven to 23 storeys, and District Market, the collection of restaurants just off Highway 97.
Wellington-Altus’ new digs are quite the contrast to the temporary offices it had on the fifth floor of the eight-storey Landmark 3 building for the past two years.
“We’ve been anxiously waiting to get into the new space,” said wealth advisor and portfolio manager Mark Mariotto.
“In the two years we’ve been waiting we’ve grown from four advisors and eight staff total to 17 advisors and 30 staff total.”
Wellington-Altus does financial and estate planning for high-net-worth clients and has plans to become the largest such firm in the city both in number of advisors and money under management.
Wellington-Altus is ranked No. 1 firm overall by Investment Executive magazine as well as tops for company culture and its brokerage report card.
“This office has WOW factor and that’s what both the people who work here and our clients want post-pandemic,” said Mariotto.
Landmark 7 is what developers call ‘occupied, but not complete.’
What that means is some tenants have moved into their finished spaces — Wellington-Altus on the 23rd floor and MNP accountants and consultants on the 14th and 15th.
Soon, Metis Financial Corp. will occupy the 9th and the Ministry of Social Development will show up on the 4th.
Space on the ground floor is being readied for Momentus Coffee.
Other floors are being finished for tenants and space is still available for lease.
While the 23rd is the top occupied floor, Landmark 7 is actually 25 storeys counting the two floors for mechanical equipment on the top.
That makes for a building that’s about 300 feet tall, or 100 yards or 91.44 metres — just imagine the length of a football field tipped skyward.
While Landmark 7 is the city’s highest office building, Kelowna has taller buildings — namely the 36-and-29-storey One Water condominium complexes and the 26-storey Skye condo along Sunset Drive on the north downtown waterfront.
