A boat club for residents of Mission Group’s Aqua Waterfront Village in Kelowna, B.C. is a one-of-a-kind selling point in Canada, CEO Jonathan Friesen said, and an idea he believes will be envied by other developers.

Club members have unlimited access to the Okanagan Lake, with climate-controlled indoor boat storage for 175 vessels and valet service launch and retrieval. To top it off, a mechanized system featuring a gantry crane eliminates the need for a truck and trailer.

For residents who do not own a boat, no worry: the club offers a sharing program with access to four 2023 Nautiques and two 2024 R4 Cobalts carrying maximum seating capacities ranging from 10 to 18 people.

“For a lakefront community, what could be better than integrating boating with the life in a master-planned condominium community?” Friesen said in an interview with RENX Homes.

A first for the Kelowna developer, builder and property manager, Friesen called the Aqua Boat Club “unprecedented in Canada,” an asset that ties the community to the water. Other developers will see the value it creates for Aqua Waterfront Village and develop similar clubs, he anticipates.

A smooth boating experience

The roots of the Aqua Boat Club date to 2008, before construction on Phase 1 of Aqua Waterfront Village started. Mission initiated it as a surface storage operation — given the holding costs of the land, it decided that storing and launching boats was best idea.

The club, which is adjacent to the condo community, opened in May 2025, after Phase I of Aqua Waterfront Village closed for occupancy in January 2025.

The club is a four-storey storage building behind the parkade of Aqua Waterfront Village. It is operated by Mission through a partnership. The advantage of being a member is that the boating experience is “immediate,” Friesen said.

Without the club, residents would have to store their boat elsewhere in Kelowna and pick up the boat or have it brought over when they want to hit the waves, have it launched, then return it. The Aqua Boat Club on the other hand would take care of launch and retrieval, storage, fuelling, detailing and mechanical work and maintenance.

“We initially did it as a way to hold the land frankly,” Friesen said, “but we realized what a great business it is and what an advantage that type of an operation is to condo owners.”

There are still some spots for the club, he said, but the sharing program is sold out.

An 'amazing differentiator' for Aqua Waterfront Village

The boat club allows residents and members to experience the lake which enhances the condo experience, Friesen said. Without such an asset, he expects residents would be less likely to go boating.

“If it weren’t for the boat club, Aqua just wouldn’t be Aqua,” Friesen said. “We even named it after water itself.”

Additionally, the club has helped with the marketing of the community, which Mission put front and centre in its promotions. Even non-boat owners would be enticed to live in Aqua Waterfront Village because of the club, Friesen said.

“I do really think that this boat club is (an) absolutely amazing differentiator for any waterfront community.”

Once Canadian developers see what Mission is doing, they will wonder how to integrate a boat club into their condo complexes, Friesen said.

However, he cautioned such an addition is not easy to operate and would likely take years to understand.

Many developers, he anticipates, will turn away due to the difficulty. If if weren’t for Mission already having run a boat storage operation for years, Friesen is not sure if Mission could have taken the club “cold turkey,” he said.