City Gardens’ Trillium Tower, located in the heart of downtown Kamloops, has been approved for the Revitalization Tax Exemption (RTE), designed to ease the financial burden for prospective buyers by offering significant tax relief.
We spoke to Mike O’Reilly, Kamloops City Councillor, to learn more about this tax exemption and understand the benefits it brings to developers and homeowners, as well as Kamloops’ residents.
“The RTE is a tool used to incentivize development in certain areas by providing a tax exemption for a specific amount of time, which in Kamloops is ten years. During this time, the taxes paid are based on the land’s value prior to the development,” explained O’Reilly.
While the homeowners still pay a portion of taxes, including but not limited to hospital and school taxes, these are significantly reduced for a 10-year period.
“The RTE can be applied in the defined area that the City of Kamloops has chosen for both our downtown and North Shore core,” added O’Reilly. “We want these areas to be as vibrant as possible and, ultimately, for them to be somewhere where people will live, work, and play.”
The RTE was introduced in Kamloops nearly 15 years ago, initially applied only to a small downtown area and limited to rental developments.
“We found that the initial approach did not attract developers, and we saw little new development,” said O’Reilly. “Since then, we have expanded the boundaries for eligible areas and included both rental and market housing for sale, as well as commercial projects. This broader scope has led to new developments like The Hive, the first new office buildings in downtown in the last two decades.”
For projects like City Gardens, the RTE offers a significant incentive for those considering moving to the downtown core or even making Kamloops their new home.
O’Reilly also highlighted that the municipality makes more back in taxes over 20 years than it would have without the tax exemption, ultimately benefiting all residents.
“It’s a win-win situation,” he noted. “The RTE benefits all people living in Kamloops, not just homeowners. By revitalizing and redeveloping areas in our downtown core, we can increase our tax base. Municipalities do not build residential units themselves but rather, we incentivize the private sector to meet the housing demands of our community.”
Explore the opportunities at Trillium Tower and take advantage of the RTE benefits, positioning City Gardens as a premier residential development in the heart of Kamloops.
