Cranbrook, British Columbia
Cranbrook owns an unusual amount of itself — 19% of its land is municipal and it runs its own international airport as a city department — while the land around it is 60% provincial Crown and 8% federal reserve, including the 7,472-hectare Kootenay 1 reserve on the city's doorstep; the one thing nobody publishes is who owns the shopping centre that anchors the East Kootenay.
7 buildings · 5 with an owner established · 13 sources · 6 tier A · 1 tier B · prepared 2026-10-03
British Columbia's land title register is run by the Land Title and Survey Authority and anyone may search it, but every search is a paid transaction: $11.06 for a search under section 377 of the Land Title Act on the LTSA Customer Fee Listing current at 1 April 2026. There is no bulk owner product and no price-paid file. What is unusual is the Land Owner Transparency Registry — filing obligations running from 30 November 2020 and public search live since 30 April 2021 — which names the individuals behind corporations, trusts and partnerships that own BC land; the same LTSA schedule prices a search of publicly accessible information under section 35 of the Land Owner Transparency Act at NIL. Cranbrook publishes the one building-level ownership list the city has: the statutory schedule of property tax exemptions in its audited annual report, which gives a folio number, a PROPERTY OWNER and a CIVIC ADDRESS for every exempted parcel. That schedule is the source for most of the named owners on this page. The city's commercial core is not covered by it: the mall that anchors the East Kootenay has a named property manager and no published owner.
- bcassessment.ca — “Any commercial use of these data in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, including the use of such data for business, residential address or telephone directory services or any solicitation service is specifically prohibited except with the prior written authority of the owner of the copyright.”
The marquee buildings
The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.
| Building | Use | Owner | Owner type | Last price paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tamarack Centre 1500 Cranbrook Street North 290,133 sq ft leasable on over 29 acres |
Retail | Not established a paid title search would answer it Crestwell Realty Inc.'s own property page gives leasable area of 290,133 sq ft, states the centre "sits on over 29 acres of highway-frontage property", lists 39 stores and services with Canadian Tire, Winners, Staples, Shoppers Drug Mart and a 5-screen Columbia Theatre, says it opened in 1977 and "underwent its first major renovations in 2017, proudly conducted by Crestwell Realty", and names Crestwell Realty Inc. as Property Manager and Warrington PCI Management as the leasing contact. The page does not state who owns it, Crestwell's own /about-us page 404s, and no filing or press release opened here names an owner. A title search at $11.06 would answer it. |
Not established | —A |
| Canadian Rockies International Airport (YXC) 9370 Airport Access Road, Cranbrook |
Civic | City of Cranbrook The airport is a department of the City and its own mission statement in the City's 2025 Annual Report is "to serve the region by becoming the airport of choice and to provide the City of Cranbrook with a safe, friendly, clean, efficient, and profitable airport with a local sense of place". The report records a record June of nearly 15,000 travellers, Air Canada and WestJet adding about 48,000 annual seats, Pacific Coastal opening YXC–Kelowna service, a Transport Canada safety management review, a parking system upgrade and a roof replacement. The City paid $1,343,553 to Elevate Airports Inc. in 2025. |
Government | —A |
| Western Financial Place 1777 2nd Street North |
Civic | City of Cranbrook The City's 2025 Annual Report states that its Recreation and Culture Department "oversees the programming and operations of Western Financial Place, the Memorial and Kinsmen Arenas, Aquatic Centre and numerous sports fields and parks" and works with Public Works on indoor and outdoor facility maintenance. The City's long-term debt schedule carries Bylaw 3682, Memorial Arena Renovations, at $299,724 outstanding to 2027. City buildings carry $78,345,985 of cost at 31 December 2025 within total tangible capital assets of $260,195,936 net book value. |
Government | —A |
| Cranbrook History Centre 57 and 75 Van Horne Street South, and 1 Van Horne Street North |
Institutional | Cranbrook Archives Museum & Landmark Foundation The City's statutory Statement of 2025 Property Tax Exemptions names the Cranbrook Archives Museum & Landmark Foundation as PROPERTY OWNER of four folios: 57 Van Horne Street South ($2,397 exempted), 75 Van Horne Street South ($59,801 — the largest single exemption in the city), 1 Van Horne Street North ($1,710) and a fourth described as "CP R/W Lease No. GBMK 080-0802" ($680), all at 100% exemption. The fourth line is a lease over Canadian Pacific right-of-way, not freehold, and is described here as the schedule describes it. |
Institution | —A |
| Cranbrook Public Library 1212 2nd Street North |
Civic | City of Cranbrook The City's long-term debt schedule carries Bylaw 3515, "Cranbrook Public Library Building", maturing 2026 at 1.530%, with $212,255 outstanding at 31 December 2025 against $416,346 a year earlier. A municipality servicing debenture debt on a building it names is the owner of it. The library has its own section in the City's annual report. |
Government | —B |
| Ktunaxa Nation Council properties in the city 202 – 13th Avenue South; 46 – 17th Avenue South; 2001 Industrial Road 2 |
Institutional | Ktunaxa Nation Council The City's Statement of 2025 Property Tax Exemptions names the Ktunaxa Nation Council as PROPERTY OWNER of 202 – 13th Avenue South ($4,411 exempted at 100%) and 46 – 17th Avenue South ($7,090), and the Ktunaxa Nation Council Society as owner of 2001 Industrial Road 2 ($3,462). The Ktunaxa/Kinbasket Child & Family Service Society is separately named as owner of 100 – 12th Avenue South ($33,554) and 1007 Baker Street ($10,542). These are fee simple holdings inside the municipality, distinct from the federal reserves outside it. |
Institution | —A |
| Shadow Mountain Shadow Mountain, Cranbrook |
Land | Not established a paid title search would answer it The City's Schedule of Long-term Debt carries a line "4095 Shadow Mountain", temporary borrowing at a variable rate, at $6,800,000 outstanding at both 31 December 2025 and 31 December 2024 — the single largest item in the City's general fund debt after capital roads. The annual report names the bylaw and the amount and says nothing else about it, and no other document opened explains what the City borrowed against or who owns the land. It is recorded here because the figure is published and load-bearing, not because the ownership is known. |
Not established | —A |
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
Cranbrook's roll has no major industry and no managed forest land at all; it is houses, a business strip and a little light industry. What is unusual is the public side: 19.0% of the city's land is municipal parcels and local park, the City owns and runs an international airport, and it carries two commercial mortgages and $6.8M of temporary borrowing against a development called Shadow Mountain. Figures are the 2026 provincial assessment roll, the City's audited 2025 financial statements and the province's 2025 property transfer tax file. The Land Designations for Forest Management layer is a forest-management product and its own catalogue entry says it "SHOULD NOT be used for operational level analysis". Inside a built-up municipality its residual class "Forest Management Unit" swallows whatever it has not mapped — we probed it and it returned that class for roads, rail corridor, parks, hospital land, filled foreshore and the bed of the Fraser River — so it is NOT read here as Crown forest inside a town boundary. Outside the boundary, over a rural box, that class is the provincial forest land base and is read as Crown.
Who owns the town
At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.
Cranbrook is a town on a Crown and federal edge. Over a 986 km2 box around it, 60.2% of the land is provincial Crown, 26.1% is private and 8.2% is federal — and almost all of the federal share is one reserve. The province's own reserve layer returns Kootenay 1 at 7,472.0 hectares immediately around the city, more than twice the area of the city itself. Inside the boundary the picture inverts: 67.5% private, 19.0% municipal and only trace Crown and federal. No private company or family is named as a large landholder by any public record examined, and none is invented here.
| Name | Type | Holdings |
|---|---|---|
| Province of British Columbia (provincial Crown) Derived from our 150 m grid sample of the province's Land Designations for Forest Management layer over a 986 km2 box around Cranbrook (43,845 points): 32,730.8 ha forest management unit, 12,240.0 ha miscellaneous reserves, 5,130.0 ha forest recreation, 4,203.0 ha community watershed, 2,729.2 ha watershed reserve, 841.5 ha woodlot licence Schedule B, 783.0 ha miscellaneous lease, 312.8 ha UREP reserve, 249.8 ha heritage site, 159.8 ha Christmas tree licence and 15.8 ha provincial park. No tree farm licence boundary reaches the Cranbrook box at all. |
Government | about 59,396 ha of 98,651 ha, 60.2%A |
| Federal reserve land around Cranbrook The province's Indian Reserves and Indian Band Villages administrative boundary layer returns five reserves inside the 986 km2 box: KOOTENAY 1 at 7,472.0 ha, ISIDORE'S RANCH 4 at 277.3 ha, ST. MARY'S 1A at 129.0 ha, BUMMERS FLAT 6 at 77.9 ha and ST. MARY'S INDIAN RESERVE NO. 1 at 10.1 ha. The land-designation sample independently puts First Nation reserve at 7,947.0 ha, 8.1% of the box. The layer gives reserve names, not band names, and this record states only what it says. Reserve land is held by the Crown in right of Canada for the use and benefit of a band; it is not freehold and it is not provincial. |
Government | 7,966 ha across five reserves, 8.1% of the boxA |
| Privately held land (owner not published) The same grid samples. Inside the city boundary 2,130.1 ha of 3,157.5 ha is classed Private Parcel; over the wider box 25,724.2 ha of 98,651.2 ha. The layer records the designation and never the owner. No source opened names a large private landholder in or around Cranbrook, and the City's annual report does not publish a principal-taxpayer table. |
Private company | 25,724 ha in the box, 26.1%; 2,130 ha inside the city, 67.5%A |
| City of Cranbrook Land at cost of $10,764,692 at 31 December 2025 within $260,195,936 of net carrying amount, plus $327,378 of land held for resale and $53,309 of property acquired for taxes carried as financial assets. The land-designation sample gives 439.9 ha of municipal parcels and 158.8 ha of local and regional park inside the boundary. The City also owns and runs the region's airport. |
Government | $10,764,692 of land at cost; 598.6 ha, 19.0% of the cityA |
| Ktunaxa Nation Council Named as PROPERTY OWNER by the City of Cranbrook's statutory exemption schedule at 202 – 13th Avenue South and 46 – 17th Avenue South, and as Ktunaxa Nation Council Society at 2001 Industrial Road 2; the Ktunaxa/Kinbasket Child & Family Service Society is named at 100 – 12th Avenue South and 1007 Baker Street. These are freehold holdings inside the municipality, separate from the federal reserves outside it. |
Institution | three city properties plus two held by an affiliated societyA |
| Cranbrook Archives Museum & Landmark Foundation The largest non-profit landholding the City names, and the largest single exemption in the city at $59,801 for 75 Van Horne Street South. One of the four folios is described as a lease over Canadian Pacific right-of-way rather than freehold. |
Institution | four folios on Van Horne Street, $64,588 of City taxes exemptedA |
Where property meets office
Recorded only where a public record states it — a disclosure registry, council minutes, a land-use decision. Stated as fact, with nothing inferred from it.
| Holder | Office | Holding |
|---|---|---|
| City of Cranbrook | Mayor Wayne Price and six Councillors, 2022–2026 term | No contracts disclosed under section 107 of the Community Charter in 2025 The City's 2025 Annual Report states: "Section 107 of the Community Charter requires disclosure where a municipality enters into a contract in which a council member has a direct or indirect pecuniary interest. No such contracts were entered into in 2025." Council remuneration for the year was $258,888 with $57,455 of expenses. This is recorded as the neutral statutory fact it is. A |
| City of Cranbrook | City Council, by bylaw under section 224 of the Community Charter | A published schedule naming the owner and civic address of every tax-exempted property in the city Cranbrook's Statement of 2025 Property Tax Exemptions gives folio, PROPERTY OWNER, CIVIC ADDRESS, extent of exemption and estimated exemption for each parcel, including partial exemptions where part of a building is leased to non-qualifying tenants. It is the only building-level ownership list published for the city and it is the source for most named owners on this page. A |
Who builds the houses
New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.
No builder-level data exists for a city of 20,499. The City's 2025 Annual Report states that "Building permit values and revenues reached" new levels in the year but does not publish a permit count or a builder name, and the detailed development statistics are in the images-only part of the report. CMHC's starts series does not name builders. No private builder is named here with a figure because no source opened names one. The housing societies below are named by the City itself as registered property owners.
| Name | Type | Holding |
|---|---|---|
| Nexus Community Support Society Named as PROPERTY OWNER in the City's Statement of 2025 Property Tax Exemptions at 110 – 12th Avenue South ($3,967), 39 – 13th Avenue South ($16,224), 45 – 13th Avenue South ($1,619), 19 – 15th Avenue South ($33,504) and 1500 – 1st Street South ($3,044, exempt on 50% with 50% leased to non-qualifying tenants). The largest non-profit housing and support landholding named in the city. |
Institution | four exempted properties, $54,314 of City taxes forgone in 2025A |
| Community Connections Society of Southeast BC Named as PROPERTY OWNER at 16 – 12th Avenue North (56% exempt, 44% leased to non-qualifying tenants, $9,162), 20 – 12th Avenue North ($9,922) and 22 – 12th Avenue North ($6,050) in the City's 2025 exemption schedule. |
Institution | three exempted properties, $25,134 of City taxes forgoneA |
| Rocky Mountain Housing Society Named as PROPERTY OWNER in the City's Statement of 2025 Property Tax Exemptions at 100% exemption. |
Institution | 1601/1603 – 6th Street North, $3,078 exemptedA |
| Summit Community Services Society Named as PROPERTY OWNER at 125 – 10th Avenue South (78% exempt, 22% leased to non-qualifying tenants, $10,609) and 1100 – 11th Street South ($3,360). |
Institution | two exempted properties, $13,969 of City taxes forgoneA |
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
The business-and-other class is $845.5M on the 2026 roll, 16% of the city, and only 22 commercial transactions completed in 2025. One enclosed centre dominates and its owner is not published. The City is the other substantial commercial operator, through an airport it runs as a department.
| Name | Type | Floor area / holding |
|---|---|---|
| Tamarack Centre — owner not established Crestwell Realty Inc. publishes the area, acreage and tenant list and names itself as Property Manager and Warrington PCI Management as leasing agent. It does not state the owner. No filing, assessment record or press release opened here names one. |
Not established | 290,133 sq ft on over 29 acres, 39 storesA |
| City of Cranbrook The City owns and operates the Canadian Rockies International Airport, Western Financial Place, the Memorial and Kinsmen Arenas, the Aquatic Centre and the Public Library, and carries two commercial mortgages against general fund assets — $3,760,740 to Canada Life Assurance Company at 7.143% to 2030 and $3,108,158 to Bank of Montreal at 3.800% to 2028 — plus $6,800,000 of temporary borrowing under bylaw 4095, Shadow Mountain. Total debt is $23,531,057. |
Government | $10,764,692 of land at cost; about 599 ha of municipal parcels and parkA |
| Cranbrook Golf Club Named as PROPERTY OWNER in the City's 2025 exemption schedule with $10,777 of City taxes exempted at 50%, class 8 seasonal only — one of the few large private recreational landholdings in the city whose owner the public record names. |
Institution | 2700 2nd Street South, 50% exempt on class 8 seasonal onlyA |
Looked for and not found
Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.
- Who owns Tamarack Centre. Crestwell Realty Inc. publishes the area, acreage and tenant list and names itself as property manager and Warrington PCI Management as leasing agent; its own /about-us page 404s and no document opened names a registered owner. Search results associate the centre with a Vancouver private group, but no page we opened states it, so no owner is recorded.
- What the $6,800,000 of temporary borrowing under bylaw 4095, "Shadow Mountain", is secured on and who owns the land. The City publishes the bylaw number and the amount and nothing more.
- Cranbrook's building permit count and value for 2025. The Mayor's message states permit values and revenues reached new levels, but the detailed development statistics sit on the images-only pages of the annual report and no text source was found.
- Which First Nation holds each of the five reserves around Cranbrook. The province's reserve layer gives reserve names only. The City separately names the Ktunaxa Nation Council as a registered owner of fee simple land inside the municipality; no inference is drawn between the two.
- The City's ParcelMap BC parcel-level ownership split. The public WFS timed out before Cranbrook's parcels could be paged, so no parcel-count split by OWNER_TYPE is published.
- Who owns the East Kootenay Regional Hospital and the College of the Rockies campus. Both are in the city; neither appears in the City's exemption schedule, because both are statutorily exempt rather than permissively exempt, and no source opened states title.
- No open dataset names the owner of any BC parcel; BC publishes no price-paid file; and the corporate share of Cranbrook's 2025 transactions is suppressed in all twelve months of the provincial file.
- LOTR covers only land held through corporations, trusts and partnerships. Land held directly by an individual is out of scope, which in a city of 20,499 is most of it.
Sources
- Fees — LTSA Customer Fee Listing as at April 1, 2026 — Land Title and Survey Authority of British Columbia · openA
- About the Land Owner Transparency Registry — Land Title and Survey Authority of British Columbia · openA
- BC Assessment homepage, terms of use and copyright notice — BC Assessment · openA
- Local Government Statistics — Schedule 701, Assessed Values for the year 2026 — BC Ministry of Municipal Affairs · openA
- Local Government Statistics — Schedule 201, General Statistics for 2024 — BC Ministry of Municipal Affairs · openA
- Property Transfer Tax Data 2025 — municipal monthly file — BC Ministry of Finance / BC Data Catalogue · openA
- Land Designations for Forest Management (ANA_LDFM_LND_DESIG_FOR_MGMT_SP) — BC Ministry of Forests / BC Data Catalogue · openA
- Municipalities — Legally Defined Administrative Areas of BC (ABMS_MUNICIPALITIES_SP), WFS — GeoBC / BC Data Catalogue · openA
- 2025 Annual Report — City of Cranbrook (audited consolidated financial statements, Note 14 Tangible Capital Assets, Statement of 2025 Property Tax Exemptions, SOFI schedules) — City of Cranbrook · openA
- Tamarack Centre — property page — Crestwell Realty Inc. · openA
- Annual Reports — City of Cranbrook · openA
- Indian Reserves and Indian Band Villages — Administrative Boundaries (CLAB_INDIAN_RESERVES), WFS over a 986 km2 box around Cranbrook — GeoBC / BC Data Catalogue · openA
- BC Physical Address Geocoder — GeoBC / Province of British Columbia · openA