Friday morning, dozens of parents arrived at ProducKIDvity daycare located inside The Block on Bernard Avenue to find the doors locked and RCMP inside.
A letter on the door of the daycare from Colliers Commercial Real Estate Services, stating:
After an extended period of accommodation with ProducKIDvity to resolve ongoing operational and tenancy matters, the Landlord has made the difficult decision to end the tenancy agreement with ProducKIDvity, effective May 28, 2026.
This left more than 80 families in the lurch, with many unable to go to work as the last minute notice gave little to no options for childcare.
According to parents who spoke to Black Press Media, they received no notice about the situation, except for a message sent through the communication app Bright Chat from ProducKIDvity staff.
Parents arrived to drop off their kids only to be assisted by court bailiffs who helped retrieve their children’s items from the daycare.
However, ProducKIDvity CEO Alexandra Carnio said she was just as shocked. She claims that she opened her email on Friday at 5:15 a.m. to find a message from Colliers reporting that her business was being served a notice to quit and would have five days or until June 8 to vacate the premises.
“Just the way that they’ve gone about this is really disturbing, just because it is families and it is children,” said Carnio.
She alleges that ProducKIDvity has been in a “negotiation/dispute” with the landlord for the past 17 months.
“It started when the building flooded on Dec.23, 2024, and all the water had pooled to our floor. We’ve gone through multiple months of having to do repairs. This flood was nothing that we did, but they (Colliers) wouldn’t give us any rental abatement,” explained Carnio.
The CEO of ProducKIDvity, a venture that provides childcare services, as well as a working space for parents and non-parents, said in the last two years she has had to replace the flooring four times in the largest classroom in the daycare, Balsam classroom, due to continual water damage.
“We had asked the landlords to do an inspection with an engineering report to try and help us to fix the problem because this is our most expensive building,” she said.
The Block is just one of four ProducKIDvity facilities located in Kelowna and West Kelowna, and Carnio said the lease is upwards of $60,000 a month.
The offices at the 11-storey Block Tower (1499 St. Paul St.) are part of a three-phase development, which includes the completed Brooklyn and Bertram Condos, which opened in September 2024.
“Not being able to have that (Balsam) room operable and safe under Interior Health was a big concern for us. We went back and forth, and I stood my ground, and I just basically said, ‘we’re not paying for something that we can’t use,’ and we knew that we deserved better.”
ProducKIDvity is licensed for a capacity of 98 children, with the Balsam room hosting 25 children. Which means Carnio is unable to run her business at her licensed capacity due to the closure of the Balsam room.
Yet, in the letter posted in the foyer of The Block, Colliers wrote the following:
Throughout this process, the Landlord made every effort to be patient, accommodating, and solution-oriented. This decision was not made lightly.
Colliers claims the tenant, ProducKIDvity, under the “daycare lease, failed to pay its annual base rent, additional rent, goods and services tax and other amounts as and when due.”
The lease letter posted in the foyer is dated May 24, giving Carnio five days’ written notice to cure the default.
The issue, according to Carnio, is that she didn’t receive the notice of termination until May 29, and that she had sent a bank draft to Colliers on May 26 for $34,000, but it was not accepted by the real estate services.
“I’ve been trying to make common ground with them, but we just haven’t been able to get there,” she explained. “And, with them refusing the payment, that just kind of showed, this was never about money.”
Carnio claims that at no time was she told or under the impression that the doors of ProducKIDvity would be closed and the locks changed.
But, more importantly to Carnio, are the families who rely on the daycare and what childcare will mean for them going forward, as they have lost a space at ProducKIDvity on Bernard.
“So, the one thing I can say about Kelowna is that it’s a very supportive daycare community. My team and I made calls to ask if places had spaces available. And, our goal is that by Monday, Tuesday (June 1 and 2) at the latest, everyone will have a place secured and that parents won’t be without a place to go,” stated Carnio.
All of the children’s items still in the Bernard location will be returned by Monday, she said, adding that communication will occur over the weekend with parents of ProducKIDvity on Bernard.
As for the staff of ProducKIDvity at the location, Carnio explained, “Our HR is building out a strategy of where to place people and where they can go to ensure that there’s continuity of pay and that people are well cared for.”
Carnio confirmed she will be filing a civil suit in response to the notice of termination.
ProducKIDvity had signed a 15-year lease with Mission Group and Nicola Wealth to provide childcare and co-work spaces in the Bernard Block.
In response to allegations that The Block has structural development issues, Black Press Media has reached out to the Mission Group and HM Commercial, but did not receive a response by publication.
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