Victoria Construction - #7

[Mike K.]

Bosa Properties to build 17-storey condo tower in Vic West
By Mike Kozakowski, Citified.ca
http://victoria.citified.ca/news/bos...r-in-vic-west/

Vancouver-based Bosa Properties has confirmed a rumour first aired several months ago hinting at the company developing the third and final tower atop the Saghalie district of Bayview Place, a multi-phased redevelopment of former rail yard and industrial land at Tyee and Esquimalt roads in Vic West. [Read more]

[s211]

Originally Posted by csbvan

Maybe it's the government presence in the city centre, but I always feel that Victoria is a much more sophisticated city than its population would suggest.

Honestly, the first sentence I've ever read that would suggest the presence of government workers would upscale a neighbourhood.

[aastra]

the first sentence I've ever read that would suggest the presence of government workers would upscale a neighbourhood.

There's also the highly debatable suggestion that a larger population = a more sophisticated population.

[Mike K.]

A row of buildings in downtown Victoria on Douglas Street between Cormorant Street and Pandora Avenue (right across the street from Victoria City Hall) will be coming down to make way for a 300,000 square foot office and commercial development

Major changes coming this August to Douglas Street block
By Mike Kozakowski, Citified.ca.
http://victoria.citified.ca/news/maj...-street-block/

An entire row of aging buildings along the 1500-block of Douglas Street will be coming down in early August to make way for 1515 Douglas, a nearly 300,000 square foot mixed-use office and ground floor commercial development by Jawl Properties.

The massive site excavation, which will eventually expand to cover the majority of an entire city block, has begun on the east end of the property where a 13-storey tower will rise on what was once a surface parking lot. In the coming weeks excavation will begin to spread westward towards Douglas Street where 1515 Douglas' six storey phase will front onto Victoria City Hall. [Read more]

[RWin]

Victoria is looking less and less like the city I left 18 years ago.

[Mike K.]

Oh it's changed, and it keep changing.

Over at the Hudson District, which spans the 1700 and 1800 blocks of Douglas and Blanshard Streets, four residential towers are in the works. One is under construction and three are coming, the next of which will start next year. Also part of this development is the future tallest, a 24-storey residential tower.

Hundreds of homes and Victoria's tallest building planned for Hudson District
By Mike Kozakowski, Citified.ca
http://victoria.citified.ca/news/hun...dson-district/

Richmond-based Townline is making swift work of it's land holdings in north downtown's Hudson District where multiple residential towers are queued for construction, including Victoria's future tallest building.

The company recently completed Hudson Mews, a 12-storey, 120 unit rental highrise with ground floor commercial space mid-way up the 700-block of Fisgard Street to the east of the 152 unit The Hudson (former Hudson's Bay Company department store and home of the Victoria Public Market). And spanning the 700-blocks of Caledonia and Fisgard streets is Hudson Walk, phase one, a 16-storey, 178 unit rental tower with ground floor commercial space currently under construction. Occupancy is expected by next fall.

Next year Townline plans to start construction on phase two of Hudson Walk, a 14-storey tower comprised of 110 rental units sharing interior design and layout similarities with phase one. Ground floor commercial spaces will have frontage onto Caledonia and Blanshard streets. Completion is expected in 2017. [Read more]

[aastra]

Seriously though, I don't think any city in Canada has changed less than Victoria has, in 18 years or in 68 years.

Compare this 1947 pic with the pic in Mike's post #1104.

A lot of buildings have come and gone, don't get me wrong. But it's still very clearly the same place.

[RWin]

Originally Posted by aastra

Seriously though, I don't think any city in Canada has changed less than Victoria has, in 18 years or in 68 years.

That is true. But I've been in Calgary for the last 18 years of change so it is just... the Calgary that I know.

Victoria though (except for a couple of visits since I left) is stuck in 1997 in my mind.

The week I moved there Standard Furniture on Yates burnt down. That still seems like a recent event to me so seeing truly recent photos is amazing.

[Mike K.]

I'm not sure what it is about Victoria, but many people seem to carry the perception that nothing changes here. If you live here you'll see that things have changed, some not for the better, unfortunately. We have one of the highest petty crime rates in the country. The amount of drug-related criminal activity is astonishing, as are associated crimes like break and enters, thefts from vehicles, etc. Just this year a chapter of the HA setup shop in a western suburb and we have recorded what must be a record breaking number of homicides in the first half of 2015 (I'm not saying the two are related, just that it's been a busy year in that regard).

There is a very dark, very disturbing side to this city that the tourism industry attempts its very best to mask, but when you live or work here, especially in the downtown area, you'll see the ugly side with regularity. I mean nowhere else in Canada have I seen the volume of panhandlers, open drug dealing, public disobedience (defecation in broad daylight, urinating in broad daylight, you name it) with such regularity.

That being said, downtown Victoria has changed immensely from what it was in the 1990's (in terms of the built environment, street vibrancy, etc). I remember then very well, and we've made quite a lot of progress since.

[aastra]

We should remember that in the 1990s we still had two large department stores downtown, a vibrant Market Square, and a bunch of movie theatres, too. A strong case could be made that the current phase is still a recovery phase, getting back to the way things were 20 years ago. Victorians like to regard any new building on a parking lot as proof of growth, but many of the voids that we're filling today had buildings on them at some point in the past.

Things change, for sure. But as the old pics show, the downtown that Victorians knew in 1945 is pretty much the same downtown that Victorians know today. There have been steps backward and steps forward again and some shifting around, but not a lot of sheer growth (check out the equivalent pics of Vancouver, Calgary, or Edmonton to see sheer growth). I'd say the activity north of the HBC building today is a good sign that downtown is *finally* poised to grow beyond the long-established confines. Same thing for some of the proposals in Harris Green.

[Mike K.]

Skyscrapers are not the sole measure of sheer growth, though, and aerials only tell a one dimensional story. What's been happening on the streets is what counts, and the volume of pedestrians, the vibrancy in the evenings, those are the things that a city needs to make itself welcoming to visitors and new residents. The downtown of the 1990's was bleak. And yes, Market Square was much more lively back then than it is today but this is an issue of mismanagement and not a change in the city's make-up or whatnot (my folks had a business there from the 80's through to the early 2000's). As for department stores, I'm not sure if that's what makes a downtown.

Anyways, I don't think most Victorians are aware that James Bay was once a no-go zone for taxis. They would drop you off at the border and you'd be on your own. What is now a sought after residential area was once an industrial mess with low land values and seedy apartments. Much of Vic West, too, was once an industrial wasteland. Now you'd be hard pressed to believe what was there before the condos showed up. The Westshore, major changes there too. Now the north end of downtown is being slowly transformed, but just like other districts that have taken several decades to turn the corner, so too will everything north of Chatham.

[Beedok]

Originally Posted by aastra

Seriously though, I don't think any city in Canada has changed less than Victoria has, in 18 years or in 68 years.

Compare this 1947 pic with the pic in Mike's post #1104.

A lot of buildings have come and gone, don't get me wrong. But it's still very clearly the same place.

For 18 years, I think Hamilton wins, but Victoria does seem to have heldmost of its pre-war buildings quite well.

[Mike K.]

Sharp rise in housing starts across the region in the first half of 2015.

Housing starts rise 65% throughout south Island
By Mike Kozakowski, Citified.ca
http://victoria.citified.ca/news/hou...-south-island/

Housing starts throughout metropolitan Victoria rose sharply in the first half of 2015 compared to the same period last year, according to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation's (CMHC) preliminary housing start data.

Construction started on 984 homes in the first six months of the year, a rise of 65% over 2014's 596. The biggest jump was in multi-unit housing projects totalling 681 units compared to 336 the year before, an increase of 103%. Single family home construction rose by a comparatively small 17% to 303 starts from the previous year's 260. Throughout the province housing starts increased over last year's 2,324 by 30% to 3,010. [Read more]

[Mike K.]

As expected the 819 Yates project received approvals from Victoria council last night.

[Mike K.]

Exclusive: Old Town proposal unveils 12-storey tower, restoration of Northern Junk buildings
MIKE KOZAKOWSKI, CITIFIED.CAPUBLISHED JULY 12, 2015
http://victoria.citified.ca/news/old...unk-buildings/

Vancouver-based Reliance Properties is back before the City of Victoria's planning department with a revised proposal for its Northern Junk development in downtown Victoria's Old Town district.

Originally proposed in 2010, the design concept called for a five storey brick-clad luxury condo with ground floor commercial spaces enveloping the two historic Northern Junk buildings. Reliance planned to restore the duo, built in 1884 on Wharf Street between Yates and Johnson streets, into high profile waterfront commercial spaces.

Come 2013, however, Reliance announced the proposal would be rescinded and re-envisioned while the company focused its efforts on the restoration of the historic Janion Hotel into microlofts at Store Street and Pandora Avenue. [Read more]

[Metro-One]

I dont why people think Victoria has not changed, they have been adding new towers quite a lot over the last 10 years in the downtown core and accross the inlet. It has become much more urban IMO.

[Mike K.]

185 units of affordable rental housing underway in Greater Victoria
http://victoria.citified.ca/news/185...ater-victoria/

185 affordable new-build rental units are coming to the Greater Victoria housing market by 2017, according to data collected by Citified.

Currently under construction is Azzurro, a 65 unit, seven storey lowrise with a mix of bachelor and one bedroom homes at Blanshard and Discovery streets. Greater Victoria Rental Development Society, project developer, anticipates to have the homes available for rent by the fall of 2016. The ground floor is slated for retail spaces with a single storey of offices above. [Full article]

[csbvan]

Originally Posted by Mike K.

Exclusive: Old Town proposal unveils 12-storey tower, restoration of Northern Junk buildings
MIKE KOZAKOWSKI, CITIFIED.CAPUBLISHED JULY 12, 2015
http://victoria.citified.ca/news/old...unk-buildings/

Vancouver-based Reliance Properties is back before the City of Victoria's planning department with a revised proposal for its Northern Junk development in downtown Victoria's Old Town district.

Originally proposed in 2010, the design concept called for a five storey brick-clad luxury condo with ground floor commercial spaces enveloping the two historic Northern Junk buildings. Reliance planned to restore the duo, built in 1884 on Wharf Street between Yates and Johnson streets, into high profile waterfront commercial spaces.

Come 2013, however, Reliance announced the proposal would be rescinded and re-envisioned while the company focused its efforts on the restoration of the historic Janion Hotel into microlofts at Store Street and Pandora Avenue. [Read more]

Good stuff I hope it goes through this time. Reliance does good work, especially when it comes to heritage restoration.

[Mike K.]

We're seeing that now with their restoration of the Janion Hotel, pictured on the left in the rendering with the bridge in the lower right corner. They managed to get a 7-storey addition onto the rear of the hotel, right on the shoreline (which is no easy task) so they definitely know what they're doing.

[Mike K.]

Financiers are bullish on Victoria's rental market as condo developers turn to growing demand new-build rental housing.

1,000 rental units eyed for downtown Victoria
http://victoria.citified.ca/news/100...town-victoria/

Rental home development activity in downtown Victoria is at levels not seen in decades with nearly 1,000 units currently under construction or in-planning, according to Citified's data.

As low interest rates give lenders incentives to seek out long-term stable income generating opportunities, would-be condo developers are altering course to fill both a void for quality rentals and tap into investment capital bullish on Victoria. [Full article]