A rendering of Saanich’s upcoming #2 fire hall redevelopment on Royal Oak Drive at Elk Lake Drive. The project will utilise mass timber as part of an investment and study by the Province of British Columbia to promote B.C.-made forestry products and a new generation of construction materials. © HMCA Architecture + Design
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COLWOOD
Third time could the charm at a master-planned residential and commercial development eyed for Esquimalt Lagoon. The Victoria-based office of real-estate brokerage CBRE is soliciting bids from developers looking to revive a 700-home project that hit the pre-sales market in spring of 2019 as Two Waters from Relevant Properties, which itself was a re-envisioned concept for a proposal that emerged a decade earlier as Ocean Grove. Ross Marshall, Senior Vice-President of CBRE Victoria which is representing the sale, says a number of well-established developers have expressed interest in CBRE’s recent listing of the 26.5-acre Two Waters property (near the southern banks of Esquimalt Lagoon at Lagoon and Heatherbell roads), and considering the calibre of firms vying for the land, construction may not be far away.
JORDAN RIVER
Sooke’s trio of micro-breweries may no longer be the last stops among Greater Victoria’s local beer trail pending approvals for a brewery proposal further west along the Highway 14 corridor. Proponents behind a 4,000 square foot brewery operation in the town of Jordan River 30 kilometers beyond Sooke are working to secure approvals from the Capital Regional District to open Jordan River Brewing Co. on a rise overlooking the mouth of the river and the Salish Sea.
SAANICH
Saanich’s replacement of its #2 fire hall on Royal Oak Drive at Elk Lake Drive will be constructed out of mass timber technology as part of a provincial investment and study into the BC-made building material. The Province of British Columbia has announced $4.2 million in funding for a dozen projects throughout BC to utilize mass timber technologies in lieu of traditional building methods and components, one of which will be the Saanich fire hall built to “strict post-disaster requirements.”
SOOKE
Sooke’s real-estate boom may have fielded one of the priciest acquisitions in the town’s history for a duplex and single-family-dwelling subdivision in the town’s central core. Situated in the Broom Hill neighbourhood north of Sooke’s commercial centre is a $9.8 million collection of parcels for sale by CBRE. The land has drawn significant interest from local and off-Island developers looking for a foothold in the furthest West Shore municipality of Greater Victoria, with an accepted offer reportedly in the making just days after hitting the market.
SOOKE TO PORT RENFREW
The province has announced $4.9 million in funding to expand cellphone connectivity to Port Renfrew at the western terminus of Vancouver Island’s Highway 14 corridor. Presently, cellular signals are lost just west of Sooke, with no coverage until motorists arrive at Cowichan Lake via the rural Pacific Marine Circle Route.
VICTORIA
The high-end Customs House condominium development from Cielo Properties, nearing completion at Government and Humboldt streets, has closed multiple multi-million-dollar purchases in recent days bringing the internationally-recognized project’s sold status to 85 per cent, with eight suites remaining. Customs House is currently one of the most complex development undertakings in the Capital with a heritage retention component of the Customs House building dating back to the early 1900s and a new-build mid-rise. The project made headlines in 2018 for selling Vancouver Island’s most expensive condominium, which at the time was valued at $10.8 million.
11-years into a rezoning effort involving Wharf Street’s Northern Junk lands, developer Reliance Properties has launched an information campaign ahead of a public hearing. Plans to restore the duo of Northern Junk buildings, at 1314 and 1318 Wharf Street, and redevelop adjacent lands into a mixed-use residential and commercial project, have been underway since 2010. Planned with rental apartments and ground floor retail spaces, the six-storey, 47-unit project is headed for a public hearing in May.
Further refinements to one of the largest development proposals within the City of Victoria have been submitted to the municipality, building on a rezoning submission unveiled in the spring of 2020 that could deliver some of the tallest buildings on Vancouver Island and a performing arts centre designed by a world-renowned architect. Developer Focus Equities’ vision for the Bayview lands in Vic West has crystallized with an application that could yield as many as 2,000 rental apartments in a collection of towers rising 21-to-31-storeys tall, condominiums in 25 and 28-storey towers, and a concept for a cultural centre crafted by Frank Gehry. The E&N Railway compound, which is within the Bayview property, is incorporated into the overall vision.
Sponsored by CBRE
