A rendering of an upcoming phase of single-family homes at The Beachlands, an oceanfront community now underway along the Salish Sea in Colwood. 21 home sites are available as part of an inaugural single-family-dwelling custom home construction opportunity. © Reliance Properites | Seacliff Properties
By Mike Kozakowski of Citified.ca
COLWOOD
Following the success of the inaugural condominium pre-sale campaign at Colwood’s oceanfront community known as The Beachlands, Reliance Properties and Seacliff Properties have announced the project’s first release of oceanfront single-family custom home sites. 21 single-family-home lots sized from just under 4,000 square feet to over 6,000 square feet are now available. Situated on 134 acres of prime waterfront land that spans 1.4 kilometres of what has been described as extraordinary shoreline, The Beachlands is a Salish Sea-fronting community (centred on Metchosin Road at Latoria Boulevard), where at completion, 2,850 residences will be constructed in condominium, townhome and single-family forms, with significant retail and professional service spaces planned. Read more here
ESQUIMALT
A cohousing condominium proposal is moving through the approvals process in the Township of Esquimalt for a duo of parcels opposite the town’s Esquimalt Plaza retail centre. Esquimalt Village Cohousing associated to a Sooke-based mailing address during construction, has submitted a rezoning application to permit a six-storey, 33-unit cohousing block at 1140 and 1148 Esquimalt Road at Fernhill Road, currently home to two duplex structures. The organization’s plans call for a mix of one through three-bedroom suites, built and delivered with “no profit motive driving decisions,” and a “commitment to creating high-quality homes at cost.” Read more here
SOOKE
A new retail plaza proposed for Sooke’s town centre remains an application in pursuit of approvals as its fifth year of municipal planning nears. Originally submitted as a rezoning application in the spring of 2021, proponent Mid America Venture Capital Corp envisioned a retail centre comprising over 150,000 square feet of commercial space between the 6700-blocks of West Coast Road/Highway 14 and Eustace Road, just west of Sooke’s existing retail plazas. The concept has spent years moving through the approvals process, with Calgary-based Royop Development Corporation now at the helm of the application. Last spring, Royop’s President and CEO Jeremy Thal, and Jacob Weber, Royop’s Senior Vice President – Development, made a presentation to Sooke council describing the company’s history of commercial development in western Canada, and cited retailer interest in the Sooke site. The company’s intent is to deliver an anchor grocery store as part of an infusion of 70,000 square feet of commercial space, and 200 residential units in two buildings. Read more here
VICTORIA
The first project out of the gate at the recently approved Roundhouse at Bayview Place masterplanned community in Vic West is an affordable rental tower on Esquimalt Road near Catherine Street. TL Housing Solutions on behalf of Greater Victoria Housing Society has submitted plans to the City of Victoria in pursuit of a development permit for 209 studio-through-three-bedroom units classified by the proponent as affordable housing, in a 22-storey all-residential building at 251 Esquimalt Road. The proposal will feature three levels of underground parking accommodating 76 vehicles. Read more here
REGIONAL
Celebrating 30 years in business, Vancouver Island-based Penny Lane Property Management has announced an expansion into Greater Victoria’s real-estate market from the company’s central Island base in the Comox Valley, according to the ownership team. Founded in 1995, Penny Lane co-owners Scott Crisp and Nick Coleman have announced an upcoming opening of the company’s new office at Haultain Corners in Victoria’s Oaklands neighbourhood. “Penny Lane has deep roots on central Vancouver Island with a long history of client-focused, value-added property management services between Campbell River and Courtenay,” Crisp says. “This year, we made the decision to expand our presence into the Capital Region, to help our existing clients manage their assets on the south Island, and extend our unique approach to management services to the Island’s most diversified real-estate market.” Read more here
Greater Victoria’s upcoming supply of just under 400 hotel rooms is the largest new inventory pipeline the city has seen in a generation, but the new units are playing a slow game of catch-up relative to a sustained reduction in lodging spaces since the 1990s. Collectively, the estimated loss of hotel inventory has amounted to more than two thousand rooms over 30 years, a startling figure in its own right, but the effects of which were tempered for some time by the growth in short-term vacation rentals, commonly known as AirBnBs. The provincial government, however, has significantly restricted how AirBnBs can operate, leading many operators to abandon the industry and sell their holdings or provide them to the long-term rental market. Read more here
Mike Kozakowski is with Citified Media and can be reached at mailto:mike@citifiedmedia.com
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