A construction crane has been erected at the site of Telus Ocean in downtown Victoria, a 10-storey office tower coming to 767 Douglas Street at Humboldt Street. Citified.ca
After lengthy excavation, 10-storey Telus Ocean office tower starts rising on Douglas at Humboldt
Mike Kozakowski, Citified.ca
Published August 24, 2023
Downtown Victoria’s newest office tower is readying for its rise above Douglas Street at Humboldt Street as Telus Ocean’s excavation completes and construction begins.
The 10-storey complex features three levels of underground parking, and ten floors split between at-ground retail, eight levels of offices, and a top floor amenity component with a rooftop available to community groups and event organizers. The total office square footage is nearly 154,000 square feet, plus approximately 5,300 square feet of for-lease ground floor commercial area.
Telecommunications giant Telus has intimated plans for 250 workers initially occupying two levels of the project as part of an innovation office. As many as 450 Telus employees may eventually work out of the building.
In planning since 2019 and formally submitted as a rezoning application before the City in 2020, TELUS Ocean had its day before council in December of 2021. Excavation on the underground component got underway in 2022, and a crane was erected in mid-August in preparation for construction of the structure.
Completion is expected in 2025.
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| Telus Ocean, as seen from Douglas Street, looking north towards Humboldt Street. Telus |
Telus and then partner Jawl Properties won a design competition held by the City of Victoria to develop the Telus Ocean parcel, at 767 Douglas Street and known as The Apex Site, which was subsequently sold to the company. The funds were then directed by the City towards a land acquisition in the 900-block of Pandora for the purposes of a highrise residential tower, currently before the City’s planning department. Telus would eventually partner with Victoria-based developer Aryze to assist with the civic planning and community consultation process.
Although post-COVID work-from-home has sharply reduced the occupancy levels of downtown Victoria offices, the city centre could see not one but three new office projects over the near term, which collectively will deliver just under 350,000 square feet of Class A office space.
Capital VI, or Capital Six, is an approved development from Jawl Properties for a 10-storey, 152,000 square foot office tower on Blanshard Street at Yates Street. The anchor tenant of an existing structure on the property, known as the Capital Six cinema, “still has some term left on their operating lease,” according to developer Robert Jawl, as of August. This places Capital VI’s occupancy window in the second half of the decade, market conditions notwithstanding.
Capital VI follows in the footsteps of significant earlier investments by Jawl Properties into Victoria's office market with 101,000 square feet at 1515 Douglas Street (built in 2018), 178,000 square feet at 750 Pandora Avenue (built in 2018), and 235,000 square feet at James Bay's Capital Park (two buildings completed in 2017 and 2019).
However, what could be on the horizon ahead of Capital VI is Chard Development’s recently approved Douglas and Caledonia project, that features a 41,000 square office component as part of a three-tower mixed-use community on the city centre’s north end. Chard secured approvals for its concept earlier this year, and construction on three residential towers with offices, retail spaces and a grocery store is expected to begin by late 2024. C
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