Developer WestUrban has submitted a rezoning application seeking approvals for a six-storey complex at 32-38 Helmcken Road and Chancellor Avenue with just over 60 units of one and two-bedroom apartments, 7,300 square feet of office space, and nearly 600 square feet of retail or commercial space.

 

The project site is situated immediately east of the Eagle Creek Village retail and residential node – which includes a five-storey office building and three residential blocks – and kitty-corner from the grounds of Victoria General Hospital.

 

A rendering of 32-38 Helmcken Road, proposed at the location of the now-closed Helmcken Market.  WestUrban Developments

 

WestUrban’s concept includes residential floor plans ranging from over 500 to under 900 square feet with one or two bedrooms, while the commercial spaces will encompass as many as three separate units, one of which is expected to serve as the south Island office for WestUrban. Parking will be in the form of a single storey of underground stalls, and surface parking.

 

Helmcken Market, a popular grocery node in View Royal, closed in 2021 after nearly 50 years in business.

 

Helmcken Road in the vicinity of the proposal has recently undergone and continues to undergo change. Eagle Creek Village’s first phase, including a Quality Foods grocery store and a retail centre, was completed in 2016 with an office building and a purpose-built rental. Two additional apartments were built through 2019. Meanwhile, further north on Helmcken Road, Boardwalk General Partnership is in the early stages of construction of Aspire, a 234-unit, three-building rental community coming to 3 Helmcken Road at Burnside Road West.

 

WestUrban, meanwhile, is currently building The Blueprint along the southern edge of Victoria General Hospital at 9 Erskine Lane. The project consists of four rental buildings totalling some 330 units. C