Downtown Victoria's 104-year-old Belmont Building on Humboldt Street across from The Empress Hotel will soon undergo another phase of exterior restoration work.

Building owner Jawl Properties plans to meticulously restore cornice and terracotta features adorning the eight-storey office and ground floor commercial building, a process that company representative Robert Jawl says will be a laborious effort.

"It's specialized work, it's quite detailed and time-consuming. We need to be pro-active with the maintenance of a heritage building and what we do now will allow it to hopefully last another one hundred years," said Jawl.

Phasing the restoration over several winter seasons in lieu of a single restorative effort is a strategy to minimize the impact on the building's ground floor tenants, most notably Pescatores Seafood & Grill and Sam's Deli.

"We're trying to do the work in a manner that minimizes interruptions to our tenants and we're trying to keep the work as much as possible to the cooler months when the patios along the street are less busy," Jawl said, adding that once the upcoming restoration phase is completed later this year a final fourth phase may commence next year.

The Belmont Building was built in 1912 and is comprised of 76,600 square feet of office space with ground floor retail frontages. The eight-storey heritage landmark is one of several old-stock Victoria buildings undergoing heritage restoration such as The Empress Hotel and the adjacent Union Club building. C

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