The six-storey project is replacing a 45-unit complex with nearly 140 rental suites (a net gain of 92 homes) in one-bedroom-through-three-bedroom layouts, and is expected to reach occupancy in 2025.

 

While the development proposal was making its way through the planning process in the fall of 2021, the original Village Green dating back to the 1960s was damaged by fire that started in a second-storey unit, several months before council would send the concept to a public hearing, and eventually unanimously approve redevelopment. Council also ratified an agreement to permit a group of former Village Green tenants to return to the completed new-build at 20% below-market rents.

 

Developer Primex Investments is currently in the excavation and drilling phase at the site encompassing 110 Menzies Street, 436-456 Niagara Street. The design calls for a four and six-storey massing.

 

Meanwhile, the company is full steam ahead at its heritage restoration of Hillside Avenue’s and Douglas Street’s Scott Building office block, that will transform the Scott Building into modern commercial spaces and rental residences above, along with a new-build addition on a former surface parking lot next door. Work has also begun on Primex’s redevelopment of the Wellburn’s Market property on upper Pandora Avenue into mixed-use rental apartments and ground floor commercial spaces.

 

Elsewhere in James Bay, Victoria council recently rejected a proposal from developer Mike Geric Construction to build a highrise condominium tower along the 200-block of Quebec Street at Montreal and Kingston streets. Council suggested the applicant pursue a shorter massing in lieu of what became a contentious 17-storey height. C