Victoria council has approved a 23-storey rental tower for 937 View Street in Harris Green, a parcel currently serving as a surface parking lot between View Towers at Quadra Street and a purpose-built rental block under construction at Vancouver Street.

 

The 265-unit pet-friendly project from Vancouver-based Nelson Investments will be the first residential tower in downtown Victoria with no on-site parking, in alignment with Council’s goal of encouraging car-free residential buildings. All homes will be fully electrified with no natural gas connections in suites, and significant indoor and outdoor amenity spaces will be available to residents.

 

Amenities are planned as rooftops on the 6th level with a dog run, and a spacious 23rd floor common area featuring indoor and outdoor uses. The building’s entrance lobby, meanwhile, will present similar to an expansive hotel ground floor, encouraging residents and their visitors to mingle in lounges, co-working spaces and street-front seating overlooking a future public plaza between View and Yates streets. A short-term rentable suite will be available to guests of residents.

 

Layouts will range from studio homes to three-bedroom residences, numbering 32 as studios, 216 as one-bedroom, one two-bedroom, and 16 three-bedroom.

 

Cycling infrastructure will provide ample storage room for residents as part of an avant-garde bicycle parking area, plus some 80 storage lockers available to residents. A Modo car-share for two electric vehicles is envisioned along the tower’s View Street frontage.

 

At 265 units, 937 View Street will rise as the highest-density residential tower in the City built since View Street's View Towers rose in the 1960s (at over 300 units), pushing well above the 245 units delivered as part of the final phase of developer Townline's Hudson House tower at the Hudson District (on Blanshard Street between Fisgard and Herald streets).

 

Vocal support at the hearing, and through pre-recorded messages submitted prior to the hearing, was unanimously in support. Council heard from first responders, downtown business owners, residents and students.

 

Council voted 7-2 in support of the proposal, and championed the project as a much needed rental infusion for downtown Victoria and the region.

 

"We hear complaints about only serving the high-end of the housing spectrum, and here we are, we've got some new homes more at the entry-end of the new home spectrum, and they're much needed," said Councillor Dave Thompson, adding that "it's not our business to be telling people they can't live somewhere, just because our preference would be different for the type of housing we'd like to have."

 

Councillor Chris Coleman said that while he has a concern about no-parking towers, it's not an issue for the developer to solve.

 

"[No on-site parking] is not the applicant's weight to wear, that's our planning. I have to take that concern that I have off the table, and say, what is before us, is it supportable?" Coleman asked. "When we were young, perhaps we lived in suites not much bigger, perhaps a little smaller, than what's here. I think moving this forward makes sense."

 

Councillor Krista Loughton considered the application as "a project that could potentially be multi-generational affordable rental housing."

 

"I'm quite blown away by the thoughtful design considerations and the use of space," Loughton added, and also thanked the applicant for their dedication to the project despite its lengthy planning process.

 

Mayor Alto said small spaces may not be desirable for all, but will be desirable for many.

 

"This is an unusual design in the sense that for people of a certain generation it does seem hard to imagine living happily in a space that size," Alto said. "But I can tell you my 25-year-old son and his peers would do anything to live in a space like that."

 

Councillors Susan Kim, Matt Dell and Jeremy Caradonna also sided with their peers above. Councillors Stephen Hammond and Marg Gardiner voted against the project. 

 

Redevelopment of the 937 View Street surface parking lot was initially proposed in 2016. Nelson Investments spent nearly a decade in planning with the City and pre-submission design work for a high density rental tower on the land. The company’s many design iterations between 2016 and 2023 themselves followed multiple concepts pitched for 937 View Street and 930 Fort Street collectively in the late 2000s and into the early 2010s. 

 

The former joint block-wide designs, which proposed a highrise component along View Street and a lowrise wing along Fort Street, were rejected by the City, ultimately resulting in the sale of 937 View Street to Nelson Investments in 2014. A stand-alone proposal for 930 Fort Street was subsequently approved by the City as a 13-storey strata-titled residential tower. Those plans failed to proceed to construction and the land is listed for sale.

 

 

Nelson anticipates construction to begin in 2025, with completion estimated for 2027. The amenity package will be ratified with the City following input from staff on animating spaces with specific uses, along with a potential for providing resident amenity space on the mechanical penthouse roof.

 

The tower will rise as one of several earmarked for the immediate area, including 32, 29 and 28-storey rental highrises approved immediately to the north as part of Starlight Developments’ Harris Green Village project between Quadra, Vancouver, View and Yates streets. C

 

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