A proposal that could deliver Victoria’s tallest building has been revealed by Vancouver-based developers Reliance Properties and Crosstown Properties for 1520 Blanshard Street in the city’s downtown core.

 

 

The project, named One Victoria Place, calls for a 35-storey massing on the northern portion of the roughly one-acre property, with two lowrise podiums flanking the tower down Cormorant Street to the west, and along the Blanshard Street frontage to the south towards Pandora Avenue.

 

Uses include 321 residential units with approximately one-third of homes “family-sized,” at-grade commercial units and co-working offices, while podium roofs will have exterior amenity areas, in addition to interior amenity provisions.

 

Reliance believes the 1520 Blanshard Street development parcel, currently home to a three-storey office complex, is “uniquely suited to a tall building,” and cites the location as “at a critical jog in the city grid between Pandora [Avenue] and Cormorant [Street].”

 

A rendering of One Victoria Place, looking north from Pandora Avenue towards Cormorant Street at Blanshard Street.  Reliance Properties/Crosstown Properties/Office of McFarlane Biggar

 

Architecturally, the design from Vancouver-based architectural firm Office of McFarlane Biggar Architects + Designers evokes brutalist cues that appear to draw from the CIBC tower on View and Douglas streets and other notable downtown landmarks, that is described by Reliance as “a contemporary interpretation of Victoria’s rich history, culture and environment that will have lasting significance for Victoria’s skyline and in the city’s cultural fabric.”

 

In exchange for One Victoria Place’s municipal approval, the proponent has offered what is described as a “cash contribution to support a non-profit organization’s off‑site building acquisition for permanent artist studios use,” largely rumoured to be related to an art-deco office building at 780 Blanshard Street owned by the same developer, along with a public event space “with seating to support local events, story telling, performance, projections, and more, contributing to the day-to-day vitality of residents and visitors to the site.”

 

The project’s public realm will include a public plaza and a podium design that draws the public through the building and in to its future commercial services.

 

 

A public open house is scheduled for January 27th between 5PM and 7PM at 2100 Douglas Street in the Thomas Birch Warehouse (between Pembroke Street and Princess Avenue). Members of the community are encouraged to visit the open house to ask questions of the development team, and to learn more about the proposal. View the One Victoria Place website here.

 

Occupied by the BC Ministry of Forests, the 1520 Blanshard Street office building sits above an underground parkade fronting Blanshard Street, and includes a sunken public plaza along the west perimeter of the parcel, between Pandora Avenue and Cormorant Street.

 

If approved at a height of 35 storeys, Reliance’s tower would be in the running to become the tallest building on Vancouver Island, depending on the pipeline of tall proposals and their potential for moving from approvals to occupancy. Today, the Island’s tallest building is developer Townline’s 25-storey Hudson Place One condominium standing two blocks north of the Reliance proposal, on Herald Street off Blanshard Street.

 

Elsewhere in downtown Victoria, Toronto-based Starlight Developments has secured approvals for a 32-storey residential massing as the third phase of redevelopment of Harris Green Village in the 900-block of Yates Street. The latter may not proceed to construction until the 2030s, however, until phases one and two are built.

 

On the West Shore, developer Onni Group is pursuing plans for two 33-storey towers at Colwood Corners, while not far away in Langford-proper, tentative approvals have been granted for towers into the mid-to-high 20-storey range.

 

A rendering of a future public plaza, with frontage onto Pandora Avenue, and viewed from One Victoria Place. Reliance Properties/Crosstown Properties/Office of McFarlane Biggar

 

As far as tall building history on the Island is concerned, a 26-storey condominium constructed in the mid-1990s in Nanaimo stood as the Island’s tallest building until it was surpassed by downtown Victoria’s Hudson Place One in 2020. Prior to the Nanaimo project, a 22-storey tower in James bay held the title for three decades. The tallest proposal to ever surface in downtown was at a height of 38 storeys, and stems several decades back. In Langford, proposals from the early 2000s breached the 40-storey mark.

 

 

Reliance Properties, meanwhile, is among the most active real-estate development firms in the Capital Region, with multiple projects focused on Victoria, and a partnership stake at Colwood’s oceanfront Beachlands community adjacent to the Royal Bay development on Metchosin Road.

 

Reliance also has approvals for a residential project along Dallas Road and a residential project on Wharf Street at Johnson Street. The company is anticipating a verdict this year on its large-scale redevelopment plans for the Capital Iron lands in north downtown.

 

An aerial view of One Victoria Place's massing, relative to the built environment in the vicinity of Pandora Avenue and Blanshard Street.  Reliance Properties/Crosstown Properties/Office of McFarlane Biggar

 

A concept for a mixed-use residential/hotel tower at 780 Blanshard Street that incorporates the restoration of an art-deco office building into hotel rooms and a new-build highrise residential tower above remains before the City. The latter, though, is pending the outcome of a fresh deal that could see the 780 Blanshard Street property change hands in support of local arts groups, as per the mention earlier in this article in regards to One Victoria Place. Lastly, in 2016 Reliance completed a heritage restoration of the Janion Hotel into micro-condominiums, and a new-build residential addition fronting the Upper Harbour. C

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