A nine-storey purpose-built rental complex with ground floor retail space has been proposed for the 1000-block of Fort Street between Vancouver and Cook streets, Citified has learned.

 

Victoria-based NVision Properties has approached the City of Victoria with plans to situate 53-units of rental housing, 10 of which will be earmarked as below-market affordable homes, with a single level of commercial space at 1010 Fort Street. The project will replace a single-storey building most recently used as a real-estate sales showroom.

 

The unit make-up will consist of studio and one-bedroom plus den apartments, and two-bedroom suites. The ground floor retail component will total just over 1,000 square feet.

 

Two unique aspects of the project centre around its lack of on-site parking, a situation in response to the site’s geotechnical conditions and made tenable by the building’s location alongside Victoria’s Fort Street bi-directional separated cycling lane.

 

In lieu of traditional woodframe or concrete construction, NVision Properties is pursuing a new-to-Victoria pre-fabricated steel frame method that project architect, W. Neil Roberts of Vancouver-based Stuart Howard Architects, says will offer "significant sustainability benefits by way of a reduced construction period, which limits the dust, noise and light impact on adjacent properties." Robertson also points out that such steel modules could be delivered during non-peak hours thereby reducing the impact on road traffic and pedestrians.

 

Pending municipal approvals, the project could get underway by next year with completion pegged for 2020 or 2021. C