One of the largest unions in British Columbia has partnered with one of the Capital’s most diversified real-estate development firms on a proposal to deliver rental homes, offices, a daycare and commercial space to a former automotive lot on the edge of downtown Victoria, Citified has learned.

 

 

Jawl Properties, with development partner BC General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) and its housing subsidiary Affordable BC Housing Society (not to be confused with the provincial BC Housing organization), have submitted plans to the City of Victoria for a 21-storey rental tower (and a five-storey wing) that include a mix of 177 market, below-market and accessible rental units, 32,000 square feet of office space for use by the BCGEU, a childcare facility with capacity for 37 children, and a restaurant space on Cook Street at View Street.

 

The tower and its accompanying lowrise, envisioned by Victoria-based DAU Studio, are described by the proponents as “designed to prioritize material quality, durability and active street frontages. The architectural expression is based on contextually integrated building forms, visual interest and human scale,” with sustainability features which include a pursuit of Emissions Level 4 of the Zero Carbon Step Code, and Step 3 of the BC Energy Step Code. The redevelopment will also do away with the last automotive dealership lot on the eastern edge of Victoria' downtown, once dominated by Mazda, Chrysler and (most recently) Volvo automobile sales.

 

Parking will be in the form of an underground parkade, with 106 stalls for residents and 14 visitor stalls. A further 61 stalls will be available for BCGEU use, six allocated to the proposed restaurant and four for the daycare.

 

An artist's rendering, looking southeast down Cook Street from Yates Street.  DAU Studio

 

The union’s new office space will represent a consolidation of its south Island operations, focused on Victoria’s city centre in lieu of offices further from the downtown core. The BCGEU is currently locally headquarters on upper Douglas Street in the 2900-block, near Finlayson Street.

 

At 21 storeys, the BCGEU Tower will stand at heights shorter than its immediate peers, according to submitted plans. Currently underway at 25 storeys on the former site of the Pacific Mazda dealership at the northwest corner of Cook and Yates streets is Chard Development’s 1050 Yates project. The massing will also land below that of a 21-storey tower also under construction, as the first phase of Starlight Developments’ Harris Green Village mega-project on the former Harris automotive lands, immediately west of the proposal between the 1000-blocks of Yates and View streets.

 

 

Jawl Properties purchased the Volvo site in 2022 for a reported $13.5 million. The company is currently involved in the planning for an approved 10-storey office complex at the Capital 6 theatre site, and in 2018, Jawl completed construction of a 13-storey office tower along the 700-block of Pandora Avenue, along with a six-storey sibling fronting the 1500-block of Douglas Street. Also in planning is a six-storey rental block along the 1000-block of Fort Street. C

 

© Copyright 2025 by Citified.ca. All rights reserved.