Downtown Victoria’s largest-ever single-phased residential project will deliver nearly 530 rental residences atop ground floor retail spaces by 2028, according to Harris Green Village developer Starlight.

 

 

The first phase of an ambitious three-phase redevelopment spanning the 900 and 1000 blocks of Yates and View streets between Quadra and Cook streets, will get underway either this fall or by early winter of 2025, with two towers of 20 and 21 storeys atop a five-storey podium on land formerly home to a Harris automotive dealership.

 

526 one-through-three-bedroom apartment suites plus townhomes will be built under phase one, 80 of which will be priced below-market, along the 1000-block of Yates Street at Cook Street. It is anticipated that Yates Street’s Market on Yates grocery store, currently located at the intersection of Quadra Street, will relocate to Harris Green Village’s first phase.

 

The subsequent two phases of Harris Green Village will redevelop the actual (current) Harris Green Village retail strip mall along the 900-block of Yates Street between Vancouver and Quadra streets, with an additional 1,000 to 1,100 residential units in towers of up to 32 storeys. Construction is not expected to begin until after phase one at Cook Street completes. Build-out is not expected until the mid-to-late 2030s, pending market conditions.

 

A rendering of Harris Green Village, phase one, as viewed from Cook Street between Yates and View streets. The first phase of the project will deliver nearly 530 residences along with ground floor retail spaces. Phases two and three will be built along the 900-block of Yates Street.  Starlight Developments

 

Phase one’s 526 rental units represent the largest infusion of housing into downtown Victoria under the auspices of one construction site. Collectively with a two-tower redevelopment across the street by Chard Development on land formerly occupied by a Mazda automotive dealership, nearly 1,000 purpose-built rental units will be added to the city centre between the 1000 blocks of View and Johnson streets, at Cook Street.

 

 

Chard is in the early stages of construction of its 1050 Yates project, with towers of 15 and 25 storeys. That’s in addition to the developer's recently completed Haven and Nest condominiums immediately to the east, along the 1100 blocks of Johnson and Yates streets, that delivered over 200 homes this year to downtown Victoria’s border with the Fernwood neighbourhood.

 

Starlight’s journey towards construction of Harris Green Village, meanwhile, follows an about-face approval in February of 2023 after several years of municipal planning, when council added last-minute conditions alongside its green-lighting of Starlight’s concept.

 

The company found itself with council’s blessing, albeit with an unexpected requirement to reduce its on-site parking supply well below the proposed threshold already factored into a financial pro-forma. Facing a restriction that undermined projected revenues, Starlight would return to council two months later arguing that parking maximums should correspond to bylaws applicable to all developers, and not be mandated by elected officials on a project-by-project basis. Council would ultimately side with Starlight. Phase one includes approximately 270 parking stalls. The final supply of parking in phases two and three is to be determined.

 

 

Following the 2022 relocation of Harris Victoria Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram from its long-time location at Cook and Yates streets to the City of Langford, Starlight’s development site for Harris Green Village’s phase one has sat vacant, and ready for work crews to begin the process of ground preparation ahead of construction. C

 

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