A rendering depicts plans for redevelopment of North Jubilee's once-iconic Turner Building on Richmond Road at Birch Street in Victoria, also known as the Ian's Coffee Stop building. Cascadia Architects/Empresa Properties
New visuals reveal plans for once-iconic 'Ian's Coffee Stop/Turner Building's redevelopment
Mike Kozakowski, Citified.ca
Published August 16, 2023
A new redevelopment proposal for Richmond Road’s once-iconic ‘Ian’s Coffee Stop building,’ reported on by Citified in April of this year, has dropped its first public visuals of what’s in planning by developer Empresa Properties and architectural firm Cascadia Architects.
Known officially as the Turner Building and formerly home to a local haunt called Ian’s Coffee Stop, the two-storey vacant commercial block at 2002-2010 Richmond Road together with adjacent parcels at 1909 Birch Street and 1769 Pembroke Street will be acquired by Empresa from a group of local businesspeople, pending a successful rezoning and development permit approval for a mixed-use rental and retail project.
Along with a release of renderings, Cascadia penned a description of its work via Instagram, and hinted at a public realm component alongside the new-build on Birch Street:
“Our design team’s vision for this application is to create a project that renews that neighbourhood center as a visual landmark for the area, together with an improved urban environment that explicitly welcomes people by providing generous and attractive public realm amenities.
“In keeping with this vision, the building is proposed to include animated ground floor uses such as a café and restaurant, as well as 55 purpose-built rental residential homes on 5 floors above the ground level.
“The project also proposes to create a significant community amenity in partnership with the City of Victoria, by closing the intersection of Richmond Road and Birch Street to create a public plaza that will extend and amplify the positive pedestrian-oriented activity created by the ground floor commercial spaces.”
Constructed in the 1940's, the Turner has for generations stood as Victoria’s version of the "flatiron" form, albeit mostly the product of an optical illusion thanks to a curved frontage, on a triangle-shaped lot north of Fort Street at Richmond Road. It was vacated two decades-ago.
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| A rendering of the Turner Building planned for Richmond Road at Birch Street in Victoria's North Jubilee neighbourhood. Cascadia Architects/Empresa Properties |
Empresa’s new concept is a departure from a 2016 application that featured a five-storey retail and office complex at the site of the Turner Building, and an adjacent four-storey residential block on Pembroke Street at Birch Street.
Developers under the banner of Island Cardiology Holdings purchased the lands in 2013 with plans to build on the Turner’s facade and add several floors of medical offices above. The vision had culminated in a design proposed for rezoning under the guidance of architect and former City of Victoria mayor Alan Lowe.
In Spring of last year, the assembly was offered for sale at an asking price of just under $4.4 million, comprising of three parcels totalling some 17,000 square feet. The listing was taken down shortly thereafter.
To Empresa’s plans, the company has retained Greg Damant and Peter Johannknecht of Cascadia Architects to “reimagine the site,” Robertson told Citified last spring, “while paying homage to the existing space.”
“The site has been lifeless and left to decay for well over a decade after what was such a special meeting place in the community,” Robertson said.
Empresa, meanwhile, completed a four-storey rental complex last year in downtown Sidney, known as Cortile Verde. The company is currently building a five-storey apartment in Victoria’s Fairfield neighbourhood at 1120 Burdett Avenue, which secured approvals in the fall of 2021 and got underway last year. C
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