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.

 

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.