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PROPOSED
550 Pandora Avenue
Uses: rental, commercial
Address: 550 Pandora Avenue
Municipality: Victoria
Region: Downtown Victoria
Storeys: 5
550 Pandora Avenue is a proposal to redevelopment a single storey commercial building into a five-storey mixed... (view full profile)
Learn more about 550 Pandora Avenue on Citified.ca
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[Chinatown] 550-558 Pandora Avenue | Residential, retail | Lowrise | Proposed


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#1 Citified.ca

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Posted 05 April 2018 - 07:42 AM

Thanks, Grant, for the heads-up!

 

Pandora-Ave.-retail-strip-home-to-Habit-Coffee;-Mo-Le-Restaurant-slated-for-redevelopment.jpg

A single-storey commercial building along the 500-block of Pandora Avenue could be replaced to make way for a lowrise residential and retail project. The existing single-storey building is home to Mo:Le Restaurant, the original location of Habit Coffee, Cafe Bliss, Cavity Curiosity Shop and The Vorpal Gnome. 

 

Pandora Ave. retail strip home to Habit Coffee; Mo:Le Restaurant slated for redevelopment

https://victoria.cit...-redevelopment/


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#2 Nparker

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Posted 05 April 2018 - 07:45 AM

Perhaps the posts from the other thread could be moved here?



#3 Kapten Kapsell

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Posted 05 April 2018 - 08:55 AM

Does anyone know how old the existing structure is...?



#4 aastra

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Posted 05 April 2018 - 09:06 AM

It's hard to see in these late 1940s/early 1950s shots:
http://vintageairpho...com/bo-47-1451/
http://vintageairphotos.com/1-66/



#5 aastra

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Posted 05 April 2018 - 09:16 AM

That Reddit thread is frustrating. Victorians generally don't give a crap about anything, but they want to get in a stew about this building?

 

It has decent storefronts (which a new building should be able & required to do as well or better), and it has some funky character (which cannot be replaced), but seriously, come on. So many legitimate treasures have been lost over the decades and some are on the chopping block as we speak, and so we fret about this place.


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#6 Mike K.

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Posted 05 April 2018 - 09:18 AM

It's more-so directed at the potential loss of Cavity and Volpar Gnome (the latter I had never heard of prior to this proposal coming forward). The undertones in that discussion have more or less devolved into yuppies destroying Victoria, condos = bad, etc.

 

MoLe, Habitat and Cafe Bliss are likely to re-establish themselves within the new building.


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#7 Rob Randall

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Posted 05 April 2018 - 09:23 AM

The only negative is the destruction of an Old Town commercial incubator, a low-rent space for start-ups and quirky retail. There are other places to relocate but increasingly they are on the outer fringes of town. There are good and bad aspects to gentrification. I liked the fringe flavor of those units even though the building itself is underdeveloped and unremarkable.


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#8 jonny

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Posted 05 April 2018 - 09:39 AM

A couple of remarkable businesses in a completely unremarkable building.

 

Replacing this building with housing and a new commercial space, combined with pushing the "incubator" businesses north, would be a good thing for Victoria, overall. 


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#9 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 05 April 2018 - 09:41 AM

Never heard of these places before.


<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#10 Jackerbie

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Posted 05 April 2018 - 10:11 AM

Never heard of these places before.

 

Didn't take you for a punk rock Dungeons and Dragons type, so I'm not surprised  ;)


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#11 Nparker

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Posted 05 April 2018 - 10:19 AM

Never heard of these places before.

Not even Mo:Lé?



#12 magmazing

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Posted 05 April 2018 - 10:33 AM

I love how the photo used is from the pre-bikelanes era.



#13 aastra

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Posted 05 April 2018 - 10:48 AM

 

The only negative is the destruction of an Old Town commercial incubator, a low-rent space for start-ups and quirky retail. There are other places to relocate but increasingly they are on the outer fringes of town. There are good and bad aspects to gentrification. I liked the fringe flavor of those units even though the building itself is underdeveloped and unremarkable.

 

"Getting the funk out of town". The Johnson St. side of the Duck's Block project will be doing more of the same. You can't build brand new funk, it's true. But, like jonny says, you can redistribute the businesses to other funky spaces. As long as such spaces still exist somewhere.

 

It's funny, if Centennial Square had never happened there would be a lifetime's worth of funky spaces sitting right there. In the 1960s it was all just so much despicable blight, but if it had been left to ripen for another 50 years it would be funky/quirky anti-gentrification medicine today.


Edited by aastra, 05 April 2018 - 10:48 AM.


#14 aastra

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Posted 05 April 2018 - 10:49 AM

Any truth to the rumour that funky old buildings are being demolished for bike lanes?


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#15 Rob Randall

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Posted 05 April 2018 - 11:12 AM

^Yes, but in order to conform to Chinatown heritage guidelines the alleyway bike lanes will only be 18" wide.



#16 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 05 April 2018 - 11:14 AM

Come see North America’s smallest bike lanes!
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#17 Nparker

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Posted 05 April 2018 - 12:01 PM

I love how the photo used is from the pre-bike lanes era.

Someone needs to get in touch with Google and tell them their CoV images need updating. I can't imagine they have any other priorities at the moment.  :unsure:



#18 Cassidy

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Posted 05 April 2018 - 12:28 PM

I quite like these little islands of old, funky buildings. This top half of this Pandora block works well just as it is, and these little business fit just perfectly.

I'm not looking for ultra new, super clean and hip-modern when i pop into Habit for a cup of coffee.

 

Tearing every old Victoria building down in order to replace it with a faux "old-town" construct will only result in the entire city looking like the Uptown Mall ... a facility that often creeps me out, as it reminds me of the ultra phony town of Seahaven in Jim Carrey's - "The Truman Show".



#19 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 05 April 2018 - 12:30 PM

^ that’s a perfect description!
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#20 Jackerbie

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Posted 05 April 2018 - 12:42 PM

Tearing every old Victoria building down in order to replace it with a faux "old-town" construct will only result in the entire city looking like the Uptown Mall ... a facility that often creeps me out, as it reminds me of the ultra phony town of Seahaven in Jim Carrey's - "The Truman Show".

 

Seahaven is a real town, but it's called Seaside and is in Florida. There are a bunch of these faux-heritage "New Urban" towns and developments around the US and Canada, with Seaside, FL and Celebration, FL being the most well known. Better for your sanity if you stay away from them, it seems!



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