3804 replies to this topic

[sdwright.vic]

From my understanding the Shoppers building is almost condemnable.

[grantpalin]

That's kind of sad on 2 fronts: losing the downtown Chapters, and the current Shoppers location likely sitting vacant for years. Council will NEVER allow anything tall to be built on the west side of Douglas.

Agree on the possibility of losing Chapters, one of my downtown attractions. As for the Shoppers building, why wouldn't it just be torn down and something new be built? I can see it being a challenge in such a busy location, but the result would be better than yet another derelict storefront.

[sdwright.vic]

Additional rumor was that Chapter's is going to Uptown from the conversation.

[Nparker]

...As for the Shoppers building, why wouldn't it just be torn down and something new be built? I can see it being a challenge in such a busy location, but the result would be better than yet another derelict storefront.

If I were to put on my prognosticator glasses for a moment, I see this site being held up in the design/approval process for at least a decade after Shoppers leaves - at which point something tragically under scale and unimpressive for a capital city's main drag will be built. Somebody prove me wrong.

[Kapten Kapsell]

Chapters / Indigo may be one of the large format retailers moving into the expanded Mayfair Mall?

[Nparker]

Chapters / Indigo may be one of the large format retailers moving into the expanded Mayfair Mall?

That sounds reasonable.

[RFS]

Smart move on chapters part getting out of downtown. It was only a matter of time. Downtown under our current leadership is not friendly to business. Crime and drug use to not put families in the shopping mood!

[Bingo]

Chapters / Indigo may be one of the large format retailers moving into the expanded Mayfair Mall?

It isn't built, so some vacant space at Uptown is more logical

[Nparker]

It isn't built, so some vacant space at Uptown is more logical

That entirely depends on when Chapters' lease downtown expires. How much large, grade-level accessed retail space remains at Uptown anyway?

[G-Man]

The Shoppers site had a pretty tall building on it in the early 1900s if I recall. I am sure Aastra is aware of it...

[Nparker]

The Shoppers site had a pretty tall building on it in the early 1900s if I recall. I am sure Aastra is aware of it...

Well we can't have Victoria reflect the way things actually were in the past, only the way we THINK they were in the past.

[Bingo]

The Shoppers site had a pretty tall building on it in the early 1900s if I recall. I am sure Aastra is aware of it...

 

It's over on the long gone greats thread, a least it was a minute ago. 

[Jackerbie]

So that would leave and empty Shoppers and a (mostly? wholly?) empty A&B Sound. This block of Yates, on both sides, has always felt jarring compares to what's east and west.

[aastra]

Love to see maybe 10 stories there, integrating (but not in any way resembling) the bank building on the corner. Some decent and proper "downtown" cladding on the lower floors. Nice terra cotta or something. A lowrise face and parking entrance on the Yates side. Maybe integrate A&B sound, too, but spiff it up back to its former glory, as I mentioned in another thread.

[johnk]

Smart move on chapters part getting out of downtown. It was only a matter of time. Downtown under our current leadership is not friendly to business. Crime and drug use to not put families in the shopping mood!

People want to get off the bus and enter the store without having to navigate the panhandlers and their dogs. If they wont go away then the store will.

[jonny]

Not sure where to put this response. I know the Mayfair thread isn't appropriate.

 

Nparker, you're acting like NIMBYs are only a Victoria phenomenon. They are everywhere. New York. Toronto. Vancouver. Montreal.

 

It's not the city's fault Bayview, Townline and Dockside Green have totally screwed the pooch. That's, what, like Victoria's 2 or 3 tallest proposals and thousands of potential units sitting idle for however long? Yes, there are challenges, but I say, let's give some credit where credit is due. This is some boom that's going on right now (bigger than pre-2008) despite all those supposed roadblocks to development.

 

Panic doesn't set in here whenever anything over four stories is proposed. Many of our tallest buildings ever are either under construction or have approved zoning. What I don't understand is how these projects can sit idle with such an obvious shortage of housing in this region.

 

I was only referring to the City of Victoria, especially the areas directly affected by NIMBY neighbourhood associations, certain SJW council members, and of course architectural know-it-all, Pam Madoff.

• Roundhouse is off the ground? Time will tell if the high-rises planned for this site come to pass without a fight.
• Era was a hole in the ground for over a decade until a suitable design could be agreed upon.
• How many failed proposals were there for the Crystal Court motel site? The final design being the least appealing of all.
• The "dumbing down" of the Customs House designs?
• The James Bay pyramid?
• I can't even begin to imagine the controversy that will surround the first official designs for the Empress condos

And lastly, if the Northern Junk project breaks ground in the next year (or so) without another round of Madoff-Hallmark fisticuffs I will be very surprised.

 

So yes, I think I have been given good reason over the years to feel that Victoria throws up a lot of roadblocks to development.

[Nparker]

...Panic doesn't set in here whenever anything over four stories is proposed...

It does far more often than it should - which is never.

[Mike K.]

Of course, the other way of looking at it is, why build now, when in ten years the land could very well be worth significantly more and yield significantly more profit when developed?

Dockside Green is actually well ahead of where it would have been financially had the project been built out. We've gone from $400 to $600 per square foot in a matter of ten years. Imagine where we'll be in 2025.

[Nparker]

...why build now, when in ten years the land could very well be worth significantly more and yield significantly more profit when developed?

So why ever develop anything then? In 50 years the land could be worth exponentially more.

[Bingo]

I think with the present number of construction cranes in the city, development is proceeding at a healthy pace.

We need to let that play out, as the combined value of those projects to the community is of greater value than a mismanaged sewage debacle that will burden the community for decades.