1722 replies to this topic

[ressen]

[Mike K.]

Nice!

Thanks for sharing that, ressen!

[Mike K.]

Colwood megaproject faces test
Council decides Monday whether $1-billion redevelopment will go to a public hearing

BY BILL CLEVERLEY Times Colonist staff

Colwood council will decide Monday night whether to send a proposed $1-billion redevelopment of Colwood Corners to public hearing.

Les Bjola, president of Turner Lane Developments is proposing a staggering mix of commercial and residential buildings that would carve a new downtown centre in the heart of the West Shore.

When ultimately built out, there would be 3.2 million square feet of floor space on 5.6 hectares.

The project would include 11 buildings of heights ranging from 12 to 27 storeys, a 100-plus-room four-star hotel, 2,782 living units, 200 commercial units and about 400,000 square feet of commercial and office space to be phased in over about 15 years.

In December, Bjola had proposed eight buildings of up to 29 storeys including a hotel and office tower on the Colwood Plaza site bounded by Sooke Road, Jerome Road and Colwood Crescent.

The project has grown since he acquired the adjacent London Drugs property.

He’s now proposing seven condominium buildings, the tallest of which would be 27 storeys. Two would be 22 storeys, two 18 storeys, one 16 storeys and one 14 storeys.

Two assisted-living buildings would be 16 and 12 storeys tall and office and two commercial buildings 16 and 12 storeys respectively. Five two-storey retail buildings are also in the mix.

Bjola needs rezonings and a change in the Official Community Plan — the city’s long-range planning document — to lift the six-storey height limit in order for the project to proceed.

Mayor Jody Twa said, to date, community reaction has been “incredibly positive” especially considering what is the site houses now includes “a dead grocery store with an underutilized mall.”

Bjola is offering the municipality amenities he estimates are worth $19.5 million. Among them are :

• $2.5 million for a new firehall at Colwood Corners • $50,000 for firefighter training • A 10,000-square-foot indoor play area ($1.65 million)

• A 20,000-square foot arts and culture centre (estimated appraised value $10 million).

• Provision of six co-op cars (one per each residential building) and two rideshare vans for the project as a whole ($250,000);

• Provision of six handicapped-accessible condo units ($250,000 each) to be given to the city;

• Installation of services on Sooke Road from Colwood Crescent north to the Galloping Goose Trail ($1 million);

• Dedication of a five-metre wide strip along Sooke Road and a fully signalized intersection at Sooke Road and Colwood Crescent ($1 million).

• Extension of Goldstream Road through the site ($1 million) and reconstruction of the Belmont Road bridge ($600,000)

The development would be pedestrianfriendly, but would require road realignments.

It would have two levels of underground parking, rooftop gardens, green buildings using solar power and wind energy, and underground utilities.

Bjola is asking for a five-year tax holiday on the hotel and for a property-tax freeze at current rates, to be increased as occupancy permits are granted.

While the planning and zoning committee is recommending the bylaws be drawn, approval is anything but a sure thing.

Both Twa and planning and zoning committee chairman Coun. David Saunders have had to excuse themselves from voting on the project because of potential conflicts of interest.

Coun. Jason Nault and Coun. Cynthia Day have already expressed reluctance to stretch the Official Community Plan as far as is being requested.

In December, Nault suggested postponing consideration until the municipality’s OCP review is completed. He called the project “the Official Community Plan on steroids.”

[Mike K.]

Colwood project clears hurdle but prospects remain cloudy

BY BILL CLEVERLEY Times Colonist staff

A massive $1-billion redevelopment of Colwood Corners passed a hurdle yesterday but its chances of being approved seem remote.

Colwood councillors directed staff to prepare the bylaws for first reading but won’t decide whether to send it to public hearing until a special meeting Feb. 21.

Les Bjola, president of Turner Lane Developments is proposing a staggering mix of commercial and residential buildings that would carve a new downtown centre in the heart of the West Shore.

When ultimately built out, there would be 3.2 million square feet of floor space on 5.6 hectares.

Mayor Jody Twa and Coun. David Saunders have excused themselves from discussions because of potential for conflict of interest.

That means for the proposal to pass to public hearing when it comes up for first reading, it needs four of the remaining five councillors in favour, said chief administrator Chris Pease. “It’s going to make it extremely tough.”

Two of the remaining five councillors expressed doubts about approving the project at this time.

While Coun. Jason Nault called the proposal exciting, he said he couldn’t support it without an integrated traffic plan and a review of the Official Community Plan.

Coun. Cynthia Day also said she couldn’t support it at this time.

“It isn’t a matter of a few of us pretending that the sky is falling. There are some really big issues,” she said.

Bjola said he was disappointed. He added that a delay to review the Official Community Plan, which could take up to two years, would essentially kill the project. “I can’t deal with that,” he said. “It’s going to come back in much of a nothing form. It’s certainly not going to achieve what the city wanted which is a city centre.”

The project would include 11 buildings of heights ranging from 12 to 27 storeys, a 100-plus-room four-star hotel, 2,782 living units, 200 commercial units and about 400,000 square feet of commercial and office space to be phased in over about 15 years.

Bjola is proposing seven condominium buildings, the tallest of which would be 27 storeys. Two would be 22 storeys, two 18 storeys, one 16 storeys and one 14 storeys.

There would be two assisted-living buildings, 16 and 12 storeys, and an office and two commercial buildings, 16 and 12 storeys respectively. Five two-storey retail buildings are also in the mix.

Bjola is offering the municipality amenities he estimates are worth $19.5 million. Among them are :

• $2.5 million for a new firehall at Colwood Corners

it to be, • $50,000 for firefighter training • A 10,000-square-foot indoor play area ($1.65 million)

• A 20,000-square foot arts and culture centre (estimated appraised value $10 million).

• Provision of six co-op cars (one for each residential building) and two rideshare vans for the project as a whole ($250,000);

• Provision of six handicapped-accessible condo units ($250,000 each) to be given to the city;

• Installation of services on Sooke Road from Colwood Crescent north to the Galloping Goose Trail ($1 million);

• Dedication of a five-metre wide strip along Sooke Road and a fully signallized intersection at Sooke Road and Colwood Crescent ($1 million).

• Extension of Goldstream Road through the site ($1 million) and reconstruction of the Belmont Road bridge ($600,000).

[Mike K.]

Councillors won’t rubber-stamp Colwood Corners development plan

BY BILL CLEVERLEY Times Colonist staff

Staring down a $1-billion development is not familiar territory for Colwood councillors Jason Nault and Cynthia Day. Neither plans to blink. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t prepared to compromise.

“The project doesn’t have to stop simply because we couldn’t eat the elephant in one bite,” Day said yesterday.

“I don’t want to stand in the way of business for Colwood Corners but I want to be sure that in trying to promote business, we don’t end up killing business.”

Developer Les Bjola wants to build $1-billion worth of condos, office towers and a hotel — 11 buildings in total up to a height of 29 storeys — on the 5.6hectare Colwood Corners property which is now home to a pub and strip mall. To be completed over the next 15 to 20 years, the area would become home to about 2,800 new residents and essentially give Colwood a downtown core.

Bjola has offered Colwood a $19.5million grab bag of enticements, ranging from a new $2.5-million firehall, to providing co-op cars to building a $10-million arts and cultural centre.

But Nault and Day, who each say aspects of the project have merit, want to see a review of Colwood’s Official Community Plan and have traffic impacts thoroughly examined before it can move ahead.

Bjola says a review of the OCP (which Colwood is about to undertake with Langford) would mean an unacceptable delay of up to two years. That delay would essentially kill the project, he said.

Nault and Day both plan to vote against sending the project to public hearing when it comes to a special council meeting next Wednesday. Their two votes will successfully block it. The project needs four council votes to go to hearing but — because both Mayor Jody Twa and Coun. David Saunders have excused themselves because of potential conflict — Nault’s and Day’s “no” votes will carry the day.

In examining the proposal Monday, Nault commented he’d seen more documentation accompanying an application for a 14-unit townhouse development than what he has seen on the massive rebuilding of Colwood Corners.

It would be premature to give the site a blanket 29-storey height allowance with its inherent density without both extensive public input and an examination of the impact the development would have on traffic, he said yesterday.

“There’s nothing in there about traffic management, which is the biggest scare I’ve got, other than 29-storey buildings when the OCP calls for six,” Nault said.

“To me it’s a choice of: Do we want downtown Vancouver or do we want downtown Nelson, B.C.? It’s that kind of a choice and I think the residents should get more of a chance to comment on that.”

Both Day and Nault said that if time is crucial, they are prepared to look at elements of the proposal in isolation.

“The prospect of having a hotel in the Colwood Corners area has everyone’s attention,” Day said.

“I think it’s important that if the hotel is interested in building in that location, and they want to somehow fast-track that, there is the possibility of somehow looking at just the hotel and zoning for the hotel . . . Give us some details. I don’t think there would be any difficulty bringing that forward.”

Day said an OCP review could take a year or more. Nault said aspects of the OCP review could be fast-tracked. Regardless, he doubts Bjola will abandon the project because of the delay.

“If he’s got a 20-year time frame in completing the entire thing, then putting it off for a half-year so we can finish the OCP review is not going to throw a major kink in it. If he wanted to develop part of it right now, he’s always free to apply for a site-specific zoning,” Nault said.

As it stands, Day said, the changes being sought by Bjola are far too wide in scope to be considered without extensive public input.

She said a staff report in December indicated it would not be unreasonable for council to ask for such things as details of the first phase, an overall site plan, traffic study, illustrations indicating the impact of the height on the proposed project, a study of the micro-climatic effect of the tower and the effect on the Colwood Corners height profile.

“Those are not unusual things for the city to ask for,” she said.

[G-Man]

“To me it’s a choice of: Do we want downtown Vancouver or do we want downtown Nelson, B.C.? It’s that kind of a choice and I think the residents should get more of a chance to comment on that.”

What? Sorry no matter how much Colwood would like to be a small lakeside resource town in the Kootenays with a heritage downtown, it will never happen.

Also the addition of one 29 storey building and few other relatively tall buildings does make Colwood into a world class pacific city.

Colwood is currently an autocentric burb of Victoria, with this desification and perhaps some increased transit they might be able to remove the autocentric bit, but that will be hard. There is no heritage downtown there is no chance of it ever being home to 80 000 plus people in a centralized core. At best it can hope to be a small version of Metrotown Centre or Richmond and by small I mean really small.

So the real question is: Does Colwood want to have an urban centre or does it want to have strip malls?

[Mike K.]

^yup, that's the gist of it.

Although I'm not impressed by Bjola's approach in this case. The man wants a blanket zoning for 11 towers but has no concrete information, according to the media, to provide to council or the community. Shouldn't there be a website with community information and resources? Shouldn't there be at least one detailed plan for one of the buildings? I can't help but feel that he's pushing rezonings so he can sell of individual building sites to other developers over a 20 year period.

Based on the 2006 highrise rezoning frenzy I no longer anticipate developers out there to follow through on their promises. All of these renderings and talks of incredible tax benefits to Colwood equate to nothing but future flipping potential for land owners.

[G-Man]

Sadly I agree.

[Mike K.]

Colwood Corners plan goes to public hearing

BY BILL CLEVERLEY
Times colonist staff

Rezoning Colwood Corners to allow a $1-billion, multiple highrise rebuild will go to public hearing. But it’s a long way away from final approval. Developer Les Bjola wants to build $1-billion worth of condos, office towers and a hotel — 11 buildings in total, up to a height of 29 storeys — on the 5.6-hectare Colwood Corners property now home to a pub and strip mall.

In order to go ahead, the project needs both rezoning, which deals with land use, and an amendment to the Official Community Plan (OCP) to deal with such issues as building height and density.

More than 100 people were in the gallery last night as council narrowly voted to give the zoning bylaws first reading, sending the project to public hearing.

“That’s all we’ve been asking for,” said Bjola. “We’ve been asking for a public hearing to show that we’ve got support.”

Getting an OCP amendment — necessary before final approval is given the zoning bylaws — will be a challenge.

Zoning bylaw approval requires only a simple majority of those sitting, in last night’s case three of four. An OCP amendment will require a two-thirds majority of council — four of the five eligible votes. Only five councillors are eligible because Mayor Jody Twa and Coun. David Saunders have excused themselves due to potential conflict.

Councillors Jason Nault and Cynthia Day have said they will vote against amending the OCP for the project until a rewrite of the entire OCP is completed and traffic impacts are thoroughly examined. Nault was out of town on business last night. Day voted against the rezoning bylaws.

Nault and Day’s negative votes are all that will be needed to reject the proposal at the Official Community Plan stage.

Colwood chief administrator Chris Pease said staff made the decision to present the zoning bylaws separately from the OCP amendment in order to give it a chance of getting to public hearing.

“What the municipality is trying to do is give the public a good chance to hear all the facts to do with the development and for them to make up their own mind in terms of their support or what sort of changes they’d like to see. Then there’s more likelihood that an OCP change might be afforded.”

He said the project would face a second public hearing for an OCP amendment.

Bjola has opened a presentation centre on site and plans a public information meeting March 7 at the Colwood Pentecostal church.

He said support for the project is running more than 90 per cent.

That doesn’t jibe with what Day has been hearing. She said calls to her home are running five to one against. She said there are elements of the project she likes, but there is too much information she doesn’t have.

To be completed over the next 15 to 20 years, the project would become home to about 2,800 new residents and essentially give Colwood a downtown core.

Bjola has offered Colwood $19.5-million in enticements, ranging from a new $2.5-million fire hall, to providing co-op cars to building a $10-million arts and cultural centre.

“There are some very interesting proposals on the table. The arts centre and revitalization all sound really good. I just can’t work with some of the other aspects of the proposal, like 29 storeys over the whole site; 95-per-cent site coverage and, by the way, all of our parking is [supposed to be] underground but 55 per cent is above ground. “I can’t work with those issues,” Day said. Meanwhile, League Assets Corp., a private Canadian investment syndicate, has acknowledged its partnership in the project by sending out a news release stating it has acquired the Colwood Plaza site.

[Mike K.]

Did Bjola just reveal his intentions for his massive Colwood proposal? He talks about his preference for "master developments," and says that if things don't go as well as planned (which is the inevitable Murphy's Law simply kicking in, no?) selling off parcels is an escape route. So our thoughts may be correct: Bjola wants to rezone the swath of land and then find developers interested in building something. That's the name of the game out west, it seems.

And this article also states that Bjola is the development manager for Bear Mountain, not the "developer" per se.

Master developer Les Bjola wants to rebuild the CRD’S West Shore

By Steve Weatherbe
Editor
Mar 02 2007

Decentralized, diffuse Colwood has long identified the intersection of Highway 1A\Sooke Road and Goldstream Avenue as the community’s future heart, with an official community plan that allows buildings there to soar to six storeys.

Now developer Les Bjola, the operations mastermind behind Bear Mountain, has set the community on its heels and the city council at odds.

With a pricetag of $1 billion, Colwood Corners would take 20 years to erect 11 buildings over 14 acres and push way past existing height mimits to 29 storeys.

With two supporters on council absenting themselves from voting because of conflicts of interest, it is far from clear the project will proceed. To get height limits revised, Bjola offers $19.5 million in concessions: a performing arts centre worth $10 million, $2.5 million towards a new fire hall, and a 10,000 sq.-ft. indoor play area.

Bjola started as a realtor assembling land for developers. “I learned by watching them,” he told the Business Examiner in an exclusive interview. Bjola calls himself a master developer—one who develops a property over many phases and years. As such, he must know building codes and the rules for public works such as sewers and roads. But two other skills are more fundamental: first, a “sense of the land, the ability to “see past the forest and past the trees and past the existing buildings to what can work on that piece of land”; second, the ability to go out and raise the money to do it. “That’s 80-85 percent of the job,” he says.

The best part of the job for Bjola is “creating—to see something nobody else sees and put it on paper and make it happen.”

Bjola wryly admits he has lost money on some developments due to the collapse of markets. “You can do everything right and still lose money if the market turn against you, and it has.”

Bjola’s biggest project to date was Bear Mountain. He is the development manager, but has no stake in it financially. The owners are a consortium of professional hockey players.

While the public forecast Bear Mountain’s failure based on its huge scale, Bjola said, “I always knew it would succeed.” Though indeed ambitious, the project was planned in 28 phases with revenues from each phase to pay for the next one. “I planned for a 25-year roll-out and factored in three recessions,” says Bjola. His projections were far too conservative. “We never anticipated the actual demand we got,” he said. “I misread totally the impact of the star power and the power of a Jack Nicklaus golf course.” He now expects the project to be completed in 15 years. “But we’ll slow it down if the market tells us to slow it down.”

What if the market slowed to zero? Then Bear Mountain investors could sell off land, while insisting its buyers follow the master plan. “That is the point doing master developments.”

Bjola says one thing his master plan did not anticipate was Bear Mountain’s disagreements with local First Nations over the disturbance of cultural sites. “Our understanding was that First Nations wouldn’t have and couldn’t have any claims against private lands.” But Bear Mountain found itself facing a whole new set of problems on land it had owned lock, stock and barrel. “It was an educational process to say the least.” Bjola said the matter was working towards resolution with the Esquimalt and Songhees bands but he was not as happy with how things were proceeding with the Tsartlip. Unlike Bear Mountain, Colwood Corners is entirely Bjola’s, though several investors have come along for parts of the ride. He says he knew instantly he wanted the main property when its former owners approached him. As an early member of Colwood’s economic development commission, he knew the location was slated since 1985 as the community’s centre. “Plus it’s right beside the existing bus depot. It’s on all the trunk services. It’s right beside the rec centre, it’s right beside Royal Roads. And it’s right on the designated LRT hub. All those things said, ‘This is the place.’”

The likelihood that other adjoining properties could be purchased meant it was a prospect for a master development like Bear Mountain and he already had the biggest piece. Starting with the big, he says, means the project is secure from the outset: additional acquisitions make it more valuable but the project doesn’t fail if the purchase falls through. “You just work your way along and you don’t ever go out of sequence,” he cautions. “Because then you’re in a position where you’re forced to buy.”

Bjola had no problem finding investors or lenders, because his 24 years in the business had taught him “who would lend on hand and who would lend on old buildings and who would lend on new buildings.” Some who specialize in getting in at the beginning have already sold out, to be replaced by a more cautious breed. “They all made their profits and they’re happy. They’ll be there for the next deal.” Bjola said there were banks who charged low interest and took no risk on one end, and “your extreme high risk lenders who say ‘I want a high interest rate plus I want a bonus,’ and all lenders in between.”

Transportation is “an absolute factor,” for Colwood and the development, Bjola acknowledges, but contends, “all those cars are still going to go by this site; all those people are still going to move out here.” Bjola described himself as “a huge supporter of the LRT,” and added, “It’s the only thing that makes this feasible.” But it works both ways, he says: the LRT is only viable if large residential developments like his and Westhills, further towards Metchosin, are located along its route. BE

[G-Man]

Yup I think you called this one Derf.

[ressen]

[aastra]

Which building in that drawing doesn't belong?

Love this:

...soar to six storeys.

[Holden West]

^Looks like they're having a "buy six get one free Juliet" sale.

[m0nkyman]

Which building in that drawing doesn't belong?

The one that will actually get built.

[aastra]

I actually wrote that myself but then edited it out. Methinks we're on the same page with this one.

Striking glass towers or a gigantic 10-story suburban house...I wonder which one Victorians would choose?

Was the giant 10-story house even included in the earlier version of this illustration? I guess it was cropped out because I don't remember seeing it.

[m0nkyman]

Striking, curvaceous glass towers or a gigantic 10-story suburban house...I wonder which one Victorians would choose?

Aah, that's a different question. I believe that given the choice Victorians would go for the striking glass. The cynic in me believes that a developer looking for a quick buck would throw up the cheap stucco nightmare instead of investing in a quality built glass and steel tower. And a part time city council would fall for the bait and switch.

To refresh our memory, I give you this from page 1 of this very thread:

[Mike K.]

Is the project really comprised of "11 towers" or simply "11 buildings" with a few towers up to 29-storeys. This recent rendering seems to indicate the latter.

Hotel bomb shell dropped


Photo courtesy Les Bjola

By Rudy Haugeneder
Goldstream News Gazette
Mar 14 2007

Two more hotels planned for Colwood Corners redevelopment

The West Shore has exploded into a hotel hotbed.

Up to three major hotels might be squeezed onto the Colwood Corners redevelopment, bringing to six the number of hotels built, under construction, or planned on the West Shore.

Developer Les Bjola made the surprise announcement at a public information hearing last Wednesday for the $1-billion highrise complex he wants to build on the corner of Sooke Road and Goldstream Avenue.

With the international Radisson Hotel and Resort chain already expressing a serious “preliminary” interest in the site, Bjola said he would like to build “two possibly three hotels” on the 11-building megaproject with towers reaching up to 29 storeys.

But nothing, not even a 150-room Radisson Hotel, is possible unless Colwood council rezones the site to allow the hotel, condominium and office complex, he said. Colwood has given first reading to a zoning bylaw allowing the existing 5.6 hectare strip mall to be redeveloped.

Until rezoning is complete, Bjola said the hotel chain won’t fully commit itself.

A hotel will be among the first buildings to go up if Colwood provides the necessary zoning for the development that will be built in stages over 20 years, he told about 130 people at the Pentecostal Church Hall in Colwood.

The hotel announcement suprised Colwood Coun. Jason Nault, who opposes the development as currently planned, and Chris Pease, Colwood’s chief administrator, who also attended the hearing.

Neither said they knew about more than one hotel proposed for the site.

Hotel developer Moe Sihota, the economic development minister under the former NDP government, said he likes the overall Colwood Corners concept but doubts there’s a market for that many hotels on the West Shore.

“I’m not sure there’s that much demand to warrant five or six hotels in this area,” said Sihota, whose own company is completing a 120-room, four-storey RBC-financed Sheraton Hotel near Costco in Langford.

Royal Roads University is also in the midst of plans to build a $30 million 150-room hotel and conference centre on campus. The university says it is in negotiations with the federal government that owns the land, and a private developer it wouldn’t name.

The university which sites on land leased from Ottawa, and had initially planned to build the hotel this year.

There’s also the recently completed 156-room Westin Hotel at the massive Bear Mountain resort and housing development Bjola built for a consortium of NHL hockey players and other investors.

“Nobody wants a hotel oversupply,” said Sihota. “At the end of the day, banks make the decision. Nobody will finance if there’s an overcapacity (of rooms).”

Bjola says Sihota is correct about hotel financing.

“Market demand will tell us what to do,” he said.

Bjola’s Colwood Corners financial partner is the Victoria-based real estate investment trust firm League Assets Corporation.

During the public meeting, Bjola outlined how the project will actually reduce Colwood Crawl traffic, improve transit services by increasing ridership up to 20 per cent of all rush hour commuters, and accelerate the development of a light rapid transit system to serve the West Shore.

The development will provide $20.6 million in amenities to Colwood that include $2.5 million toward a new fire hall, a 10,000 square-foot indoor lay area and a $10 million arts and culture centre, he said.

Bjola said the complex will provide $5.6 million annually in property taxes by the time the project is completed, not including school taxes.

[DelsterX]

This will be a very interesting project. At the next public meeting I encourage everyone to support my 'hood in developing itself to a new standard.

[hungryryno]

Personally I would like to see Colwood force the issue of traffic concerns in the area onto all the new development in the area. Sooke Road / Island Hwy. needs to be widened from the T.C.H. to Royal Roads U. It should be six lanes along there now (obviously the most difficult spot for both space and money is Parsons Bridge at Six Mile). If the emphasis continues to remain on public transportation then, make the curb lane buses only at peak hours, like in Vancouver. IT WORKS REALLY WELL!

The Strip depserately needs a facelift, why not put the expense onto all the developers who want to change the area into the next Burnaby, Richmond, Port Coquitlam, Surrey???