163 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

https://www.realtor....ctoria-downtown

 

$4,499,000

 

 

Beaconsfield Inn, luxury heritage B&B! Renowned Samuel Maclure design and Edwardian Tudor Revival architecture. 4 levels of living offer 10 guest suites with 11 fully updated private bathrooms & 10 classic fireplaces. Stunning decor accents the beautiful original design. Stained glass windows, 11' beamed ceilings, signature Maclure staircase. Main level boasts paneled library, spacious dining room with built-in hutch. Fully renovated spacious kitchen with butler's pantry. Office in lower level with conference facility. Fully renovated inside and out. Over $500,000 in capital improvements spent over the last 5 years including new roof, all new bathrooms, upscale kitchen, landscaping, all new furniture and bedding, new carpets, new gas boiler and hot water. Upgraded landscaping. 10 onsite parking and plenty of storage spaces. Ideally Victoria's downtown location with walking distance to inner harbor and all amenities. Truly one of a kind! 

 

 

some of the rooms look quite nice.  some a bit odd.  in any event it's quite unique.  $500k per room though.  that's got to be a pretty long-term horizon for payback.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 18 January 2020 - 06:39 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Perhaps you’ve wondered just how the cabin came to be there, especially when storm season is in full force, with gigantic Pacific swells rolling in.

 

Luckily, the cabin has been strategically placed high enough to ensure the building is safely out of the water, with the sea flowing in behind it. In fact, the promontory becomes an island for an hour or two during the highest of the tides, writes the cabin’s original owner, Howard McDiarmid, in his book Pacific Rim Park: a country doctor’s role in preserving Long Beach and establishing the new Wickaninnish Inn.

 

It’s something he noticed while flying over the area immediately after a November storm, when the swells were still high.

McDiarmid explains in his book why he was so determined to build on this difficult-to-reach spot. He and his wife, Lynn, would frequently enjoy picnics on Shell Beach, and he “would point to the rocks just in front of the tree line and say: ‘This is where the cabin will go,’ ” though they didn’t yet own the land.

They were finally able to buy the property in 1977 and the cabin was built the following year. It was always meant as a second home and never served as the family’s primary residence.

McDiarmid, who was Tofino’s only doctor when he first arrived at what was then a remote fishing village in 1955, would go on to become a Social Credit MLA from 1966 to 1972 and play a key role in the establishment of the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve in 1970.

McDiarmid also built the highly acclaimed Wickaninnish Inn in 1996, along with his son, Charles, who is still at the helm of the family’s long-time dream. Howard died in 2010 at the age of 83.

In an interview recently, at the Wickaninnish Inn’s The Pointe Restaurant, Charles McDiarmid pointed out how the restaurant’s sweeping 240-degree view of the ocean and post-and-beam style were inspired by the cabin.

 

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...orld-1.24064203

[Mike K.]

Cool story.

But has this been today, it would have never been built out of fear that vacation home taxes set at the whim of the government would make it financially unviable to pursue.

Of course I say that in jest as the new taxes don’t actually apply to Tofino or the gulf islands (you know, where a massive percentage of homes are secondary homes that are never rented) but only to areas where there are so few of these homes relative to all other dwellings that the tax can be absorbed without any impact on the region whatsoever (in theory; places like Bear Mountain will get hit hard, but that’s Stew Young’s territory).

[Rob Randall]

Banquet business at the Marriott is down $16,000 this week. 

[Matt R.]

Vista 18 is open again, btw.

Matt.

[Hotel Mike]

This would have been a banner year for Victoria hotels. Ah well. This too shall pass.

[Mike K.]

We started the year with a decline in bookings and that wasn’t forecasted to change, I don’t think? Where did you hear or read that forecasts were for a strong year?

[Hotel Mike]

I just saw that the Conference Centre had something like 65 conventions booked for the year, record cruise ship visits. I figured the city would do well, along with people who didn't want to venture too far. That's all changed of course.

[spanky123]

This would have been a banner year for Victoria hotels. Ah well. This too shall pass.

Tourism was forecast to be down again in 2020. What was helping hotels for a while in 2019 was that average room rates were up.

[vortoozo]

I just saw that the Conference Centre had something like 65 conventions booked for the year, record cruise ship visits. I figured the city would do well, along with people who didn't want to venture too far. That's all changed of course.

 

Cruise ship visits do almost nothing for hotel occupancy.

[Dexter]

If they could start and finish in Victoria it would.

Cruise ship visits do almost nothing for hotel occupancy.

[Victoria Watcher]

sooke harbour house is up for court-ordered sale.  $5,632,000.

 

https://www.realtor....ke-whiffin-spit

 

last we heard was maybe this crazy 2018 story:  https://www.cbc.ca/n...ponzi-1.4884497

 

According to B.C. Supreme Court documents, the Philips entered a share purchase agreement in 2014 with SHH Holdings and SHH Management.

The deal also saw Durkin's companies take over operations.

But by August 2017, the Philips claimed the deal was off. And they allegedly marched into the hotel with uniformed security guards to wrest back control.

The Durkin-led corporations sued, leading to an interim injunction in September 2017 in which a judge ordered the Philips to "immediately quit and leave the business premises."

In her ruling, Justice Joyce Dewitt-Van Oosten noted that lawyers for the Philips had argued against the court giving possession to SHH Holdings and SHH Management over the "express disagreement of the legal owners."

But she cited the state of "chaos" at the hotel and its "potential to snowball into significant financial loss in hotel revenue" as justification for the decision.

A trial to determine ownership is not scheduled until at least 2019.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 18 April 2020 - 01:50 PM.

[Rob Randall]

Interesting. A character named "Timothy Durkin" appears in the 1978 Colonist as a spokesman for Saanich businessman Henry Eng, who was planning on building a hotel/convention centre on the Songhees site on the Harbour.

 

The following year the project lost the convention centre feature and was described as a five-storey terraced luxury 300-room hotel, with a design by famed architect Arthur Erickson and Durkin as project manager. 

 

Also interesting that this abandoned plan sounds a lot like Erickson's later Laurel Point project.

Edited by Rob Randall, 18 April 2020 - 04:15 PM.

[Hotel Mike]

I'm grateful for the Erickson examples we have in Victoria. It's always say to think there may have been more.

[Rob Randall]

I don't understand why Erickson wasn't an architect on Songhees' second go round in the 90s. I really would have liked to have seen his second kick at the can. Imagine a harbour with multiple examples of Rattenbury, Erickson and James Cheng harmonizing/competing together. 

[G-Man]

How many Erickson buildings are there in Victoria? I only know of two.

[Rob Randall]

Laurel Point addition

Home Lumber

UVic Cunningham

Sitkum Lodge

Others?

[Redd42]

 

Home Lumber

 

 

Thank you for that bit of info. That is a fabulous building that most people have never seen. Always wondered why such a building existed in that other wise bland industrial area. Kudos to the business people who hired Erickson.

[Mike K.]

Aren’t the townhomes below Sitkum Lodge also Erickson’s design?

My favourite building by him is this skyscraper in LA, 2 California Plaza: https://en.m.wikiped...alifornia_Plaza

[Jackerbie]

Laurel Point addition

Home Lumber

UVic Cunningham

Sitkum Lodge

Others?

 

BC Assessment building (3350 Douglas) and 1112 Fort Street are his designs, I believe. Both certainly look the part!