170 replies to this topic

[Kapten Kapsell]

Merchant House has bought the Times Colonist Building on Douglas with plans to construct a 9-storey residential building there (with townhouses).

CHEK news report: http://www.cheknews....ers-say-337717/

Merchant House Capital's rendering: https://merchanthous...o/tc-evolution/

I am unsure if "TC Evolution" is the official project name...

[spanky123]

One of the newspaper’s unions is concerned that a sale of the Times Colonist building could mean layoffs in the future. 

 

​Their concern should be that the TC follows many other papers and goes fully digital with no office and only a skeleton reporting and sales staff working from home.

[VicHockeyFan]

That press was new in 1989 or so.  It's still pretty slick.  But ya, hard to see where they would contract printing to.

Edited by VicHockeyFan, 14 June 2017 - 06:54 PM.

[RFS]

9 stories seems too short and it would also be better if the tall section was on Douglas

[Kapten Kapsell]

Residents would be a short walk from the new Fuddruckers at Douglas / Hillside...

[Nparker]

Merchant House has bought the Times Colonist Building on Douglas with plans to construct a 9-storey residential building there (with townhouses)...

This is an interesting proposal. I am just not sure I'd agree with this statement from the Merchant House website: "The redevelopment of an iconic landmark building located in Victoria, BC."

Does anyone think the existing T-C building is an "iconic landmark"?

[Kapten Kapsell]

Perhaps it would be considered a landmark of mod-century modernism...

[Nparker]

Perhaps it would be considered a landmark of mod-century modernism...

Except, wasn't the current T-C building constructed sometime in the 1970s?

[Kapten Kapsell]

What I like about the proposal is the fact that it seeks to maintain/upgrade the existing T-C building while placing new development on the surface parking lot.   I'm a fan of adding new residential development to the area, but it's great to see office space retained (or new office space constructed); I know that there was a concern in Vancouver a few years ago about residential development crowding out office space, so it's great to have both. 

[Kapten Kapsell]

Has anyone been able to obtain more information about this proposal?

 

It's interesting to note that it's almost directly north of the recent proposal for 736 Princess.  Perhaps this is starting a trend to provide more housing between Douglas and Blanshard in the blocks north of down.

[VicHockeyFan]

The Print Reel Building is proposed to be an urban entertainment space with distillery/brewery manufacturing zoning. The project proposes the addition of up to 150,000 square feet of purpose-built rental which will be integrated into the existing Times Colonist Building to create a community-driven, work-live-play urban ecosystem.

 

 

http://www.newswire....-642796373.html

[Nparker]

Based on this rendering is the overall height of the addition 11 floors - 2 of which are townhouses that surround 2 levels of above-ground parking?

[VicHockeyFan]

You'd think at the very least the TC would quickly say "hey, here is our plan".  But they seem silent on where they will live after this.

 

Their union contract runs out January 2019.  I'm not sure they will make it there.

 

Something fishy is going on, Black keeps hiring more and more reporters.  More reporters work at News Group now than in 2000.

 

And it's no secret Black and Glacier are friends, swapping and flipping papers back and forth all over BC.

[VicHockeyFan]

The printing building might be maintained, but in that configuration, it'd be hard to print newspapers without some serious work.

 

 

BLUE is where newsprint rolls have to go in, they go on a complex floor conveyor system from storage there.  A semi-trailer delivers those newsprint rolls.  And it's already hard for the truck to move around there and back in.  In the new configuration, unless a truck backs up Westbourne Plc. from Bay St., there is no way to drop rolls.  

 

In the RED is the end of the mail-room where the papers are bundled and delivered into 2 or 3 trucks at a time.

 

Now, the new diagram shows a "parking structure" around the north end of the printing building, so maybe trucks can still move about under there, but it seems fanciful.

 

 

But that press is nearing 30 years old.  I'm not sure it's needed anymore.

Edited by VicHockeyFan, 06 September 2017 - 05:45 AM.

[Bingo]

The printing building might be maintained, but in that configuration, it'd be hard to print newspapers without some serious work.

 

The residents in the new building will complain about the noisy newspaper press running at 2 am, mind you the paper will probably be down to 8 pages by then.

[VicHockeyFan]

It's not quiet that's for sure. You have to yell when in that room and it's running full speed.

[Mike K.]

Do we have any indication as to the number of units that will be proposed?

[Kapten Kapsell]

Per that same article it appears that the residential component is quite a ways off...

[VicHockeyFan]

 

Daily papers eliminated or downgraded

2010

• Prince Rupert Daily News
• Nelson Daily News

Black Press purchased both newspapers from Glacier Media in 2010 – but then quickly shut them down, opting to continue publishing the competing weekly paper they already owned in both cities.

 

[VicHockeyFan]

2011

• Abbotsford News Daily
• Courtenay Comox Valley Record Daily
• Kamloops This Week
• Kelowna Capital News
• Parksville Qualicum News Daily
• Terrace-Kitimat-Prince Rupert Northern Daily
• Penticton Western News Daily
• Maple Ridge Tri-City News Daily
• Surrey Leader Daily

While no paid daily newspapers shut down in 2011, many free papers owned by Black Press either merged (the Maple Ridge and Langley papers became the “Golden Ears Daily”) or decided to publish less regularly (including Kelowna Capital News and Kamloops This Week, which now publishes three times a week).