34 replies to this topic

[Citified.ca]

A rendering of 1075 Tillicum Road (looking south along Tillicum Road), a proposed six-storey condominium and ground floor retail building on the site of Esquimalt's Gorge Pointe Pub. The building is currently envisioned as containing approximately 100 residences and two commercial units, plus underground parking. 

 

First look: Esquimalt's Gorge Pointe Pub redevelopment will rise as condos with ground floor retail space

https://victoria.cit...r-retail-space/

[Redd42]

Ah - this is where I met my other half. Who gave me the life I have. I'm very sad.

[sdwright.vic]

Gorge Points last day will be this Saturday.  Rumour has it that the entire kitchen staff is now at McRae's (view the new menu there- much like the old Gorge Points).  They have been closed for Sunday and Monday for quite some time do to difficulty with staffing.

[Citified.ca]

Demolition crews have made quick work of the former Gorge Pointe Pub as Abstract Developments nears its launch of Central Block.

 

Project website: https://abstractdeve.../central-block/

Citified profile: https://victoria.cit...lock-esquimalt/

 

A rendering of Central Block, coming soon to Esquimalt's Tillicum Road corridor in the former location of the Gorge Pointe Pub. From developer Abstract, the will be comprised of 99 condominium residences and ground floor retail space across six floors.

 

Tillicum Road's Gorge Pointe Pub makes way for Central Block condos and retail dev

https://victoria.cit...and-retail-dev/

[AllseeingEye]

Very nice looking proposal but I am a little discombobulated so bear with me; this project is a ten minute walk from us, literally down the street, around the corner and just 'this' side of the Tillicum bridge. How can the rendering possibly show '1075 Tillicum....looking south along Esquimalt Rd?' The closest intersection here is Tillicum and Gorge Rd - unless I badly miss my guess Esquimalt Road is way to the south and nowhere near this project....

[Citified.ca]

Sales have now launched. This may be the most aggressively priced project in the core in quite some time, with units starting in the mid-$300s.

 

Priced from the mid-$300s, Abstract's Gorge Waterway 'Central Block' condo unveiled in Esquimalt

https://victoria.cit...d-in-esquimalt/

[E2V]

A nice building in a great location. The name “Central Block” does have an East Berlin sort of vibe though.

[Nparker]

...The name “Central Block” does have an East Berlin sort of vibe though.

Agreed. This one really failed the condo name generator test. 

[Victoria Watcher]

I think it’s trendy.

[aastra]

What's the problem? It's the Central Block, centrally located near the shops and services in the Central Building, only a few steps away from recreational opportunities in Central Park.

[aastra]

And it's within the catchment area for Central School.

[Redd42]

Nothing Central about it! What a horrible name. Can a condo board vote to change the name of their building?

[aastra]

It must be a pretty good project if the name ends up being the central issue.

[Mike K.]

A nice building in a great location. The name “Central Block” does have an East Berlin sort of vibe though.

Perhaps it’s an ode to CFB Esquimalt, where a prominent residential building for navy personnel visiting or working out of the base is called Nelles Block.

[Citified.ca]

The Gorge is most definitely under-rated, and often overlooked in the real-estate realm. The views from this building will be very nice.

 

Central Block's Portage Rooftop, an amenity space atop the six-storey project, yields picture-perfect views towards the Gorge Waterway, downtown Victoria, and across Esquimalt's lush urban canopy.

 

Gorge Waterway's Central Block condominium hits the market with studio-to-3BR homes

https://victoria.cit...o-to-3br-homes/

[AllseeingEye]

100%; we're down the block off Tillicum and around a couple of corners to the south-east of this development: this is definitely not the Gorge-Esquimalt of our father's, lol. There is so much new construction and infill in the immediate area that an ?Esquimalt-ite? from that older timeline wouldn't remotely recognise it.

 

In fact it's much, much quieter than when I lived in Fairfield at Cook & Fairfield over a decade ago: Fairfield Rd is, or was at the time, the main west-east conduit for all manner of emergency vehicles headed to RJH. Sirens there were a constant irritant. In the 10+ years here I recall very few sirens except maybe once or twice for fire trucks.

 

Selkirk is a beautiful neighbourhood and IMO one of the most underrated and undervalued 'waterfront' areas in the core. Along with the new condo now under construction just across the bridge on the corner of Gorge and Tilicum, the new townhouse development still under construction across the street from this site, and the new Japanese Tea Garden building in Gorge Park etc., the aesthetics and vibrancy in this area is being completely transformed. 

Edited by AllseeingEye, 31 August 2022 - 09:54 AM.

[Mike K.]

Esquimalt is great, isn’t it?

For the most part, that’s what it was like when we were growing up. Everyone assumed Esquimalt was the proverbial dump but the neighbourhoods were beautiful, the people pleasant and courteous, and the schools were great. Rockheights is another gem of a neighborhood that people are bewildered by when they first encounter it. Same for Parklands and Saxe Point.

Old Victoria was so backwards in so many ways when it came to an ideal address.

[AllseeingEye]

Esquimalt is great, isn’t it?

For the most part, that’s what it was like when we were growing up. Everyone assumed Esquimalt was the proverbial dump but the neighbourhoods were beautiful, the people pleasant and courteous, and the schools were great. Rockheights is another gem of a neighborhood that people are bewildered by when they first encounter it. Same for Parklands and Saxe Point.

Old Victoria was so backwards in so many ways when it came to an ideal address.

 

 

As a Gordon Head/UVic area kid back in the day the main thing Vic West - Esquimalt was knocked for - aesthetics aside like the utterly dead VW harbour area which really took a hit after the rail-tracks were removed in ~ 1968, was the fact it was full of "pongo's", a derogatory non-Esquimalt-ese term for navy personnel, who frequented the many pubs then existing in the muni, and which for the most part are either gone or re-developed today.

 

That image of young drunken sailors, hundreds of thousands of miles from home, causing all manner of disturbance in the bars and on the streets, terrorising the innocent residential folk, was of course greatly exaggerated but one which we completely bought in to at the time: "A party on Friday night - in Esquimalt? !?? Alex make sure you have that Louisville slugger in the trunk - just in case".......

 

Yeah Rockheights, Saxe Pt, Parklands - a real undiscovered gem for many - and Selkirk are all first rate. 

 

What I like most of all is that in the case of this development and those of us who live near it is that we're central to everything - the Gorge waterfront and fabulous waterfront "stroll" along Gorge Rd - which is magnificent compared to the sewer that waterway was in the 70's due to all the pollutants dumped into it which made it Victoria's largest open air toilet; the three main "get out of town" highways, and in our case we're 5 minutes or less from no less than eight major grocery stores. Not to mention downtown if we choose to head that way for whatever reason, is also maybe a 6-7 min drive via the JSB. 

[Victoria Watcher]

Hundreds of thousands of miles from home? Were these pongos, or aliens?

[Nparker]

...the main thing Vic West - Esquimalt was knocked for...was the fact it was full of "pongo's"... 

There's a term I haven't heard in l-o-n-g time.