276 replies to this topic

[Kapten Kapsell]

Demolition/deconstruction is underway at the former White Spot on this site.

[Victoria Watcher]

Somebody should get a photo of that.

 

I nominate Nparker.  

[Nparker]

I am still mourning the loss of this White Spot location. I am not the right person to document the autopsy.

[aastra]

 

Not that a person on a bike has ever gone down that route.

 

Exaggerate much? Back in the day weren't they selling bikes in the old hot tub building on the Blanshard St. corner where Azzurro is now? Surely someone would have done a test ride down that hill at least once?

[Citified.ca]

This project is headed for committee of the whole on October 6th. Details of what's headed before council as included in this update on Haven: https://victoria.cit...024-completion/

[aastra]

Did we all see the other images for this project? I took these pics from Chard's website (hence the expression, "take your pic").

 

Pic 1...

 

Pic 2...

 

Pic 3...

 

Pic 4...

Edited by aastra, 27 November 2022 - 03:59 PM.

[Nparker]

That second rendering is so realistic I can almost smell the vagrants hanging out in the public square.

[aastra]

I feel like the other part of the podium (the "daycare" and "restaurant" part) has the potential to be a real dud. Empty units for ages, that kind of thing. (I don't want to curse it but it just has that vibe, at least in the renderings it does.)

 

Also, are those elevated parking levels along part of the side street? Looks like it.

Edited by aastra, 27 November 2022 - 04:20 PM.

[Nparker]

Has any of the commercial space ever leased on the Herald Street side of Hudson Walk?

Edited by Nparker, 27 November 2022 - 06:47 PM.

[Mike K.]

Can we assume White Spot would like to return to its spot near the arena? They did a good business there.

Being private land, I don’t think you’ll see much loitering there. Like at Uptown, it’s a path of resistance.

[aastra]

 

Has any of the commercial space ever leased on the Herald Street side of Hudson Walk?

 

It's too bad, but obviously it's not unexpected. We're talking about some decent commercial spaces, but the trick is getting them activated. Methinks if Chard is successful extending life a bit further north, and if Capital Iron etc. can do something decent, then it could/should all come together eventually. The other corners at Douglas and Chatham/Caledonia are huge pieces of the overall puzzle. Heck, the Powerhouse area is another big piece of the overall puzzle.

 

Isn't it amazing how we can contemplate another 25 to 50 years worth of redevelopment potential in just one section of a teeny little downtown in a teeny little city? The area in question encompasses several city blocks, and in order for future redevelopment to have an impact it would need to involve at least two or three dozen major new buildings? Did I mention one of the largest ground remediation projects in the country is also part of this? Good thing Victoria isn't a big place or this might take a while.

[Kapten Kapsell]

This is going to CotW on Thursday, April 20.

[Nparker]

How many parking spaces will council request be removed from this proposal?

[Kapten Kapsell]

And this is now heading to a public hearing with unanimous council support:
https://www.cheknews...arings-1149452/

[Nparker]

No reduction in parking?

[DavidSchell]

No reduction in parking?

 

They will wait until after public hearing then do the old rug pull. 

[Victoria Watcher]

The supportive-housing project would be built first and is being designed to house residents of the former Capital City Centre Hotel to ensure no one is displaced by construction.

The hotel will be torn down to make way for Chard’s larger project.

https://www.timescol...hearing-6886903


So everybody in that hotel now plans to stay for three years? I thought supportive housing in hotels was temporary.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 21 April 2023 - 04:35 AM.

[aastra]

 

Chard is also no longer going to include burying power lines along Douglas Street, calling it cost-prohibitive

 

Do I hear any shocked gasps? Jaws hitting the floor?

 

 

Daily Colonist
August 12, 1952 (!)

 

Planning for the Future

...Victoria certainly paved the way for some improvement along this line when it lifted its car tracks and did away with the cumbersome street-centre trolley wire cables.

To stop there and leave this grim forest of light and telephone poles, with their overhead squirrel cages of interlaced wires everywhere, is to fail in a worth while vision. It would be manifestly unfair and impracticable to expect public utilities to bury their distributing systems unaided. Provincial and municipal help would be required; the former possibly by way of a capital-city grant, and the city directly in its own interest.

If the costs could be split three ways, and the term over which replacement work was to be done extended over a reasonably long period, much that appeared impossible initially might upon full and proper investigation be found well within the competence of this community. Planning for the future is the logical function of a town planning commission.

(aastra says: Planning, yes. Action, no.)

Once more we invite attention to this existing opportunity. Victoria, with its miles of grass and clay boulevards, should be a much easier city to convert to buried conduits than others of similar size in Canada. In the long run the cost, great as it might be, would be more than fully returned.

 

 

Would 70+ years be enough time to get the job done? A reasonably long period? Apparently not, because we're still talking about this issue in 2023, and yet still going nowhere with it.

[aastra]

If a project that involves three 20-story towers on half a block can't be expected to address the overhead lines issue then are we effectively saying no project could ever be expected to address the overhead lines issue from this point forward?

[Mike K.]

Council has approved this project!