79 replies to this topic

[Citified.ca]

The Carlton Club has been a fixture along Esquimalt Road for generations. Due to COVID-19, the club shuttered, and its real-estate was sold to developer GMC Projects. Future plans for the site are expected to yield a mixed-use commercial and residential project.

 

Esquimalt's Carlton Club makes way for arts venue, wrestling clinic ahead of redevelopment

https://victoria.cit...-redevelopment/

[Victoria Watcher]

https://rcmusicproje...urce/13607/view

 

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 11 April 2022 - 10:15 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Cracking building puts an end to Carlton Club, one of Victoria’s rare all-ages venues

 

A project that was started to counter the decline of accessible Victoria venues becomes another example of it

 

https://www.capitald...-all-ages-venue

 

 

Over the weekend the Carlton Performing Arts Hub Facebook invited individuals and businesses to come purchase items from the building so they would not end up at the dump.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 13 February 2023 - 06:20 AM.

[Citified.ca]

An artist's sketch of a proposal to transform two properties along Esquimalt Road at Head Street into a mixed-use condominium and rental development in Esquimalt. Envisioned by GMC Projects for 900 Carlton Terrace and 900 Esquimalt Road is a 26-storey tower and an eight-storey counterpart, respectively. At-left is Pacific House, a nine and twelve-storey condominium currently under construction.

 

Esquimalt's Carlton Club slated for redev into 26-storey condo tower, 8-storey rental block

https://victoria.cit...y-rental-block/

 

Citified profiles: 26-storey tower | 8-storey rental block

Project website: https://www.900esquimalt.com/

[AllseeingEye]

Lots happening and potentially happening along that Esquimalt Rd neighbourhood; if Bayview ever sees the light of day    that entire corridor from the new Esquimalt municipal complex all the way back down east to Catherine Steet/Songhees will be utterly transformitive.

[baconnbits]

Would not surprise me if nothing has happened at Bayview by 2030

Hope this one gets greenlit!

[E2V]

I live nearby and was hoping for something bold. This does not disappoint. I hope Town Council can withstand the wave of opposition that is sure to come from the usual suspects for the usual reasons whenever real change is proposed.

[Citified.ca]

 

 

Landmark project in Esquimalt could deliver 272 homes and modern retail spaces to former Carlton Club site

https://victoria.cit...lton-club-site/

[Nparker]

I am digging the 1960s vibe on the podium design.

Project website: https://www.900esquimalt.com/

Edited by Nparker, 30 October 2023 - 10:00 AM.

[Mike K.]

That second floor is a parking garage, by the way. It's intended to be a flex space, so in future, if parking isn't required, it can be repurposed.

[lanforod]

I am digging the 1960s vibe on the podium design.

Project website: https://www.900esquimalt.com/

 

I like the podium, but I'm not getting a 1960s vibe from it at all.

[dkuitu]

Those south facing units up top would have wicked views.

[aastra]

So... we're saying the end result of decades worth of height restrictions in Victoria will be a tall tower on a relatively high site along Esquimalt Road of all places?

[Mike K.]

Par for the course, aastra!

It’ll balance out the one on the high site in Rockland, and the three on the high site in Vic West, next to the other one on the high site in Vic West.

[HarrisonGreene]

Personally, I like this project and while we don't need to build such high-rises on every plot of land along Esquimalt Road, it makes for an interesting skyline when the odd 20+ story tower exists.

[aastra]

I'm just wondering what the point was of not allowing any highrise buildings at Swallow's Landing or West Bay, even though a very tall highrise might be allowed on this site.

[Nparker]

There has never been a legitimate reason to ban high rises in the CRD.

[Mike K.]

I'm just wondering what the point was of not allowing any highrise buildings at Swallow's Landing or West Bay, even though a very tall highrise might be allowed on this site.

Swallows Landing was first proposed nearly two decades ago.

Hard to believe.

[aastra]

This is what I'm saying. (Although the Matson lands redevelopment controversy first got going even a few years before that, in the 1990s.)

I remember an astute forumer on this board once making the analogy between development restrictions and pumping air into a mattress. You can try to keep it pressed down in one spot, but it just ends up ballooning in another spot where you didn't intend for it to happen. By resisting higher-density development in areas where it would naturally arise or otherwise be predictable/expected, you end up pushing it to areas where it would represent an extreme departure, or otherwise seem forced and artificial.

 

Just take a moment to consider all of the sites in Greater Victoria where we've pondered the prospect of new highrise buildings or "the city's new tallest" highrise building over the past ~20 years. Did anybody ever mention Esquimalt Road at Head Street? Heck, Esquimalt was rarely mentioned, period. Because the vision for the community was clear and even junior highrise buildings would be a menace and blah blah blah.

But aastra! Things are different now! Victoria has a housing crisis today, for the very first time*. So a 26-story building on Esquimalt Road suddenly makes perfect sense. (Even though the prospects for a new highrise or junior highrise building on a slew of different sites in the greater downtown area can still range anywhere from slim to none.)

 

*for the very first time since yesterday's housing crisis

 

 

Times-Colonist
August 10, 1995

Opposition is mounting to a proposed 11-storey waterfront condominium project in Esquimalt.

The Raging Grannies, who would like to see the area -- which includes a Garry Oak Meadow -- preserved as a park, will be on the site this afternoon asking people to sign a petition in opposition to the proposal.

The Grannies will also be flying a balloon some 35 metres in the sky, indicating just how high the building would be.

 

 

Times-Colonist
May 22, 1996

Letter to the Editor:

Grace Communities Corporation, a non-profit subsidiary of The Salvation Army, wants to redevelop the Matson site. The project consists of a terraced 11-storey building (five storeys above grade at the highest topographical point)...

It should be pointed out that we are actually asking for a downzoning in density level based on our environmentally sensitive concerns. Currently the property is zoned RM4 which allows a development to cover the property with four-storey buildings of between 270 to 400 residential units.

Major Martyn W. Goodger
The Salvation Army, Victoria

Edited by aastra, 31 October 2023 - 10:59 PM.

[aastra]

 

Even though the prospects for a new highrise or junior highrise building on a slew of different sites in the greater downtown area can still range anywhere from slim to none.

 

Fort Street near Cook: junior highrise denied
Dockside Green: average height of seven existing major residential buildings is ~10 stories

Douglas at Hillside: new lowrise building under construction
Capital Park in James Bay: 6 stories
Westbay Quay: 6 stories

Esquimalt Road at Head Street: 26 stories, baby!