During this week’s committee of the whole meeting, Victoria city council approved a new 22-storey mixed-use condo development on the corner of Blanshard and Fisgard Streets.
The site for this development will be 741 Fisgard Street, which is currently vacant with street-art-covered fencing surrounding the property. There is a small parking lot on the property as well which will be a part of the development.
This development, brought forth by local developers Jawl Residential and Tri-Eagle Development Corp., will feature 156 strata residential units, with space on the ground floor for businesses and four floors of underground parking.
The rezoning and development permit for this development was unanimously approved.
According to developers, this project has been a long time in the making. The site was originally intended to be developed as an office building, but plans changed as demand for office space decreased. This resulted in a pivot to residential.
According to the application, units in this development will incorporate work-from-home space, and on the fourth floor there will be a shared office space for residents to utilize.
Though the units will not feature personal balconies, the designs for this project will see six two-storey “sky gardens,” or shared balconies, for residents to share.
As for the commercial space, the plan is for each unit to be under 200 square feet, and are intended to be leased to restaurants. These small restaurants will form a food court of sorts and will be accessible via a thoroughfare corridor between Fisgard and Cormorant Streets.
All of city council was enthusiastic about this proposal and what it would bring to the neighbourhood.
“I think it’s a great addition to this part of the city—we definitely need more vitality in this area and with work-from-home happening, residential is the way to get that, so I’m very grateful for this coming to us,” said Councillor David Thompson.
“This file has been a long-haul and I appreciate that the proponents have stuck with it,” added Councillor Jeremy Caradonna.
“There was a previous concept here that would have had much more office space and as we know the demand for office space has really cratered in recent years, so it’s probably a good thing we didn’t end up with another office tower here that probably would have had really soft demand.”
Caradonna added that there are not a lot of strata developments in progress throughout Victoria right now, as the City has been focusing on approving and building rentals, but these types of residences are also needed.
The project was unanimously approved by council.
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