B.C. developer plans to build Victoria’s tallest condo tower

Reliance Properties is trying to drum up support to build hundreds of condos in what would become Victoria’s tallest building.

The downtown tower would be 35 storeys tall – 10 storeys higher than the city’s current tallest building Hudson Place, three blocks north.

“It’s a gateway site,” says Reliance Properties president Jon Stovell. “We’re hoping this is a building that will become popular with the community and the community will see as something they can have a point of pride as a landmark.”

If the project gets city approval through rezoning, the tower would be built at the corner of Blanshard Street and Pandora Avenue.

There are plans for 321 market-price condos. Of those units, Reliance wants 20 per cent to be two-bedroom units and 11 per cent of them would have three bedrooms.

There are also plans to include space for a public plaza and retail.

“It’ll meet about 30 per cent of the annual housing target for the city under the provincial government regulations and about 37 per cent of the requirements for family-size units. So it’s meeting that need to build a lot of housing,” says Stovell.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation agrees that even with other housing construction projects underway in B.C.’s capital city, there’s still demand for more.

“Construction time takes a little bit longer, especially with those larger developments,” says CMHC lead economist Shiva Moshtari Doust.

“They (take) 20-plus months to be built from the starting point. So over time, those healthy additions to the number of units coming online to the market really help serving the market with more supply and that’s what we really need.”

Reliance Properties is hosting an open house for the public Jan. 27 from 5 to 7 p.m. at 2100 Douglas St.

The development has a long way to go before it can consider getting shovels in the ground.

The project needs to go through the rezoning and approval stage, which the developer figures could take up to a year and a half. And depending on the timeline, Reliance would also need to work with the B.C. government since the province currently has a lease for office space on the site at 1520 Blanshard Street.