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Rental tower for seniors pitched for Crystal Court site downtown

Concert Properties’ plan for a seniors building on the site of the former Crystal Court Motel goes before Victoria councillors on Thursday.

Concert Properties’ plan for a seniors building on the site of the former Crystal Court Motel goes before Victoria councillors on Thursday.

The mixed-use concept features rental units, condominiums, a commercial kitchen with restaurant, fitness centre, bistro-pub and a variety of other services to allow people to age in place. A bike share program would likely feature large tricycles.

A multi-purpose rooftop gathering place with tables and chairs, as well as garden plots, would be built on top of the project’s five-storey podium.

The Vancouver-based company paid $10 million last year for the 701 Belleville St. property with plans for a 15-storey tower. The tower plan remains, at the east end of the property, with the podium running toward Douglas and Belleville streets.

Called Tapestry, the concrete building would create 131 rental units, to be priced at market rates, and another 42 condominiums. Concert has built three other Tapestry themed projects in Vancouver and Toronto.

“Whether you are a condominium owner or a renter, it doesn’t matter. Everybody is treated the same. Everybody gets the same access to services,” Dean Johnson, Concert’s development manager for this project, said from Vancouver on Monday. “It really is a complete community.”

Victoria councillors will view the proposal Thursday and decide whether to recommend that council hold a public hearing. If that happens, the developer and citizens have the opportunity speak on the plan, followed by a vote by council.

Concert has applied for rezoning and a development permit.

A housing agreement bylaw, to ensure the 131 units remain rental in perpetuity, would also be included, as would a bike lane on Belleville Street.

If approved, construction would start in early 2018, said Ken Bogress, Concert’s senior vice-president of development.

It is too soon to know the cost for construction, expected to take between two and three years.

The project would tie in with Q Apartments, next door at 655 Douglas St., also owned by Concert. The 701 Belleville St. property now holds the vacant and deteriorating Crystal Court Motel building, which has been shut down for more than a decade.

Concert has spent months talking to local residents, Johnson said.

Condos would be located in the top six floors of the tower, where there are beautiful views, Johnson said.

Bogress said that many rental units will also have good views.

Slightly less than 4,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space facing Belleville Street is planned. Johnson pointed to the success of the Fol Epi Organic Bread and Pastry business in the Concert-built Era condo project in the 700 block of Yates St. He would like to see something that brings a similar vibrancy in the Tapestry project.

The project would bring sought-after seniors rental units into the Victoria market. The Q Apartments is full.

Victoria’s rental vacancy rate is tight, at 0.6 per cent, according to a report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. The next rental update is being released on Nov. 28.

The James Bay Neighbourhood Association submitted a letter to the city in which board members expressed “disappointment” with the design, stating it looks more like an apartment building than a “signature building.”

The association suggested some “give” on the bike lane in order to widen the promenade for pedestrians and to accommodate the growing number of people using mobility scooters.

cjwilson@timescolonist.com