Saanich councillors have unanimously approved a plan by Whole Foods Market to build a 40,000-square-foot grocery store at Uptown shopping centre.
“That’s a major step, a permit to proceed,” said Andy Laidlaw, Saanich’s interim chief administrative officer. He said the permit relates to the “form and character” of the building, at Blanshard Street and Ravine Way in the third and final phase of Uptown.
Also envisioned for the store is a glass atrium with public art to be illuminated at night.
An opening in the fall of 2016 for Whole Foods is part of the plan.
The Austin, Texas-based company, known for its organic foods, has four Metro Vancouver stores and has plans for others in Burnaby and North Vancouver.
The Saanich location is the first for Whole Foods on Vancouver Island.
“I’m delighted with Whole Foods,” said Saanich Coun. Dean Murdock. “I think they will offer something great in the grocery market in Greater Victoria.”
Whole Foods is expected to anchor Uptown’s third phase, which was originally planned as a residential component. Murdock said the lack of a residential building is concerning. “I think everybody on council, folks in the community and staff all expected that what we’d see there is residential and now it’s a much-smaller component.”
Murdock was happy to hear that a business case is being put together for the possibility of building rental units.
A Saanich staff report said there is still a commitment to residential development, but “considerably less” than the 650 units originally put forward.
Murdock said Uptown was introduced as a “lifestyle” shopping centre with adjacent residences “so that it would be a dynamic, more of a downtown feel.”
Disappointment in the pace of residential construction was echoed in Saanich council chambers by Geoff Nagle, director of development for Morguard Investments, Uptown’s builder. He said the undeveloped area is just sitting there for now. “Every day I look at a gravel pit is painful,” Nagle said. But market conditions for residential construction have changed since Uptown was originally planned.
Murdock agreed that market conditions are a major factor in the lack of residential opportunities.
“Eight years ago when the site plan was put together and Phase 1 was approved, nobody could have anticipated the changes that would have taken place in the market.”
Still, the presence of Uptown can be credited with spurring some of the residential development that has been going on in the area, Murdock said.
