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Developer’s vision coming to fruition at Bayview Place

Kenneth W. Mariash Sr., developer of the Bayview and Roundhouse projects in Vic West, can be sentimental about his small-town Saskatchewan roots.

Kenneth W. Mariash Sr., developer of the Bayview and Roundhouse projects in Vic West, can be sentimental about his small-town Saskatchewan roots.

Sentimental enough for Mariash to take his family back in 2005 to his hometown of Tisdale (population 3,500) for its centennial. While there, Mariash acquired the old family farm, which was up for sale.

But there is enough Canadian-Prairie practicality in Mariash to make sure the farm deal was not just an extravagant impulse. Most of its land has since been sold or leased to neighbouring farmers. He even kept the purchase a secret to make sure the price wasn’t jacked up.

“We got the farm almost right away,” he said. “But if they had seen me coming, they would have doubled the price.”

Mariash, the 69-year-old owner of Focus Equities, which he runs with his wife and partner, Patricia, is in his 15th year as developer of the Bayview and Roundhouse project. It’s the 20 acres enclosed by Esquimalt Road on the north, Kimta Road and Victoria Harbour to the south, Tyee Road on the east and Catherine Street on the west.

So far, two buildings have been completed on the site: the 21-storey Promontory condo building and the 11-storey Bayview One with attached townhouses. The 17-storey Encore is under construction and expected to be completed by 2018 and already sold out. Future buildings are planned for as high as 26 storeys.

Excavation is underway for a $75-million seniors residence on the site. Vancouver-based Element Lifestyle Retirement is behind the 153,000-square-foot seniors facility that will have five-storeys and feature 155 units to purchase or rent, made up of 50 condos, 70 rentals and 35 licensed care units.

Mariash expects another six structures will be built, including a hotel. A retail marketplace will be incorporated into the 1886 heritage railway buildings, including the Roundhouse, to bring everyday commerce and activity to the area.

It’s a large-scale project for Victoria. At completion, the entire development is expected to be worth more than $1 billion. It will include parks, an interpretive centre explaining the heritage significance of the Roundhouse and likely other amenities, including the display of railway artifacts.

Mariash likes multi-dimensional projects that are so complicated they frighten away other builders.

Bayview has a level of complexity that allows Mariash to draw upon all levels of his experience, training and varied education.

Mariash might have come from a small town on the Prairies, but by the time he finished his education he had studied math, physics, the arts, architecture and commerce. He was also a competitive wrestler and dabbled in extreme fighting until he was 50.

His appreciation for logic and precision saw him take an undergraduate degree in math and physics. Afterward, he enrolled in the arts so he could qualify for architecture school, which he attended at the University of British Columbia. All the while, Mariash never stopped working in construction, whether it was framing houses or subcontracting on larger jobs.

He realized if he was going to go anywhere as a builder, developer and businessman he needed to understand money. So he enrolled at the University of Alberta in commerce and finished up with master of business administration.

Business interests have taken him to building sites all over North America, putting up buildings in Denver, Dallas and Houston. He has built major industrial parks and retail zones in Edmonton and Calgary.

So now, when consultants and architects, for example, tell him their designs will solve his problems, Mariash is always skeptical.

“When I sit with an architecture firm, I don’t care how famous they are, they will not have done as many big projects as we have,” said Mariash. “I usually end up doing all the design myself.”

When Mariash spotted the Bayview and Roundhouse site, he was intrigued.

It’s a piece of land that spoke to Mariash’s esthetic side the first time he saw it in the late 1990s during visits to Vancouver Island to see his mother and sister. He was attracted by the land’s development potential, its close-to-downtown location, its ocean views and a multi-family, multi-storey zoning already in place.

The site also spoke to the part of Mariash that likes to do business in a big way.

Other developers take on one building on one site at a time. Mariash likes to operate as a master developer, readying an area with roads, drains, transit stops, zoning and building permits.

Then he turns to architects to design the buildings (then just as often he throws out their ideas and does it himself).

“You work at it and put together the various pieces,” he said. “It’s a series of buildings coming together in a complementary way, an integrated way: Residential, government, roads, walking paths, bicycle corridors and market places.

“It’s a very interesting thing to orchestrate, especially on a large scale and where you are really part of the city.”

The Bayview site in Vic West site is the kind of opportunity that can be found in most cities around the world, he said. There always seems to be a piece of land that looks good at first glance. But for various reasons it is being avoided.

“These sites can be very complicated,” said Mariash. “They have old factories on them, they are contaminated, they don’t have services or road access.”

“All the big [development] companies look at it and think: ‘This is too complicated, too crazy,’ ” he said.

Meanwhile, big-money organizations with money to invest, such as pension funds, are wary of putting money into something where returns are even remotely uncertain.

But Mariash said his company sees itself not just as the one to erect the buildings. It’s also the one that builds the infrastructure, achieves a zoning, or possible tax breaks. He will be the one to meet community groups and local politicians to achieve a level of satisfaction with the proposal.

With the basics in place, he can partner with other developers to complete the structures, the way developer Bosa Properties is putting up the Encore building on the Bayview site after the Promontory was finished.

And toward the end, with the project well underway and beyond uncertainties, pension-fund managers will see a relatively safe investment.

“We provide that service to the community and the pension world by tackling these things,” Mariash said. “We have the capital, the wherewithal and the knowledge.”

But Victoria and its Bayview and Roundhouse site have been especially frustrating.

When Mariash purchased the first portion of the land in 2002, it was already zoned for multi-family with building heights as tall as 13 storeys. That zoning was part of a deal the City of Victoria had made with the province to make the land more attractive to buyers. But Mariash was not aware municipal councillors and the local community were not supportive of the building heights.

Mariash said after he had legally agreed to the $11.5-million price with the province, he was talking to people in Los Angeles who warned him he would face trouble with the city.

“It was a little goofy that I was being encouraged here, and people in L.A. were warning me that people back here might not be so supportive,” he said.

Sure enough, Mariash found himself the owner of land zoned for condo buildings in a city where the municipal government was reluctant to grant development permits.

So he began meeting the community association, city councillors and the planning department. It set the project back at least two years, but work continued.

Mariash still blames the delay for the problems that resulted when Bayview, with its high-end condominiums, came on the market after the economic crash of 2008. Some buyers walked away from deposits, leaving units empty.

Regardless, Mariash assembled teams of architects to come up with design solutions. None were able to satisfy. To this day, he keeps eight different proposals pinned up in his office. He calls it “the wall of shame.”

So he devised the conceptual plan himself. Building taller, more slender towers would allow Vic West residents and passersby the chance to see the ocean through the gaps between buildings.

He doubled down on his land investment and took ownership of the adjacent Roundhouse property in 2009.

With the Roundhouse property, he has a chance to build a retail area of stores and services to complete what he believes will be a functioning neighbourhood. It will be a place where people can walk outside their condos to shop and eat, and will become a draw, for those living outside the area.

Work and discussions continue. For example, Mariash said he is hoping the city will offer heritage-style tax breaks to the businesses that become tenants in the Roundhouse. Despite delays, he is optimistic. “In all of our projects, we have been successful at an integrated outcome,” he said. “They are all successful in terms of tenants, buyers, users and the communities.

“The rewards are not entirely financial,” he said. “These are legacy projects that are long-term landmarks in a city.”

rwatts@timescolonist.com