Crystal Court Motel, closed and boarded up for nearly eight years, has a new owner who wants to bring new life to the high-profile site, surrounded by landmark Victoria properties and steps from the harbour.
Vancouver’s Concert Properties bought the vacant motel at 701 Belleville St. from Westbank Corp., also based in Vancouver.
Parts of the beige-and-blue E-shaped building are rotting and peeling.
The site was sold to Concert for $10 million, B.C. Assessment records say. It is assessed at $7.45 million.
This marks Concert’s second purchase in the block. In 2012, the developer bought the adjacent Queen Victoria Hotel and Suites and converted it into a rental apartment building.
“Obviously, the Crystal Court site is immediately in our front door and our view. It was important for us to secure it for exploration as to redevelopment,” Brian McCauley, Concert’s president and chief executive officer, said from Vancouver on Friday. “We don’t have a specific plan for it at the moment. We are in early days.” Concert is exploring the idea of a seniors’ community, McCauley said.
“We were just over in Victoria for the last couple of days meeting with various community groups to get a feel for some of the history around the site because we know various people have tried to rezone that property in the past and weren’t successful.”
Concert has completed other projects in Greater Victoria, including the nearby Astoria and Belvedere condominiums.
In 1950, when the Bevan family opened Crystal Court, it was a tidy and cheerful place built in a modernist style and had plenty of flowers. It served summer tourists and attracted visitors who stayed through the winter, returning year after year.
Developer Austin Hamilton bought Crystal Court in 2003, becoming the first non-family owner. Hamilton proposed a 14-storey condo tower with room for a satellite location of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. The plan failed. He sold the site and the motel was shut down.
Crystal Court is in the heart of the city’s tourist district. Surrounding it are Crystal Garden, the Canadian Pacific Lawn Bowling Club, the Empress Hotel, the Victoria Conference Centre, the Royal B.C. Museum and St. Ann’s Academy.
Pedestrians going by the B.C. legislature and museum, “get to Douglas and it is really a no man’s land, frankly,” McCauley said.
“It is a really good opportunity to animate and energize Belleville all the way through to St. Ann’s Academy on the one end and Douglas Street going up the hill towards Beacon Hill Park.”
McCauley pointed out that Nat Bosa, the Empress’s new owner, is hoping to redevelop the bus depot on the hotel property, kitty-corner to the Crystal Court site.
“I think there’s a way that we can do something that would really enhance the pedestrian experience at that intersection of Douglas and Belleville,” McCauley said.
Victoria Coun. Pamela Madoff said the most important consideration is the height of any new building. It is at an intersection between three precincts: James Bay, Fairfield and the Inner Harbour, and looks over to the Humboldt Valley. “I think it is one of the most difficult sites in the city because it is such a sensitive location of transition.”
As you come along Belleville, building heights step down to acknowledge the heritage sites, she said. The city’s Official Community Plan has designated some areas as suitable for 20-storey towers, but this is not one of them, Madoff said. She has asked city staff to provide information on what is permitted on the motel site.
