The Queen Victoria Hotel and Suites building is being converted into rental units.
Vancouver-based Concert Properties acquired the 47-year-old, eight-storey building at 655 Douglas St. from the Hartnell family this year and took possesion on Friday.
"Over the next month or so, we'll be thoroughly assessing the condition of the building and establishing a plan for converting the suites to residential rental apartments," Concert spokeswoman Heather Harley said Tuesday.
"These will not be age restricted, but rather will be available to all," she said. It will be rebranded as The Q Apartments. No firm occupancy date has been set. That will follow the evaluation of the building and the conversion.
The Queen Victoria, with 146 rooms, closed Oct. 1 after Concert bought the building from members of the Hartnell family for $19.25 million. A landmark in the city's core, the hotel was developed by the late Peter Hartnell and his development partner Vincent Patterson.
Concert Properties is developing the 16-storey Era condominium project in the 700 block of Yates Street. It has also built the 365 Waterfront condominium at the Selkirk Waterfront, as well as the Belvedere, the Astoria, and the Chelsea, all in Victoria.
The Q Apartments will add to a growing rental pool in Greater Victoria, where the rental vacancy rate was 2.1 per cent last fall, up from 1.5 per cent in 2010.
The region has 23,987 purpose-built rental units. Another 19,244 units are used as rentals in what is called the secondary market, made up of condos, single-family houses, townhouses, duplexes and suites.
