Vancouver-based Aragon Properties has bought the historic 106-year-old English Inn and its development properties totalling 4.3 acres in Esquimalt.
“We are starting the design, development and planning of the site. We are very excited about the opportunity it offers,” David Roppel, Aragon’s director of planning and development, said Thursday.
“It is an extremely unique property, anywhere in the world and particularly in Esquimalt and the Victoria area. It has immense opportunity for us.”
Aragon closed the sale on Monday, making it the second property the company owns in the capital region. After purchasing the former Trio Ready-Mix Ltd. property in Cordova Bay in late 2014, Aragon officials have been meeting with area residents to draw up a residential development plan for that 26-acre site.
A rezoning proposal could be submitted to Saanich this summer, Roppel said. Aragon’s portfolio include projects in New Westminster and Toronto.
In Esquimalt, the English Inn and surrounding land have gone through a roller-coaster of ownership over its lifetime. Called Rosemead, it was originally built as a private home for businessman Thomas Henry Slater and his wife, Elizabeth.
Dynamic tourism promoter Sam Lane and his wife, Rosina, bought it after the Second World War. They renamed it the Olde England Inn, turned it into a guesthouse and put up buildings to mimic Shakespearean times. The site changed hands over the years. When previous owners saw the venture collapse financially, the Lanyard Group of Companies, which held the main mortgage, took over the property, buying it out of receivership in 2011.
Vancouver-based Lanyard led the site through a major rezoning process that would permit about 225,800 square feet of building in a range of configurations on the development site. When it put the property on the market, the Inn, on 1.13 acres, and the development lands, on 3.24 acres, were for sale individually or as a package.
The sale price was not released. Together, the sites were listed at $8.55 million through Colliers International’s Victoria office.
Its three-storey, heritage-registered hotel was designed by renowned architect Samuel Maclure. It covers 21,340 square feet, including an annex, and is a popular site for weddings and other events through the year.
“The current plan is to keep the hotel operating as it is and enhance it as a destination for the region,” Roppel said.
Its “huge, high-end kitchen creates lots of potential for us,” he said. The hotel received $4.5 million in upgrading in the past decade.
Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins calls the sale a “fantastic thing.”
The English Inn’s manager has done an “outstanding” job, she said, adding that the new owner can build on the restored vibrancy at that facility.
With zoning in place on the development site, “it’s an easy transition into almost an automatic project should they wish to do that,” Desjardins said.
Construction on the development lands will add new residents and their families to that area of Esquimalt, she said. New housing will create a “ready-made audience for the Inn to continue to be the grand old lady it is.”
“We are looking forward to welcoming any development that will bring in people and families to our community.” Desjardins was re-elected as mayor last year on a platform that included fostering tourism, growth and development, and offering housing options in the community.
