If Victoria council gives the green light to Stan Sipos’s $40-million redevelopment at the corner of Government and Wharf streets, the Old Town of Victoria should be classed as an endangered species, says the city’s oldest heritage preservation society.
“If they get the go-ahead with this one they might as well write Old Town off,” said Hallmark Heritage Society president Ken Johnson. “Old Town is the way it is today because 25 years ago they passed a bylaw that stated height restrictions and zoning in Old Town shall be 15 metres high.”
Sipos’ proposed development would demolish and replace the Canada Customs building at 816 Government St. and gut and renovate the adjoining heritage building that faces Wharf Street with a mixed-use project. It goes to a public meeting before council tonight. The proposal is seeking a zoning change for density and height.
The seven-storey project proposes 56,000 square feet of office space, 43 rental residential units and 14,000 square feet of retail wrapping around the block on the ground floor.
Johnson said the proposed new development contravenes the city’s own Old Town guidelines.
“Our main issues are the proposed height of the building and the design. It doesn’t really fit into the guidelines,” he said. “In this instance, the developer feels he has met them. We tend to disagree.”
Johnson noted the existing building doesn’t meet their tastes, either. “That’s why we are not objecting to the demolition. No one is saying we should save the 1956 building,” he said.
According to the city’s Old Town guidelines, some of the characteristics of historic buildings are that they range in height between one and five storeys, have classically inspired proportion and building elements and tend to be load-bearing brick and stone buildings.
Old Town is deemed to be between Chatham and Humboldt streets and between Wharf and Douglas streets.
Sipos said there’s simply no pleasing everyone with developments like this.
“Everyone can have an opinion. [The Hallmark Heritage Society] is very hardcore in its stance, but we are more concerned with working with the Downtown Residents Association and the planning [department],” Sipos said, noting they have spent the past couple of years coming up with a design that is agreeable to most people.
“We are restoring a building that has really been let go,” Sipos said, adding while they will spend heavily to restore and seismically upgrade some of it, they have also worked to mitigate the impact it will have.
The two buildings have been empty for years after the federal government and small retailers moved on.
The building facing Government Street will be razed to the ground and replaced with a more open and bright structure, while the heritage building facing Wharf Street will be gutted, seismically upgraded and re-imagined while maintaining its facade.
“It’s been a long road and I’m hopeful we can get started and make an impact on the core,” said Sipos.
He said the development will bring 350 to 400 office workers back downtown, add more than 40 residents to the mix and pull in shoppers with new up-market stores. “I’m hopeful it really is a catalyst for change on Government, that’s the intention.”
