The owner of the former Plaza Hotel site, which has sat empty since the hotel burned down in 2019, is bringing a proposal for a new 12-storey hotel at the corner of Government Street and Pandora Avenue to nearby residents this month.
Ocean Gate Developments plans to host a meeting Feb. 20 to present its proposal to those living within 200 metres of the site, as well as the Victoria Downtown Residents Association land-use committee.
The company is proposing a 198-room hotel with a two-storey commercial space on the ground level and a large outdoor public plaza.
The plaza would include a misting feature, rest areas and trees. The hotel would have four levels of underground parking.
Ocean Gate Developments bought the 65-room hotel in 2016. Two years ago, the company unveiled plans for a seven-storey hotel on the site, with about 145 rooms.
Francis Mairet, co-owner of Ocean Gate Developments and owner of Victoria-based hotel-management firm Mairet Hotels, said that plan was first put together in 2020, but it’s no longer feasible to get a project of that size financed, because the expected revenue would not cover construction expenses.
“There is no possible way that something like this can be done. So we had to go back to the drawing board,” he said.
In its proposal, Ocean Gate Developments noted that Victoria has lost nearly 1,200 hotel rooms to redevelopment or supportive housing over the past decade.
Mairet said new provincial rules coming into effect in May limiting short-term rentals like Airbnb to principal residences and a secondary suite will further decrease accommodation in the city. “Because of that, we feel that this is a good time for us to actually try to get this done,” he said.
The plan would require a rezoning of the property at 603 Pandora Ave. and an amendment to the Official Community Plan to allow for higher density. An application is expected to be submitted to the city following a land-use committee consultation meeting on Feb. 20.
Paul Nursey, president and CEO of Destination Greater Victoria, wouldn’t comment on the specific proposal, but said the city is short on hotel rooms.
The proposal will be reviewed by the tourism association this month, he said.
The Plaza Hotel, which opened in 1911 as the Westholme Hotel, was reduced to rubble by a fire on May 6, 2019, that police said was deliberately set.
Michael Draeger, the live-in caretaker of the empty hotel, might have died in the blaze. An extensive search of the building turned up no human remains.
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