Island Health is seeking a consultant to look at how the rocky chunk of land where the now-demolished Oak Bay Lodge once stood could be redeveloped.
A request for proposals published this week calls for consultants to assess the idea of developing the 1.6-hectare property on Cadboro Bay Road with an “anchor” health service.
“The Oak Bay Lodge redevelopment project represents a significant potential benefit to the community,” Island Health said in a statement Friday.
The health authority has been working with the Capital Regional Hospital District, which owns the property, and the District of Oak Bay on potential future uses of the site since 2021, it said.
The parties are developing a memorandum of understanding to guide the process.
“We are interested in seeing that land reach its fullest potential,” said Oak Bay Mayor Kevin Murdoch, chair of the Capital Region Housing Corporation’s board.
The goal is to understand what services are viable for that site and what’s feasible from an operational perspective, he said Friday. Considerable community consultation has been carried out previously.
Residents of the lodge, built in 1972, were moved to the Summit on Hillside Avenue before the building was demolished.
The request for proposals says the economic feasibility study will show hospital status for at least some of the land and buildings and services, and incorporate a list of high-priority Island Health-run health services that could go onto the site.
The study will also consider other health services — both private and not-for-profit — on the property and could include relocating existing services to the site, it says.
Possible other services, such as supportive housing and government-funded programs for housing and daycare, will be considered, it says.
The consultant will look at the feasibility of private development.
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