Grosvenor Property Canada has assumed full control of Broadmead Village as reported by Storeys on January 30, 2026. Grosevnor indicated future redevelopment is possible stating “acquiring grocery-anchored retail at scale with future redevelopment potential is an approach we are very focused on here in Canada.”
The implosion of Ocean Gate's proposal for the old Plaza Hotel site at Government and Pandora Avenue was likely inevitable considering the financial and planning pressures it faced combined with a poorly executed design. The lot at 603 Pandora has been the subject of various proposals over the years, from heritage alterations, additions and more recently a new hotel following the arson fire in May 2019.
Ocean Gate has announced the sale of the lot indicating the Old Town zoning height restriction of five storeys made their proposal economically unviable. Truth is with a better design the City was willing to make an exception. Mayor Marianne Alto previously called it "a really boring building" and she and other councillors were "not concerned particularly about the height". In May 2025 they gave Ocean Gate another chance to come up with a redesign for their proposed 12-storey, 198 room Hampton Inn hotel. CHEK News reported on January 29, 2026 that the site has been purchased by local tech company RedBrick and well known local developer Aryze Developments, who released the joint statement:
“Redbrick, a Victoria-founded and headquartered group of companies, is partnering with Aryze, both certified B-Corp organizations, with a strong track record of thoughtful, high-quality work. Together, it is their intent to bring forward a hotel that honours Victoria’s past, contributes thoughtfully to its future, and adds lasting value to the downtown core.”
Aryze is no stranger to controversy both for their designs and practices, but to their credit they ignore the War Amps' advice to Play Safe when it comes to their building architecture. As for Redbrick, the local tech company headed by CEO Tobyn Sowden is currently located in Jawl's Rotunda building at 1515 Douglas Street across from City Hall. Are they branching out into the development game or will the proposed hotel also include office space for a new headquarters? Only time will tell, so as the saying goes, keep your dial tuned to MappingVictoria's Breaking News!
It's been a quiet month for new housing developments in the City of Victoria, with only the 6-storey, 22 apartment proposal at 915 McClure Street being submitted to city planners. This is perhaps due to the January doldrums, but more the result of continued real estate market uncertainty, falling rents, rental vacancies reaching a 25 year high at 3.3% at the end of 2025. and a city that is already well ahead of the provincially mandated housing targets.
All that being said, there is still interesting tidbits in the development proposal world - usually not important enough to share here under Breaking News, so be sure to check out Latest Site Updates under the home tab. Of interest this week is the Saanich proposal for 3468 Tillicum Road where revised plans were submitted on January 27th. The original submission was unanimously rejected with comments comparing it View Towers and noting the "building is large, monolithic, slab-like, and top-heavy, with excessive floor plate and overall mass." The revised plans dont' appear to address Saanich's Advisory Design Panel concerns, so it's hard to see how this one moves forward.
Speaking of large and bulky, a Saanich proposal which will no doubt proceed in some form is the 17-storey Sinclair Road student housing tower at the University of Victoria. While the University does not require Saanich's approval to proceed, the Advisory Design Panel, while generally supportive also noted "The architecture was characterized as austere, institutional, or lacking warmth and residential character." We should see if any changes are made in the next few months, keep the dial tuned to MappingVictoria for all the breaking news! ;)
On January 19, 2026 the provincial government announced it was appointing a housing advisor to work with the District of North Saanich, review their progress and make recommendations on how to increase housing supply. This week we learned the advisor was not a government official or bureaucrat, instead they've hired CBRE Development Strategy and Consulting under a two-month contract worth $50,000. North Saanich only built 12 new homes in 2025, missing the first year target of 60. North Saanich Mayor Peter Jones discussed the infrastructure challenges which makes it harder to build new homes as well as possible use of airport or federal land. Green Party MLA for the riding Rob Botterell shared a press release on January 27th stating in part:
“The federal airport lands at YYJ could play a critical role in delivering affordable housing for local workers in a manner that respects the environment and community plans. People working at the airport, the Amazon warehouse, Thrifty Foods, BC Ferries and the many businesses in North Saanich and Sidney are rarely reflected in housing policy decisions—but they should be. I’ve been assured by the Minister of Housing that the new advisor will seriously consider the YYJ lands.
On December 3, 2025 we reported on Aryze Developments and their likely long shot plan for a 27-acre mixed use community on the 1500 block of McTavish Road which would allow North Saanich to meet their housing targets for the next 20 years.
As reported by CHEK TV, last night Victoria City Council unanimously voted in favour of the Capital Culture District proposed by Reliance Properties with final rubber stamp approval to follow once all the legal and planning requirements are in place. Other details emerged in the council meeting not reported by CHEK; for example, clarity on the number of housing units. In response to a Councillor Krista Laughton's question Reliance Properties president and CEO Jon Stovell stated current plans called for 484 strata condo and 157 rental suites for a total of 641. Stovell also indicated a possible build out of the full project within 7-10 years depending on market conditions with a new home for the Greater Victoria Art Gallery included in the first phase.
Reliance Properties is contributing the land as public amenity at no cost; however, now it's up the Art Gallery to raise the funds necessary for construction. Current contingency plans are to extend the public plaza to include the proposed gallery footprint if they are unable to do so. The Gallery's 2025-2030 Strategic Plan references a new home as one of five goals, but no other information has been made available at this time including costs. In April 2022 the Gallery named Nancy Noble as the new Director and CEO which is significant because as the director of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia from 2016-2022 she led an international design competition for their new waterfront gallery and raised $110 million towards its $140 million capital campaign. The new Nova Scotia Art Gallery was paused indefinitely by the provincial government in June 2022 citing concerns about spiraling construction costs which would have pushed the budget far beyond the initial $137 million.
The July 27, 2022 Global News story also reported "the province had committed $70 million to the project, the federal government $30 million and Halifax Regional Municipality committed $7 million. As well, the Donald R. Sobey Foundation and the Sobey Foundation pledged $10 million for the project in November 2020." Ah yes, Sobeys, the Nova Scotia based grocery firm that bought out local Victoria chain Thrifty Foods in 2007. Should be interesting to see to what extent they contribute to the fund raising effort as the Sobey family are well known art collectors and their private art collection was featured at the Victoria Art Gallery in 2024.
As for the the cost of a new Victoria art gallery in 2026 dollars, a conservative estimate would be in the $120-150 million range as the initial plans are not as ambitious as the Halifax design by KPMB. Which leads us to the final consideration - all councillors and Mayor Alto spoke positively about the proposal and it's impact on the northern edge of downtown, but there was little to no mention of the actual architecture and design of the buildings. Discussion did occur about pathways, site access, street level issues, commercial space, plazas - all very important considerations to be sure: however no one was wowed by the buildings themselves. While the age of wacky art gallery and libraries is hopefully behind us, the building itself is very utilitarian as are the residential and light industrial buildings. Overall the look will be cohesive, the surroundings pleasant but not inspiring or a draw in themselves. What's your take - agree or agree to disagree?
With so much uncertainty in the development and real estate market I decided I needed not just one, but two crystal balls to predict what lies ahead in 2026. But like all crystal ball visions (and hotboxed cars) expect puffs of smoke, hazy views and a bit of confusion. Now that I've lowered expectations it can only go up from here.
Yates Street Cooking
The Cook and Yates street intersection will be an interesting one to watch in 2026 - of interest to some will be the opening of Popeye's Chicken in the Nest. Hey now, finally an appropriate location for Popeye's - better than Tuscany Village, no? Across the street at 1101 Yates we won't see anything rising, but possible approval of Jawl Properties' 19 and 6-storey buildings; however, don't expect construction until 2027 at the earliest. On the west side of the intersection we'll see 1050 Yates start to pile on the storeys above ground while 1045 Yates will be fully excavated and the concrete will flow as the underground parking is built.
1050 Yates with The Nest condo in the background - photo Dec 26, 2025
1101 Yates St Proposal
1045 Yates St - photo Dec 24, 2025
Design Reveals
2026 will see the design unveiling of two massive projects - the new $209 million Crystal Pool replacement and the $416 million Belleville Terminal. While work is underway with the removal of the existing Clipper Terminal building and dredging to remove contaminated soils, the design of the new terminal building has yet to be finalized. Indications are it'll reflect an Indigenous design and a low building height to preserve harbour views. As for the Crystal Pool the last quarterly update on October 27, 2025 stated "schematic design kicked off in mid-October and preliminary technical site studies have wrapped up". The City plans to take over the YMCA Broughton Street location by Fall 2026 for the five year construction period; hopefully we'll see the plans for the new before they demolish the old. Is it me or is five years a crazy long time for a pool/recreation facility?
Another building set for a final reveal is UVic's 17-storey student housing on Sinclair Road which will be released in early Spring 2026 with construction to follow shortly after. We can only hope the initial renderings by highly respected Diamond Schmitt Architects were more concept/massing studies or misplaced drawings for a medium security prison facility.
September 20, 2022 CHEK story on the project
Design to be determined - image © City of Victoria
Douglas Street Corridor
We're beginning to see some action on the various master plans around town many of which have been in the works for years with big name developers and political support behind them. Perhaps more interesting is long anticipated densification of the Douglas Street corridor from the north side of downtown through to Mayfair Shopping Centre and linking up to Saanich's Uptown Douglas Plan.
The rezoning by Saanich is already having an impact as plans for a Mercedes dealership were dropped in favour of 23 and 21 storey residential towers at 816 Cloverdale Avenue. The stretch of Douglas street from The Crystal Gardens to Whole Foods at Uptown is 4.2 km in length and has been discussed as a future light rail transit route. The Burnside neighbourhood section is about to undergo a long overdue transformation while the City aims to retain light industrial land in the area. While not quite a stroad, coming into downtown via Douglas is not the greatest introduction to Victoria and hopefully the changes incorporate pedestrian friendly street level and neighbourhood design in addition to the inevitable residential towers.
The Douglas Street Corridor will be the subject of a future deep dive here on MappingVictoria, but for the 2026 Crystal Balls forecast we present a visual overview proposed or under construction projects along the corridor. Before we get to look at pictures let's start with a longer term residential development strategy on the route as reported by CRBE in their Victoria Industrial Figures Q3 report:
In Q2 2025, Jim Pattison acquired a portfolio of three car dealerships in the Midtown area and included two adjacent properties, Campus Infiniti and Campus Nissan, with Campus Honda located separately. Subsequently, at the end of Q3 2025, Jim Pattison finalized the acquisition of Campus Acura, which is also adjacent to the initial two co-located properties. The three contiguous dealerships (Campus Infiniti, Campus Nissan, and Campus Acura) are reportedly being considered for redevelopment into a residential site, while simultaneously providing substantial holding income.
1961 Douglas St - Under Construction
2659 Douglas St - Nearing Completion
584 Burnside Rd E - Completed in 2025
611 Speed Ave - Nearing Completion
3075 Douglas St - Proposal
760 Tolmie Ave - Proposal
816 Cloverdale Ave - Proposal
For a deeper dive into 2026 check out MappingVictoria's Project Listing page for proposed and under construction projects.
Uptown Residential - Proposal
Not the Samuel Maclure - perhaps the developers are confused on the origins of the street name; hopefully not a harbinger of things to come. Check out MappingVictoria's project page for 915 McClure for clarity on the naming confusion but more importantly the building info for this 6 storey rental building by Harbinger Properties.
Project plans were submitted and received by the City on December 23, 2025. The Christine Lintott Architects designed slim apartment building replaces a duplex on the edge of downtown in the Fairfield neighbourhood.
