BC Housing proposes mixed-use redevelopment of Victoria hotel currently housing homeless

The Capital CityCenter Hotel on Douglas Street is seen in this photo from the BC Housing website.

A Victoria hotel that has been providing temporary housing for the homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic may soon be redeveloped, BC Housing announced this week.

The proposal calls for the Capital CityCenter Hotel on Douglas Street and the neighbouring White Spot property at 710 Caledonia Avenue to be replaced by a "mixed-use, mixed-income" development with more than 400 new homes.

BC Housing has partnered with Chard Development Ltd. on the project, and is applying to the city for rezoning of the two properties, as well as nearby lots at 722 and 726 Discovery St.

The plan would see a new supportive housing building constructed on the Discovery Street lots, which are currently surface parking and are owned by the province. That facility would be built first, and people currently living at the hotel would be offered the opportunity to move into the new building.

Our Place Society, which has been managing the Capital CityCenter Hotel since October 2020, would be the operator of the new supportive housing facility.

Once the hotel is empty, it and the White Spot would be knocked down and replaced with a new, multi-purpose development.

The current proposal on the BC Housing website does not include details on the size or composition of the new building or buildings, which would start being constructed after the supportive housing facility is completed in summer 2023. 

"The proposal currently includes purpose-built-and-designed supportive housing, market rental units, below-market rental units, office units, child care, a public plaza, commercial retail, a grocery store and condominiums," according to the description on the BC Housing website.

How many of the more than 400 homes planned for the site would fall into each category is not specified.