VICTORIA -- Mass timber construction seems to be taking off on Vancouver Island. It’s being touted as a fast, sustainable way to build and now Langford has broken ground in the industry.

A warehouse built out of mass timber is now under construction in the city, marking the first of its kind in Canada.

The warehouse, located on Field View Place in Langford, has seen rapid construction in just two weeks.

It’s the third project in Langford built using mass timber construction. The first being Westhills Stadium, followed by a District 56 development on Peatt Road that is still under construction.

The District 56 project will be home to Vancouver Islands tallest residential building, dubbed Tallwood 1, which will measure 12-stories tall and be made out of mass timber construction.

Langford Mayor Stew Young says his municipality is always looking for innovative projects that can be built quickly.

“We can get permits out really fast but then what is really interesting in these new buildings with cross laminated timber (is that) you can actually build them fast,” said Young.

“So you can come to Langford, buy a piece of property and if you have cross laminated timber – which we support – the process is just that much faster,” he said.

“We like to see innovation out here.”

Tom Moore, lead designer for the warehouse project, says that the fast construction time that mass timber offers is appealing to developers and property owners.

“This is our first project in an industrial setting building a warehouse,” said Moore. “The benefits of this is the speed of construction.”

“For developers and owners of properties, that saves you money on interests costs for financing the project,” he said.

Moore adds that building with mass timber construction is a more sustainable form of construction.

Unlike traditional steel and cement structures, mass timber properties are prefabricated off site then assembled at their final destination.

It’s also providing much-needed jobs in the province’s forestry sector. The more mass timber construction that will take place, the greater the need for raw materials.

Langford’s mass timber warehouse is slated to finish construction later this summer.