Proposed downtown hotel gets green light from Victoria city council

Vancouver -

Victoria’s downtown is about to get a new landmark hotel, the first in nearly 20 years, and with it, an economic boost to local businesses.

Victoria City Council has given the go-ahead for a 20-storey tower at the corner of Fort and Blanshard streets.

Along with commercial and office space, the 128-room hotel will offer flexible living spaces with kitchenettes, suited to working travellers and long-term visitors.

The unique design was created by local architect Franc D'Ambrosio and his team.

“It’s beautiful,” says Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps.

“The glass atrium will be welcoming during the day and during the night. It’s a spectacular, triangular gold building. It is Victoria 3.0. It’s what the future looks like.”

Merchant House Capital, the company behind the development, has named the building “Wintergarden and Spire Hotel” according to its website. 

“The innovative hotel/office mixed-use project reflects a dramatic reinterpretation of an urban hotel environment, while showcasing Victoria’s emerging presence as a preferred location of the tech economy and Fort Street, Victoria's most prominent retail streetscape,” the company says.

It’s expected tourists and visitors to the hotel will have a direct impact on local businesses.

“It’s going to be transformational for the wonderful small businesses on Fort Street,” says Helps.

“Most of all, it’s a sign of significant optimism about the future of the downtown and the future of Victoria.”

Merchant House CEO David Fullbrook also sees the development as a way of showcasing an area of Victoria that tourists don’t usually visit, yet has so much to offer.

“We’re going to create an entry point for visitors to Victoria that they haven’t really seen, which is the Victoria that we all know, with the smaller restaurants and the food scene, the retail scene along Fort Street,” says Fullbrook. “That makes Victoria a more interesting city.”

The plan also includes significant renovations and some seismic upgrades to the three-storey 1912 Montrose Apartments on the corner of View and Blanshard streets, all on the same block as the new hotel.

The developer is keeping the building’s retailers on the ground floor and the 21 rental units, hoping not to displace the current residents during the renovations.

Fullbrook says the developer entered into a rental protection agreement with the city, which means that if it has to terminate tenancies or relocate tenants due to construction, it has a policy in place that residents will be subsidized as they move out of the building and able to return after construction at the original rental rate they were paying before.

“It’s a project that meets the times,” says Fullbrook. “Tourism is changing; tourism is being impacted by people who want to have an authentic, local experience, so I think that’s what we’re delivering.”

It’s the second hotel project Victoria councilors have approved in the past three months, the other is on the corner of Johnson and Broad streets.

There are currently no timelines for construction starts, nor is there an expected completion date for the latest project.