Address:
1885 Government Street is a proposal to redevelop the Victoria Transmission & Auto Care property, along with the adjacent Sam Kee Laundry Building, into a six-storey, mixed-use purpose-built rental and ground floor retail development along the 1800-block of Government Street at Chatham Street in downtown Victoria's Old Town.
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A project that will transform a corner of Victoria’s Old Town has cleared its first city council hurdle.
Council has voted unanimously to move forward a six‑storey, 79-unit rental project at the corner of Government and Chatham streets, just north of Chinatown.
The developers are seeking heritage designation for the 1908 two-storey building, known as the Sam Kee Laundry building, although they don’t have concrete plans for it.
After operating out of the same building for 61 years, Victoria Transmission has to move out of its downtown home to make way for redevelopment.
Matt Turner, one of the partners of Victoria Transmission, says ever since construction started across the street four years ago, operating the business became more challenging.
“Mostly in the sense where we were dealing with a lot noise,” he said, speaking outside of the business on the corner of Government and Chatham streets.
“We have road closures quite frequently to where two thirds of our parking lot access gets blocked off. We get customers that aren’t sure how to get into our lot, or they simply can’t. Sometimes, when they come in, they pick up nails and screws that we’ve got to fix, employees have trouble hearing over the phone.”
Turner said after recently surveying his employees, almost everyone reported feeling more stressed due to the heightened noise, at a workplace that is already typically noisy.
“It’s just a constant noise, it’s just the constant drone over hours and hours and hours. You may not notice it, but you physically feel it at the end of the day,” he said.
“And not to mention the extra frustration, if you’re trying to communicate with someone to a coworker or a customer, and you can’t communicate properly because of this drone.”
After dealing with that for years, the business now has to deal with the sale of the property and plans submitted to the city to redevelop.
Transmission shop complains about noise. :1954_dancing:
“We have road closures quite frequently to where two thirds of our parking lot access gets blocked off. We get customers that aren’t sure how to get into our lot, or they simply can’t. Sometimes, when they come in, they pick up nails and screws that we’ve got to fix, employees have trouble hearing over the phone.”
So is the situation really grinding their gears or is he just giving us the gears? As you can tell, I'm trying to remain neutral.
As you can tell, I'm trying to remain neutral.
I'm a forumer and a gentleman.*
*Richard Gere
Pic of transmission building project...
As I often say, I just wish these kinds of projects would make the ground level pillars/dividers more interesting and distinctive, rather than repeating the exact same look as the levels above. Even something as simple as switching up the brick cladding for a different colour/different texture or slapping a polished concrete column over the brick would work wonders and feel much more like the old town vibe.
Victoria Transmission to make way for mixed-use rental and retail project on Government at Chatham
79 rental homes and multiple ground floor retail spaces are planned at site of Victoria Transmission's auto repair shop.