Address:
The Hyatt Centric Victoria Hotel development is an eight-storey, 167-room hotel with ground floor retail space. The project will incorporate a heritage-restored Duck's Building (built in 1892) at 1314-1324 Broad Street, a replacement of the Canada Hotel at 615-625 Johnson Street and a new-build portion on a surface parking lot south of the Duck's Building.
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The Duck's Building facade (dating from 1892) awaiting further decisions, I guess.
From what I can tell from the city's development tracker, it looks like this was on the agenda of a Feb. 11 meeting re: a Heritage Alteration Permit, ahead of consideration of requested rezoning and other variances.
In case anyone was curious about what the actual revision will look like:
That part of downtown is begging for this change.
This is huge news for downtown Victoria. The downtown, especially that part of downtown, needs fresh energy. Johnson Street looks so dumpy between Government and Cook.
Officials broke ground Wednesday on the first new hotel building in nearly two decades in Victoria.
The 167 rooms in the eight-storey Hyatt-branded hotel, expected to open in 2028 at Broad and Johnson streets, comes amid increasing demand from leisure travellers and conference delegates.
“A new hotel is very much needed,” said Paul Nursey, chief executive of Destination Greater Victoria, which markets tourism and conferences in the region.
He said visitor numbers are up just over 4% this year, and the number of major business conferences has increased, to about 30 a year. Both the tourism and conference sectors have continued to climb at a steady rate since the pandemic, even as the number of hotels has dwindled in the area.
Nursey said the new hotel will help the tourism industry remain competitive when bidding to bring large events to the region.
The new hotel by Chard Developments and Knightstone Hotel Group will cover major portions of Broad and Johnson streets downtown on the historic Duck’s Building property, preserving the 1890s-era building’s facade and back wall.
It will feature 5,000 square feet on the ground floor for a cafe and restaurant with a combined 215 seats, and 2,000 square feet of meeting space.
Jeff Bray, chief executive of the Downtown Victoria Business Association, said there is a need for new hotel rooms and called the new build an important economic driver for downtown. He said it will bring “new life” to downtown and Broad Street in particular.
“It’s a new business on the street that will have daytime activity, evening activity with a restaurant and will add a new vibrancy overall,” said Bray. “Imagine this street after 5 p.m. when this is open. That’s what really excites me. Lights on, people coming and going, food and beverages. We need that here.”
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