Address:
735 Hillside Avenue is a six-storey, mixed-use purpose-built rental and ground floor commercial complex along the 700-block of Hillside Avenue in Victoria's Humber Green neighbourhood.
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Victoria council has approved a tax break worth about $1.38 million over 10 years for developers upgrading the historic Scott building on Douglas Street.
City staff had recommended declining the application, noting the project failed to meet more than half the required criteria for the incentive program.
But Coun. Matt. Dell, who sits on the board of the Victoria Civic Heritage Foundation, said the project deserved a break, noting that it’s maintaining heritage features of a 112-year old building, and bringing 146 units of rental housing to the market in difficult financial conditions, including high interest rates and soaring labour and construction costs.
“I don’t think this tax exemption even covers probably a shred of what it costs to try to preserve most of this heritage building to keep it updated and also dealing with the increased cost of construction,” he said, adding it’s worth the city throwing “a couple of chips in to make sure that this project goes ahead and that we preserve this important building in the city.”
He also noted the estimated construction cost is more than $59 million, which means property taxes, after the tax break runs out in 10 years, will be high.
Great decision by the City IMO. It's a bit of break for people trying to preserve what is left in this town.
Meanwhile, my property taxes went up 26% this year.
Is it just me or are the (new) bricks on the ground floor completely mismatched with the rest?
I'm out of the loop on this one. I was under the mistaken impression that 100% of the cladding would be dark, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the contrast between the dark stuff and the silvery stuff.
pic from https://mg-architecture.ca/project/the-scott-building:
Click here to view attachment.
https://thescottliving.com/floorplans/
Wayback Machine, August 10th, 2025:
1 bedroom from $2,350
1 bedroom + den from $2,495
2 bedroom from $3,250
3 bedroom from $3,800
Scott Building transformation and adjacent parking lot redevelopment to yield over 90 rental units
Victoria's historic Scott Building on Douglas Street at Hillside Avenue to be repurposed into rentals and its parking lot redeveloped.