Esquimalt is booming, targetting 800 new housing units this year

CTV News Vancouver Island recently moved its office to Esquimalt. The news team used the move as an opportunity to get a state-of-the-union from the mayor.

The tiny township of Esquimalt, B.C., is punching above its weight when it comes to building new homes.

“Esquimalt councils have passed over 3,000 units of housing to be coming forward,” Mayor Barb Desjardins told CTV News. “This year alone, we expect 800 units to actually be completed and filled up with new residents.”

In 2024, the provincial government tasked Esquimalt with building at least 754 new housing units over five years. At this rate, the township will blow past its target.

When Desjardins was elected mayor 17 years ago, she said the community was shrinking.

“We really didn’t have a lot of development going on and we were losing commercial stores,” she said.

Today, it’s difficult to drive anywhere in the community without getting delayed by construction, particularly on Esquimalt Road.

“Because we’re already built out, anything that gets done means you’re removing something and then building up,” Desjardins said.

Municipal council has tasked staff with a development capacity assessment, examining Esquimalt’s infrastructure and services, she said.

“We’re a community that’s over 100 years old and so the challenge that we have is making sure that we continue to fund and update our infrastructure, such that it’s meeting the needs of today, but also those needs of tomorrow,” she said.

Over the next few years, the mayor anticipates Esquimalt’s population will jump from roughly 18,000 people to 20,000 people.

Is a retail boom coming too?

As more people consider putting down roots in Esquimalt, Desjardins said some business owners are doing the same.

The owner of Esquimalt Roasting Company said setting up shop in the township in 2021 was the right move.

“What I saw when I wanted to do business in Esquimalt was a hidden community of people who were looking for a broader variety of services that didn’t necessarily exist in Esquimalt at that time… so they would leave Esquimalt to go and get them,” owner Greg Sherwell said.

He said he’d like to see more restaurants and retail spaces come to the community.

“The rapid density increase that’s happening at the moment … is only going to increase in its speed in the next five to 10 years,” he said.

“The corridor of Esquimalt Road is going to noticeably change dramatically, and so there’s going to be a lot more demand from the local population.”

Like the community, the demographics of the Navy town have evolved. While much of the population is still seniors, Sherwell and Desjardins said young people are moving in.

“Our customer base is quite broad,” Sherwell said. “We get a lot of people who have lived in Esquimalt for many, many, many years. And we also get the new families (and) the younger people who are coming to live in Esquimalt because of all of the things that it has to offer.”