Construction begins on mega housing development in downtown Victoria

Construction is underway on what’s being described as the largest multi-family housing project in Victoria’s history.

At full buildout, Harris Green Village is expected to bring more than 1,500 rental units to the downtown core.

Developer Starlight Investments held a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday for the development on Yates Street and Cook Street.

“This project is transformational for the city of Victoria (and) probably for the whole island,” said Howard Paskowitz, Starlight’s vice-president of development and public affairs.

“It’s the largest purpose-built rental project the island has seen.”

Harris Green Village will have a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom units spread across five towers. Eighty-eight of the units will be affordable, meaning rent will cost no more than 30 per cent of a household’s income.

Starlight Investments anticipates the first phase of construction will wrap in 2028, bringing two towers and 526 suites to the region.

The remaining three towers will be built later. One of them will stand 32 storeys tall, eclipsing the 25-storey Hudson Place One as Victoria’s tallest building.

“What you’ll see is a really vibrant downtown once this is built and occupied,” Paskowitz said.

City councillor Dave Thompson said the new units will make a “big dent” in Victoria’s housing shortage of roughly 8,000 units.

“We’re adding a need for another thousand every year, so it’s a big game of catch up,” Thompson said.

“We’ve got young people leaving the city because they can’t afford to live here. We’ve got businesses on the verge of failing because they can’t find workers who can afford to live in Victoria.”

Harris Green Village could bring some of those workers downtown, according to the Urban Development Institute (UDI), which advocates for local development.

“For people to work close to where they live, it helps with our transportation issues; it helps with our connectivity and the time that people get to spend not commuting,” said UDI policy & corporate relations manager Leah Bell.

In 2023, Starlight pushed back against a request from city council to reduce the number of parking stalls for the project. They landed on 359 underground spaces for the first two towers.

“The City of Victoria was keen on having that number kept at a lower number, which encourages more residents that don’t have cars to live here,” Paskowitz said.

The number of parking stalls for stages two and three of the project has yet to be determined.

Those later phases will see the development expand two blocks west to Quadra Street, where Market on Yates is located. The grocery store will get a new home closer to Cook Street during the first phase of construction.

It’s anticipated the London Drugs in the same area will stay open once the final towers are built.