A rezoning submission has been submitted to Victoria to build a new 12-storey hotel on the grounds where the Plaza Hotel once stood prior to it burning down in 2019.
The proposed building would be built on the corner of Pandora Avenue and Government Street where, in the last four years, a plywood wall with pandemic messages has been.
The new hotel, the Hampton Inn, would be built and run by Ocean Gate Developments Ltd., the same company who purchased the Plaza Hotel back in 2016, just three years before it burnt to the ground.
The Hampton Inn would feature 198 mid-priced and family focussed rooms with amenities as well as ground floor commercial retail space.
Related:
- VicPD says Plaza Hotel caretaker may have died in fire, names him as suspect in arson investigation
- Victoria Police confirm arson was the cause of downtown Plaza Hotel fire
- Plaza hotel caretaker Mike Draeger remains missing 5 days after downtown fire
They also intend on building a public plaza along government street that they say would compliment the public spaces already throughout the downtown core.
They hope to see around 70,000 guests per year.
For the look of the building, they plan on it being a mixture of contemporary architecture with influences of the Edwardian and classical period. This aesthetic is what makes up many of the buildings downtown which were built between 1901 and 1910.
The design for the building is being guided by Don Luxton and Associates Inc., D’Ambrosio Architecture and Urbanism with Hapa Collaborative handling landscape architecture.
In this public plaza, the designers are planning to incorporate a misting area for hot days, rest areas, a tree canopy and the architects are building the space and the hotel in a way that the sun will be able to shine on the plaza for several hours a day.
With the new short-term rental restrictions coming into play this May, many in the hotel industry expect a boom which Victoria’s current hotels may not be able to fully handle.
This new project will help ease that burden on the industry and contribute to the tourism industry, retail sector and restaurant industry downtown and beyond.
The submission for this project was issued to the City on February 6th.
As of this publication, it is unknown when the city council will be able to review and either approve or deny the submission.
