[Downtown Victoria] The Union | Condos | 5- and 5-storeys | U/C

[Dylan Leblanc]

I wonder if there's a possibility that the project could be phased, north and south wings?

[G-Man]

That would be a good way to go. I am just not seeing a big push behind this like some other projects on the market. Also at the same time it would look to me like some other projects are already out of the gate and there will be a fair bit of choice on the market in a year or so.

[gumgum]

Shouldn't this one be labeled as Approved?

[Mike K.]

Do you mean the post icon?

[gumgum]

Yeah.

[Mike K.]

We opted to use SkyscraperPage's meta data for proposed/approved as approved projects oftentimes have no more or no less chance of ending up being built than proposed projects. We could change it as threads on VV are differentiated between proposed and approved.

Would this be helpful?

[gumgum]

^If you have a system, who am I to mess with it?

[Mike K.]

Well, you know it might make sense here on VV to visually differentiate between the two status'. We'll look into this

[Mike K.]

Any updates on how this project is selling?

[malektawashy]

Hi guys, I am new here. I think it is selling well.

Does anybody here know if the project has obtained a building permit as yet?

Thanks,
Malek

[Mike K.]

Welcome to the forum!

One would assume that if units are selling that a building permit has been acquired. I might be wrong, though.

[G-Man]

I think that the only thing that has to happen is to sell enough units for the Bank to say okay. I believe all city requirements are fulfilled currently.

[MarkoJ]

I stopped by the showroom today. They are about 25% sold. Most of the units include parking (133 units, 113 parking spaces) and the prices are reasonable in my opinion; however, there is a lot of competition out there now with the Era launching as well.

The cool thing is they have an entire 581 sq/ft show unit as per the most abundant floor plan. First time I have seen that in Victoria, typically the developer only has the kitchen, bathroom and sample flooring.

At this particular moment they are aiming for a start in March.

[Mike K.]

Ouch, only 25%, hey? That's not very much.

I was under the impression that condo projects move forward when some 50% of units are sold?

[zinkerled]

It's shocking if they can't get it done in such a great location. Especially with the buildings between Union and Fan Tan Alley getting renovated into apartments this year.

[Mike K.]

March is now upon us and this is to be the month when construction begins. Any indication of any work on site?

[malektawashy]

Anxiously awaiting. No apparent sign of construction start as yet. Hopefully there were some post-holiday sales that will help kick this one off!

Anybody know if sales have increased from the 25% mark suggested a couple months ago.

[Mike K.]

What could be impacting the sales of this project? With news that Era sold 25% of units over a single weekend, Union's 25% sold status over a period of money months is surprising.

[MarkoJ]

Originally Posted by Mike K.

What could be impacting the sales of this project? With news that Era sold 25% of units over a single weekend, Union's 25% sold status over a period of money months is surprising.

Other than the obvious - prices - which I don't think are too bad at the Union considering the location and given that most of the units have parking; my impression is that there just isn't enough buzz around this development as there is around the Mondrian, Promontory, Era.

[G-Man]

Perhaps the market is asking for taller buildings?

[Nparker]

Originally Posted by G-Man

Perhaps the market is asking for taller buildings?

That was sort of my thought as well. Of course I'd love to see something tall and glassy in Old Towne if for no other reason than to p*** off those who are certain that such a structure would be the end of the world as we know it. Even though it's a proven formula for success across major European cites with much older and more historical buildings.

[Mike K.]

Perhaps there is some credence to that, G. You have Mondrian, Era, Sovereign and Promontory doing relatively well but lowrise woodframe buildings are facing some challenges.

And I wonder if the music blasting from the Chinatown gate (why in the world did someone come up with that scheme??) is deterring some buyers? Also with Swans Hotel attracting a boisterous crowd on many nights of the week perhaps that is a contributor to slower sales? I personally wouldn't want to live within the audible proximity of a bar and the inevitable noise and cigarette smoke that accompanies it (not to say Swans is necessarily a very noisy place, but sound does travel especially at night).

Speaking of buzz, Anthem has a large advertisement for Union at Swartz Bay. That's sort of a strange marketing ploy.

[G-Man]

Funny you should say that. Am staying in Vancouver tonight and went for a walk down to the art gallery. You know you can still tell its an amazing building even with all the buildings around it

[Nparker]

Of course that is the thing about good architecture of ANY era; it remains good even when everything around it changes. I am not sure where the local fear of contemporary next to historical comes from, I really don't.

[Mike K.]

It's all about control. Play the heritage card right and you control the supply of new construction while using old architecture as a hostage.

"This development will destroy Victoria's heritage," and so on. The result is a muted new building, slashed and dashed, and ultimately void of any architectural merit of its own.

If the detractors of modern architecture were to slip up just once and allow a beautiful post-modern building to be built in Old Town their control over modern architecture would be greatly weakened. This is what makes the conspiracy theorist in me believe that the Songhees and the Trendwest building, to name developments and a building we're all familiar with, were no architectural accidents but a purposeful plot against modern architecture. If Songhees were built to international design standards there would be no fuss over modern architecture. Alas a lot of the anti-development crowd now points to Songhees and Trendwest as examples of how modern development detracts form the city's built form. Unfortunately what these folks forget or are not aware of is that the heritage crowd they hold to such high esteem was behind these abominations.

We are seeing examples of this in play now with the massive opposition from heritage crowds to the Northern Junk building. They are making the project out to be an abomination. And the Sovereign project was slashed by one floor and it's unique curved upper floors done away with under the guise of maintaining more semblance of faux heritage design. The drop in height is not a big deal in itself, but together with the removal of the curved upper floors I feel the building lost a great deal of its architectural uniqueness. Had the curved upper floors been okay'd I can imagine few members of the heritage crowd would have a problem with it once built, but then that would not play out in their favour (i.e. new projects are really not as bad as they claim they are).